The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-05-17
BY J. RAMIREZ.

history very well. And it is perhaps
best for his peace Of mind. Other
wise he might see what happened IA
years ago to John Adams, the second
President of the United States, of
what is going to happen to him
Adams was like Coolidge in many
ways, altho a far bigger man from
whatever angle you look at him. Like
Coolidge, he was tool of the money
ed interests. He was almost as tact
turn as SILENT CAL" and he had the
same mean-looking mouth.
In the year 1898, the reactionary
Adams Administration forced thru
Congress a series of laws known as
the Alien Sedition Acts. These mea-
sures looked so much like our pres
ent-day Criminal Syndicalist laws"
and "Anti-Alien bills" that it is clear
they belong to the same family tree.
Two years later, the Adams Admin
istration fell with crash, dragging
down the whole bloated structure of
Federalism" with it. Thomas JEFF
ferson and the "Democratis-Republi
cans" were swept into power on the
crest of what has become famous in
American history as "the great Demo-
cratic revolution of 1900" Jefferson's
principal slogan was: "Down with
the Alien and Sedition Actsl" and
the American people rallied to this
slogan en- masse. notwithstanding the
lying propaganda of the kept press of
the day. There were other import
ant, and perhaps more fundamental,
conditions in Jefferson's victory over
the Federalists, but the Alien and Sc
dition Acts were certainly a potent
factor.
The FederaIists were the Sinclairs
and Denbys and Senator Falls of
President Adams day. They repre-
scented (and practiced) high finance"
They stood for what Adams describ-
ed as government by ''the educated
and propertied few" They had no
faith in the common people. The
Federalist Party ruled the country
from the establishment of the Con-
stitution to the so-called Jeffersonian
revolution of 1900.
"The predominance of the Federal
lists in Congress, and in the country"
says the noted historian ]. S. Bas-
sett, suggested to the leaders of the
Party that they might do what they
pleased. 1t was temptation of pow
er to which the wisest of them yield
ed. Their idea that government
should be in the hands of the capable
classes might now, for the first time
in the history of the new government,
be put into operation"
They planned concerted attack
against the farming and poorer ur-
ban classes and, naturally, they did
not fail to make use of the DOGGY
man Of "un-Americanism" to further
their dark, aristocratic, un-American,
purposes.
ers and farmers always seem to go
hand in hand with special legislation
against the foreign-born. The associa-
ton is not accidental. A measure
which might be too unpopular If
labelled frankly "antilabor" may win
a certain degree Of acceptance when
fixed up as "antfalien." No "anti-
alien laws" have ever been passed
which applied to Wall Street manipu-
Iators or the agents Of capitalism in
general.
First the Federalists took up the
question of naturalization Previous
laws had given this privilege to aliens
resident in the country years. It
was now enacted that foreigners who
wanted to become citizens would have
to prove they had been In the country
IA years, and would have to make a
declaration of intention years be-
fore sending in their final applica-
ton.
BY means of the vicious Alien Acts,
the foreign-born masses were dis