Evening star., 1935-11-04
GAG OF BAR SEEN
VITAL QUESTION
Liberty League Opinion Is
Traced to Si|encing of
Law Associations.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.


Only Ia months from this week
there will be presidential and con-
gressional election of unparalleled i'm.
portance to the history of this country
but not because the choice will be
made then between parties or between
candidates, but because the choice will
really be made between opposite phi
losophies Of government.
Today the impression that America
Is approaching a genuine crisis in its
constitutional system Is pooh -poohed"
by those New Dealers who wish
naturally to minimize the importance
of ''usurpation Of power" by Congress
and the Executive, so as not to awaken
an unSuSpecting electorate, and 1t Is
perhaps correspondingly exaggerated
or misrepresented by those Republican
reactionaries who wish to derive q
political benefit from the controversy.
The depth Of feeling. the tension,
the emotion will grow. 1t is beginning
already to reveal cleavages almost as
intense as those which divided the
Nation before 1851. although present.
day issues are not the same either
geographically or sentimentally.
Light Cast on Situation.
This correspondent has just learned,
for instance, of the situation inside an
organization as potent heretofore in
the life of the country as the Ameri
can Bar Association, and the incidents
therein throw good deal OF light on
why today the National Lawyers
Committee Of the American Liberty
League is at the center of a discussion
which is attracting Nation-w wide at
tention.
| A few weeks ago it was suggested
in one Of these dispatches that the
48 lawyers who had wished to express
themselves on the constitutionality Of
some Of the New Deal legislation
should have spoken through COM
mittees Of national or State bar as
sociations and should not have chosen
as their vehicle for expression an Or
ganization like the American Liberty
League, which. justly or unjustly, has
became associated in the public mind
with party politics because Of the
prominent part that Messrs. Raskob
and Shouse took in Democratic party
campaigns and conventions.
But it develops that New Deal in
fluence or intimidation have laid a
virtual censorship on the American
Bar Associat ton. which apparently has
reversed its historic policy Of ex-
pressing opinions on pending legisla-
ton or existing statutes. This inten-
ton probably will be denied. But
it is interesting to note that more
than a year ago. George L. Buist. .
lifelong Democrat, who has been
practicing law in that citadel of
old fashioned democracy-Charlesto
S. C.-proposed and the American
Bar Association. in convention as
sembled. adopted a resolution which
provided for the appointment Of a
committee Of members to study and
report opinions on national legislation
affecting the constitutional rights Of
American citizens
Administration Effects Gag.
Spokesman for the administration
were so strong in their denunciation
OF this move. on the ground that it
was politically partisan. that the
American Bar Association in effect
was challenged to speak II it dared.
Not only this, but prominent New
Deal lawyers in different parts Of the
country resigned and lawyers con-
nected with the Roosevelt admin
stration began to file protests against
any public expression by the Ameri-
can Bar Association or any of its
committees on the matter Of recent
legislation.
The result has been as the New Deal
wisned-there has been no public re-
port criticising the constitutional fea-
lures Of the new legislation and there
probably will not be any.
The American Bar Association lead
ers feel thst the issue may tend to
disrupt their organization. They prob
ably will follow the line Of least re-
sistance and seek to keep out of the
controversy.
But can they? Only last week some
New Deal lawyers in Massachusetts
openly announced their intention OF
pressing for action on the protest filed
by a Georgia lawyer who thought the
ethics of the group, known as the
National Lawyers Committee Of the
American Liberty League, should be
T ade a matter of Bar Association in
vestigation
1861 Situation Arises.
Before 1861 bar associations and
other national organizations found
themselves in somewhat the same
c andary, but principles and convic-
tions were then far more important
to the respective contenders than the
continuance of the organizations
themselves. The American Bar As
sociation faces the same fundamental
question today because. If it lifts its
hand to silence the Liberty League
group of lawyers and offers through
its own organization no vehicle for
public expression, there can hardly
be any justification for its effort to
represent further the members of q
profession who have taken an oath
to uphold the Constitution Of the
United States.
For many years the American Bar
Association has expressed itself freely
on the merits Of pending legislation.
It Is fresh in the recollection OF WASH
ington correspondents how the prohi-
bition issue was debated year after
year by the American Bar Association
committees and finally resolutions
were adopted that deplored prohibi-
ton. Again and again the Bar Asso-
citation has properly tried to keep
itself out Of political and economic
contr )yerSies, But If there is one kind