Twin-City herald., 1938-07-16
BACK TO SLAVERY

( The fixed policy of the administra-
ton to grab political profit from the
distribution of relief was illustrated
again in the address of Aubrey Will
liams, boss of WPA, delivered last
week before the National Association
| pie.
Less than a week before Mr. Will
iams had told a delegation of WPA
workers that if they knew what was
! good for them they would vote his
way. That speech constituted major
| political scandal which Mr.. Williams
subsequent explanations only empha-
sized Even the partisans of the New
Deal were shocked. Here was high
official of the government proclaiming
with all the authority of his office that
the debauchery of the electorate with
bribes and threats is settled policy
of the administration.
So far from being chastened by the
protests which arose from all sides Mr..
Williams has now carried his campaign
a step farther.
= Mr. Williams talked to the leaders of
NGthe colored people about Germany and
the Jews. The trick was transparent.
He wished to frighten his hearers into
thinking that what has happened to
the Jews under Hitler will happen to
turn to the Republican fold. This was
not an easy task on the anniversary of
Gettysburg.
To make his case he perverted the
facts of recent German history to suit
his needs. He said Hitler came to
power because the men who preceded
him were moderates who hesitated,
compromised, and delayed. That is
the Nazi story. Mr.. Williams has
swallowed their propaganda whole. In
fact Hitler came to power in January,
1888, but the fate of the Jews and
with them of all liberals in Germany
had been sealed two years before that
when the German dictatorship was set
up with Bruening as the chancellor.
Constitutional guarantees were sus-
pended by order of President Won
Hindenburg. Germans in time be-
= came accustomed to dictatorship Some
prominent Jews make the mistake OF
supporting it. 1t evidently occurred to
few of them that if unrestrained power
to rule should fall into the hands of a
viciously prejudiced man, nothing
could prevent him from carrying his
hate into action because the checks i'm.
posed by courts, a constitution, anC
representative government were nc
longer effective.
Mr., Williams told his Negro audi
ence that it will be in their interest tc
cooperate in the present administra
tons effort to increase its powers a
the expense of congress and the courts
More dangerous advice could not hav,
been given.
If the Negroes in this country wisl
to risk sharing the fate of the Jews il
Germany, Mr.. Williams advice will b
taken. The strongest single elemen
in the Democratic party today is tn
solid south Sooner or later that ele
ment will be represented in the Whit
House. If the Roosevelt effort to Sc
up a dictatorial executive is carried OF
and that future occupant happens
6 be a man who regards successful NJ
groes as upstarts to be put back
their place" and Negro rights as III
deserving of respect, the Negroes Wi
lose in a night all they have won
Is years of struggle against heav
odds. The recent history of German
should teach the colored people of th
country, and, indeed all minorit
groups, that the gravest threat to thel
lies in the weakening of constitution
restraints upon executive power. tt
greatest reliance any minority can hay
against peISSSutloh 10 TIC hho"lCue
that the powers of government al
defined and limited and that the cour
can protect the potential victim
against government itself. Mr.. WI
liams is asking too much of we colo
ed citizens of this country to suppo
policy of destroying these saf
guards for which there is no substitut