The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-10-18
Communists and the Constitution

preme court OF M1cnlgan, ". IL. smith, assistant
attorney general, argues, in reply to the defense
claim that the criminal syndicalist law is unconst
tutional that HE (Ruthenberg) should spurn
any assistance that document might afford him
rather than to plant his entire defense within the
protecting folds of the document by claiming that
the act he has been convicted Of violating is uncon
stitutional in six different particulars
The assistant attorney general is Of the opinion
that Communists should not appeal to the consi
tuition since they are opposed to that document
and declare that the claims made for it, of pro
tecting the liberty of the American people and
securing them democratic government, are shan
and a fraud. The Communists, says Mr.. Smith
want 10 overthrow the constitution and adopt 8
new constitution providing for a Soviet form Of
government and what right have they under these
conditions to appeal to constitution?
The answer Is very simple. The only way the
Communists prove to the working class of this
country that the constitution is a class document
is by showing them thru its actual operation that
it never protects the workers in the exercise OF
such rights as freedom of speech, press and as
sembly and always protects the capitalists prop
erty rights.
The constitution says: Congress shall make no
law abridgng the rights of freedom of Speech press
or assembly" That sounds as if we have freedom
of Speech press and assembly in the United States
But the test is not the words in the constitution
but how it operates
During the war congress passed the espionage
law which abridged the right of freedom of speech
press and assembly. The supreme court said it
not violation Of the constitution, provided
that the speech or writing which was prohibited
and punished created a clear and present danger
of criminal overt act on the part of the reader or
hearers. Thus the first test of the constitution by
appealing to it, showed that there were limits to
freedom of speech, press and assembly altho the
constitution said congress could not abridge these
rights.
BY appealing to the constitution and testing it
in practice its high sounding words were shown
not to mean what they seem to say.
The test of the criminal syndicalist law carries
the exposure a step further. In the case of the
espionage law, the supreme court ruled that there
must be clear and present danger of violence, de-
struction of property, some other overt act re-
sulting from writings or spoken words to make
them punishable. The criminal syndicalist law
Furnishes the mere utterances of ideas or the mere
statement Of these ideas in writing They make
punishable the advocacy of doctrine or principle
In the Michigan the process of whiting away
the rights of freedom of speech press and assembly
is carried farther, and the state of Michigan
seeks to punish for assembling with" an organiza-
ton which advocates doctrine even tho that or
ganization has not advocated the doctrine in the
state of Michigan.
The supreme court of the United States has had
the question whether mere utterance or writing
of document can be punished under the consti-
tuton before it for two years and has not rendered
a decision. 1t has heard arguments in the Gitlow
case, which raises this ISSUE for the first time in
the supreme court twice, the first time in March
1923 and again in November 1929 but has not
handed down its decision. Evidently the supreme
court is evading the rendering of decision on this
issue.
The Ruthenbeurg case raises a question which
means the emasculation of the constitutional pro
hibition to a further degree than the Gitlow case
An adverse decision in the Ruthenberg case means
that the fraud of the claim that the constitution
protects the liberties Of the people is still further
exposed
The Communists raise the constitutional issue
in order to make the courts themselves tell the truth
about the constitution. There could be no better
Communist propaganda against the illusion of
american democracy than to have the supreme
court Of the state of Michigan or the supreme
Of the United States tell the workers of this coun-
try that when principles and ideas are involved
which threaten the class rule Of the exploters
members of the working class can be sent to prison
for mere utterance writing of these IDEAS in
spite of the constitutional clause, Congress shall
make laws abridging the right of freedom of
press, speech or assembly"
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