New-York tribune., 1922-08-19

denied by assault and violence, by
munities the municipal authorities
have winked at these violations,
until liberty is mockery and the
law a matter of community con-
tempt. 1t is fair to say that the
great mass of organized workmen do
not approve, but they seem helpless
to hinder. These conditions cannot
remain in free America. If free
men cannot toll according to their
own lawful choosing, all our consti-
tutional guarantees born of democ-
and the freedom of a hundred mil
lions is surrendered to the small
minority which would have no law.
1t is not my thought to ask Con-
gress to deal with these fundamental
problems at this time. No hasty ac-
tion would contribute to the solution
of the present critical situation.
There is existing law by which to
settle the prevailing disputes. There
are statutes forbidding conspiracy
to hinder interstate commerce.
There are laws to assure the highest
possible safety in railway service.
1t is my purpose to invoke these
laws, civil and criminal, against all
offenders alike.
Problem Demands
Unprejudiced Action
The legal safeguarding against
like menaces in the future must be
worked out when no passion sways,
when no prejudice influences, when
the whole problem may be appraised,
and the public welfare may be as
corfaJ ct orTy trtp
est which assumes authority beyond
that of the government itself.
One specific thing / must ask at
your hands at the earliest possible
moment There is pending bill to
provide for the better protection of
aliens and for the enforcement of
their treaty rights. 1t is a measure,
in short, to create jurisdiction for
the Federal courts through which
the national government will have
appropriate power to protect aliens
in the rights secured to them under
treaties and to deal with crimes
which affect our foreign relations,
The matter has been before Con-
gress on many previous occasions.
President Tyler in his first annual
message advised Congress that in
charged with the maintenance of
peace and the preservation of ami
cable relations with the nations of
the earth, it ought to possess with
out question all the reasonable and
proper means of maintaining the
one and preserving the other
President Harrison asked for the
same bestowal of jurisdiction, having
encountered deep embarrassment
which grew out of the lynching Of
eleven aliens in New Orleans in 1891.
President Mckinley, dealing with a
like problem in 1893, asked the con-
ferring upon Federal courts of juris-
diction in that class Of international
cases where the ultimate response
bility of the Federal government may
be involved President Roosevelt:
uttered like request to Congress in.
1906, and President Taft pointed out
the defect in the present Federal
jurisdiction when he made his in
augural address in 1909.
He declared that sit puts our gov
ernment in pusillaninous position
to make definite engagement to pro-
tect aliens and then to excuse the
failure to perform these engagements
by an explanation that the duty to
keep them is in states or cities not
within our control. If we would
promise, we must put ourselves in a
position to perform our promise.
We cannot permit the possible sailure
Of justice, due to local prejudice in
any state or municipal government,
to expose us to the risk of war which
might be- avoided IL Federal j;aria@