Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-01-13
Political Dynamite
in Probe of Soviet
Continued from Page One

continued from rage ono
the Cars government in Russia, ant
have included the use of "agents provo
cateurs,' quite after the approved stylt
of the old Russian secret police.
Attorney General Palmer has led al
the presidential candidates in his effort
to capitalize the anti Red issue.
But if the investigation gets into these
fields, it may easily pass on into the
wider field of the administration s policy
and its mistakes in backing Kolchak
and Denckine.
House Founders Around
The anti Red campaign has led to Il
most extraordinary lot of proposed bills
to stop Red agitation in this country
but no agreement upon them is in sight
the attorney general demanding an ex
treme measure, the Senate insisting
that no extreme measure is constitu =
tionally possible, while the House is
tloundering around trying to capitalize
the anti Red movement POLITICALLY, even
if it has to deport the Supreme Court
and thc constitution i'll order to do so.
This is no eXaggeration. The Graham
bill, which has just been reported to
the House. after providing that an ac =
cused person may refuse to testify on
the ground that his testimony will in
criminate, goes ahead and says, ap-
parently conscious that it has stretched
the constitution to the utmost. that
''if any clause, sentence or paragraph.
or part of this act shall for any rea :
son be adiudged by any court of com
petent jurisdiction to be invalid such
judgement shall not affect or impair or
invalidate the remainder thereof
This provision is an attempt to save
whatever may be valid of the act and
it takes away from, or tries to at least,
to themselves, that of determining
whether a whole act falls or not when
in part declared unconstitutional.
However. a Legislature has seldom
been so frank in declaring in advance
that its action is probably in part at
least unconstitutional.
Extraordinary Provision
Attorney General Palmer's bill has
the. extraordinary provision that any
one who commits or threatens to com
nit "any act of hate against the
"person or property of any officer
agent or employe of the United States"
shall be guilty of sedition. provided,
of course. this act of hate is inspired
by an intent to levy war on the United
States, or to change or overthrow its
government.
1t would give jury something to do
to determine whether or not a person
had attempted to commit ian act of
hate"
The bill introduced into the House
of Representatives forbidding the state
of Wisconsin to send Victor Berger
back again to the House of Representa-
tives raises the interesting question as
to where Congress gets the power to tell
a state how it may or may not elect.
the constant coming back of
Berger is beginning to get on the con-
gressional nerves.
The danger of n" this is that the
whole movement to control dangerous
agitation in this country will be made
utterly ridiculous before anything is
and Congress in the end
will be laughed out of its disposition to
act at all.
Palmer Chiefly to Blame
The person chiefly responsible for de-
the anti Red campaign into
hysteria is Attorney General Palmer.
A highly significant sign of the reac-
tion that began when the New York
Legislature expelled the six Socialists
is the fact that one of the chief Repub-
ican candidates is about to resign the
anti Red issue to his competitors and
declare for sanity and such faith in
American institutions as is not dis
turbed by the agitations of foreign
A speech along this line is |
about TO be delivered