Evening star., 1937-03-26
URGES EQUALITY
RESTORED IN j. S.
Hof. Laski, Cutting Series
S Lecturer, Sees Flaw
in Courts.

"A cautious suggestion by Prof. Har-
old Laski, a Socialist, OF the London
School of Economics, that the courts
now misinterpret the American Con-
stitution closed last night the first
series of the Bronson Cutting me-
mortal lectures, dedicated by the late
Senator's mother, Mrs. Bayard Cut
ting, to liberal discussion of current
controversial politico-economic topics
"If the Constitution be recognized
not as a road but as a gate, might
not the march onward of the Ameri-
can people be inhibited" the profess
Continental Hall on the general SUBJ
ject of The Future of American
Democracy"
Prof. Laski found that this future
depended upon the American peo-
pies recreating the liberal spirit
which unified the thought of the
Colonies and the Republic in the
years from 1776 to 1905, when "the
political thought in Massachusetts
and Virginia was profounder than
any political thought from the fifth
century before Christ in Athens to
the present day"
Sees Anxiety Arise.
America in its first two centuries Of
development" he said, was almost
Mecca for men who cared for the spirit
of freedom. There is a little anxiety
today about the maintenance of that
legend"
Today, however, he limited, Amer
lea has seen come true the warnings
made 100 years ago by Alexis de
Tocqueville, the Frenchman who
toured the United States of Andrew
Jackson's day, against "the growth
of . manufacturing system so orient
ed and so directed that its leaders
become In substantial fact an aris-
tocracy," with the relationship be-
tween master and man ''only a re-
lationship and not partnership"
The reasons for this social change,
Laski offered, lies in government by
business men who have no sense Of
noblesse oblige" and a tendency in
the last 80 years lin discussion Of
momentous political problems to
adopt an excessively legalistic inter-
probation which dwells on the foam
Of the problem and neglects the dy-
manic spirit"
Would Re-create Equality.
It is the business Of America,
Laski urged, to make equal again
master and man through an equal
ization of bargaining power, so that
America can shape its destiny, add
ing that here and in Soviet Russia
the destiny of our civilization is be-
ing founded"
Il love America" said Laski, who
studied as youth for four years in
New England II care for its tradi-
tons. believe in its power to re-
shape the destiny of our civilization.
I make plea to Americans to count,
as I believe America can count, in
the destinies of the world"
1t is the business of America, too,
Laski said, to watch with sympathy
developments in Europe and Asia,
and the American who says the
fate of Europe or Asia is not his
concern is n effect bad American.
I do not think Americans can fully
understand what the United States
can accomplish for Europe by main
tanning the democratic principle for
which they were brought into being"
He gave cryptic reply to ques-
tion as to whether he would want
America to participate actively in .
foreign war, but he said:
Your destiny is inextricably in
tertwined with our destiny. I am
not inviting you now into the League
of Nations. 1t is our duty in Western
Europe to make league worthy of
your membership before we issue an
invita- ton"