The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-12-16
INCURABLE FAITH

and Billings yet the international situation
then gave to the fist of the Petrograd workers
the necessary power to stay the hand of the
executioner. Though Mooney is still alive to-
day and affords the worshippers of civil liberties
a chance to protest their undying faith in it.
yet they surely cannot claim that it was their
faith that saved Mooney from the gallows.
In the face of this, to continue an incurable
belief in civil liberties is the sign of either dusty
and cob-webbed brains or of sinister designs.
Which is it, gentlemen?
A few years ago, the U. S. Supreme Court de-
cided a question of free speech in the case of
anti-war speeches The enlightened gentlemen
OF the highest judiciary institution of American
capitalism then declared that there must surely
be a limit to free speech. Otherwise even the
murderous intent of the fiend would go un-
punished who in a crowded theatre shouts
''Fire!" The gentlemen of the Supreme Court
were not concerned with the fact that the OPP
ponents of war had not shouted "Fire!'' in
crowded theatre; nor was the Supreme Court
concerned with the fact that if any analogy
could be drawn between that example and the
case in hand, the revolutionary opponents of
war not only had not shouted 'Fire!'' but on
the contrary, had pointed out to the workers
that the evident fire (war) had been caused by
profit-hungry incendiares and that it was the
duty of the workers to fight and defeat these
capitalist incendiaries. However, regardless of
this fact, the Supreme Court of the u S., as
one OF the DULLES of capitalism in truly CAPT.
talist manner and in its name, shot its fist into
the eyes of reason and declared: MY profit
interests are the supreme law, and all those who
do not serve my interests, are commanded to
shut up!"
In the face of such sacts, to maintain in
durable faith in civil liberties stamps this faith
as the outgrowth of either dusty or cob-webbed
brains or of sinister designs.
Which is it, gentlemen of the Civil Liberties
Union?
Only organic or willful blindness can DENY the
fact that the courts not institutions to guard
the so-called rights of the people, civil liberties
but are instruments to defend the interests of
the capitalist class. The only fundamental law
American capitalist courts ever recognized and
always enforce, is the inviolable right of the
capitalists to make profits out of the misery of
the masses. Anything colliding with this prin-
ciple is unconstitutional Only within the boun-
Diary lines of this principle are there any civil
liberties" they the liberties of the capitalist
class. But any speech, any article any action
and even any thought which jumps over the
boundary lines of this principle and dares to
challenge it is no longer recognized as an exer-
else of civil liberties but is treated as high trea-
son to capitalism. The recognition by the work.
ers of this undeniable fact is the necessary pre-
requisite for the solution of the problems of the
working class.
The "incurable belief" in civil liberties of our
liberals is an effort, willful or otherwise to
maintain in the working masses the illusion of
equal rights and thus to prevent them from
combating and defeating capitalist rule
Some future articles will subject capitalist
justice and civil liberties in America to more
detailed examination on the basis of facts and
Hyy a.
to cause the faithful worshippers of civil lib
critics in the Civil Liberties Union to go through
the painful process of Remaining their faith,
but to render immune to the poison of this
faith, the minds of those workers whom we can
reach.