Evening star., 1937-06-22

and refusing protection to the men
who wish to continue to work. Men
have been nominated and elected to
the presidency because they have stood
up for human rightS-aS, for instance,
Gov. Coolidge in the police strike in
Boston-but nobody has climbed into
high political Office by suspending con-
stitutional guarantees.
For if Gov. Earle is right in what
he has done, then any time a labor
union wants to defeat an employer
it will not be necessary to call strike
but merely to file an affidavit that
violence may break out and hence the
plant should be shut down. 1t is but
another way of compelling employers
10 surrender their plants to lrrespon-
sible groups.
Damage Suits Possible.
What redress has the citizen who
wants to work? Gov Earle and the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania could
be made defendants in suits for civil
damages Nobody has a right even
under the color of martial law to de-
prlve man from working or from
shutting down one plant and allowing
others to remain open. Had the order
closed all industrial and business oper
AtlonS without discrimination there
might have been a defense, especially
If conditions of anarchy existed and
no civil course could be pursued to
maintain order.
But the evidence showed that the
Mayor of the city asked for State aid
merely to preserve order and was
given instead declaration of martial
law which in effect takes the side of
the strikers and materially assists
them in applying pressure to the
employers.
The right to work has hitherto been
regarded as the most sacred of hu-
man rights. The right to be pro-
tected as one works is one Of the
fundamental guarantees Of the Con-
stitution. the so-called privileges and
immunities of citizenship itself. These
rights are guaranteed not only by
the Federal Constitution but by the
constitutions of the several States.
Political Suicide?
Now Gov Earle, in an unprecedented
action, has boldly suspended not only
the guarantees of State constitution
but of the Federal Constitution as
well. In this he is supposed to have
the sympathetic approval Of the
Roosevelt regime, but it would not
be surprising if it were later discov-
cred that the administration here has
merely chosen a devious way of per-
mittlng Gov. Earle to commit politi-
cal suicide and thus eliminating him
as a contender against Mr.. Roosevelt
himself
Certainly the Democratic party will
never nominate for the presidency
man who has deliberately closed down
an employers plant and refused to
afford protection when asked for by
the Mayor OF city. Certainly the
Democrats of the South, who remem-
ber all too well the abuses conducted
in the name Of martial law in the
reconstruction days following the
War Between the States, will not look
with favor on the elevation to the
presidency Of a Governor who reverts
to martial law as means of avoiding
the exercise OF the powers of protec-
ton to which workers and employers
alike are entitled.
There may be a substantial number
OF votes on the c. l. O. side with
which the Governor of PENNSYLVANIA
and the Roosevelt administration are
flirting, but it begins to look as if the
right of the citizen to work may bring
an even greater support in votes for
the man who dares to champion this
constitutional guarantee.
There is one way, of course, to test
the powers Of the Governor and to
establish for all times a precedent
Which will make other Governors hesi-