Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1937-04-13
Minority and Persecution
Economic Royaists'' Are Held Up as Objects of
Class Hate as Jews Are in Germany.

mass hate stirred up is one which
from time to time requires new kinds
OF fuel, new objects Of hate. In Ger
many. Hitler and the Nazis seem be-
ginning to turn their fermentation of
hate against some churches. Always
there must be some minority under
persecution, and from time to time
there must be new ones.
What we in America need to re-
member Is that all of us are minorities
Each of us belongs to one minority or
another. Every religious denomina-
ton Is a minority. Every trade and
occupation is minority. And in the
practice Of authoritarian government,
the minority that today Is one OF
the hounds may tomorrow be the poor
fleeing hare.
Frey Warns Lewis.
Even Mr.. Lewis and his C. I. O.
had better remember this. An older
and wiser labor leader, Mr.. John P.
Frey of the American Federation of
Labor-he knows He warns that
what Mr.. Lewis and his c. I. o. are
so arrogantly doing today, as a favored
group in the opening stage OF
Americas authoritarian government
that Is precisely the thing that may
cause all labor unions to be early
victims of the authoritarian state after
1t gets under way. In Germany, one
OF the early DEGREES Of Nazi was to
dissolve the labor unions and make
organization Of any new one a crime.
In Italy in 1922 it was precisely the
Shutdown strike which Mr.. Lewis is
now Initiating that gave Mussolini
his chance. Mussolini was able to stir
up hate against the sit-downers, seize
control Of the government for him.
self-and thereupon ruthlessly bring
all labor unions under the Fascist
heel
Court Protects Minorities.
In America, the protection of mi
norities against persecution by a
majority rests upon the Constitution
and the Supreme Court. That is a
fundamental function of the Supreme
Court. If Mr.. Roosevelt's proposal
is adopted it will be changed. 7
argument made in behalf of the
Presidents court proposal may be
stated thus:
When large majority of the voters,
81 millions of them, elect a Presi-
dent, then that President has a fran
chise to do whatever he thinks the
majority wants. If the Supreme Court
stands in the Presidents way then
the President has right to change
the court.
If there is established in America
the theory that courts must not be
independent. that the Supreme Court
must reflect the will of the Presi-
dent-if that happens, then we shall
be far along in a transition toward
the new European model Of govern
ment and society. When and if the
transition is complete. the news
dispatches that now come out Of
Berlin and shock us by their picture
of persecution of minorities will in
due course be duplicated. with varying
details, by dispatches dated Wash
ington, D. c.
If majority, through its President,
can alter the court at one time, then
another majority can do the same
thing at another time. And the time
may come when some new majority
may direct its discrimination not
against economic royalists, but against
labor unions. And even against re-
ligious sects or racial groups. Let
no one say that can't happen in
America-with the Ku Klux Khan q
memory Of less than Is years ago.
Copyright, 1879