The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-01-04
The Cherry Tree
Where We Hdtchet Out
The Truth
. CIVIL LIBERTIES,
PRESERVE BIRTHRIGHT
o COMES THE TEST
q NOT ALWAYS PROTECTED

High government officials have re-
Gently spoken out for vigorous main
tenance of civil liberties in the United
States, always cardinal principle of
organized labor.
Fortnight declarations have come
from President Roosevelt, Attorney
General Murphy and others.
"No matter what comes we must
preserve our national birthright, lib
erty of conscience and of education,
of the press and of free assembly, and
equal justice to all under the law"
the President told the American
Council on Public Affairs.
The President also spoke of the
"vital necessity for maintaining our
civil liberties"
Attorney General Murphy has de-
clared in the most unquivocable Ian
guage for the maintenance of civil lib
critics, even in the event of this coun-
try's involvement in war.
x X X
During the World War, brave words
in championship of civil liberties were
spoken by government heads.
But when the test came, civil lib
critics were not always protected.
Officials yielded to popular hysteria
in too many cases. In some cases, they
even connived or actually encouraged
mob violence aimed at suppression of
rights guaranteed by the Constitu-
ton.
In failing to protect civil liberties,
they contributed to mass hysteria, out
of which grew terroristic mob rule.
For the sake of the national honor
and all that this nation stands for, it
is to be hoped officials now in office
will stand by their words, come what
may.
X X X
Experience of the past shows that
labor invariably loses if the rights of
all are not safeguarded.
Failure to protect civil rights is
breakdown of law, on which mob
action feeds.
If the rights of all groups are not
guarded, more and more groups are
attacked, until even the mildest ex-
preston of opinion, if it runs con-
trary to popular feeling, is danger
Gus.
Labor hating reactionaries take adj
vantage of the situation to attack
unions, to push repressive legislation,
to arouse prejudice against organiza-
tion of labor in short, to fight labor
on all fronts.
Hence the danger of permitting spy:
hunting and other anti-espionage ac-
tivities by private organizations.
Labor treads on perilous ground
when it gives the least countenance to
such activities.
The same goes for censorship eff
forts, in the theater, newspaper, ra-
dio OF other fields.
They are bad business. They can
so easily be turned against trade
union activities, especially if public
hysteria is rampant. This is fact
that all trade unionists have not
learned.
There have been some disturbing
indications of public hysteria recently.
Such as the efforts of Boston
suburb to prevent the taking into its
limits of any books or printed matter
containing the name of Lenin or Len
ingrad. AS if ideas could be exercised
by legislation!
X X X
The only safe rule in the matter
Of civil rights is the one set forth by
the late Justice Oliver Wendell
Holmes, one of the best and truest
Americans who ever lived.
eff there is any principle of the
Constitution that more imperatively
calls for attachment than any other
it is the principle of free thought
not free thought for those who agree
with US, but freedom for the thought
we hate" Holmes said.
The nation can never go wrong by
following Holmes dictum.