The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1941-03-27
Keep Free Speech.
All Civil Rights.
School Heads Urge
Constitutional Guarantees
Vital To Nation. Say
Harvard Men

Boston 0LNS).-Two distinguished
members of the Harvard Law School
vigorously urged maintenance Of free
speech and other civil liberties during
any emergencies in addresses at the
founders day celebration of Boston
University.
Prof. Zachariah Chaffee, Jr., warned
against seeking to create loyalty by
compulsion, while Dean Roscoe Pound
assailed censorship outside of strictly
military matters. Both declared main
tenance of civil rights vital to preser-
vation of the American form of gov
ernment.
Behind the dozens of sedition bills
in Congress last session." said Prof
Chaffee, "behind teachers oaths and
compulsory flag salutes, is a desire
to make our citizens loyal to their
government. Loyalty is a beautiful
idea, but you cannot create it by COM
pulsion and force.
"You make men love their govern
ment and country by giving them the
kind Of government and the kind of
country that inspire respect and love,
country that is free and unafraid,
that lets the discontented talk in or
der to learn the causes for their dis
content and end those causes.
Suppression Evils Cited
"a point that deserves emphasis is
that the effect of suppression extends
far beyond the agtators actually put
to Jail, far beyond the pamphlets ac-
tually destroyed.
"The pertinacious orators and writ
ers who get hauled up are merely
extremist spokesman for mass of
more thoughtful and more retiring
men and women, who share in vary
ing degrees the same critical attitude
toward prevailing policies and institu-
tionS.
"When you put the hot-heads in
Jail, these cooler people don't get ar
rested; they just keep quiet. And so
we lose things they could tell US,
which would be very advantageous for
the future course Of the nation"
>SHSoio outP
Dean Pound emphasized the need
of constant vigilance to preserve con-
stitutional rights He said in part:
at is worth while to consider
whether, instead of relying upon our
own experience, we have not since
1917 been going on ideas taken from
Continental Europe, seeking coerced
outward unity and importing cen
sorship which belongs to and has
grown out of-essgeacies of very diff
ferent type of government from ours
"Only an overwhelming necessity
can justify the setting aside of one
of the fundamental guarantees Of our
constitutional policy. All that have
seen urged for so doing proceeds on
an assumption that American govern
ment cannot wage war and stand up
under criticism. But our government
has proved it can do so in the crisis
of great civil war.
Free Criticism Basic
"Moreover, a democratic govern.
ment presupposes free criticism ano
free discussion. If the people, anc
that means any of them, cannot be
suffered to criticize and grumble anC
argue pending war, does it not follow
that they ought not to be suffered tC
vote pending war?
"Cautious doing out to the press
of news from the front is no doubt
a necessity of effective conduct OF
war. Suppression of information as
to plans and movements, movements
of vessels and the like, is clearly nee
essary. Here is the legitimate tiele
of censorship in time Of war.
Press Must Be Free
an a time of rise and establish
ment Of absolution all over the world
in a time when the bigness of every
thing and the economic unification OF
the land continually add to the power
of the central as against the loca
government and increasingly concen
trate power in the person of the Chle'
Executive, we must be vigilant to pre-
serve the fundamental guarantees OF
which our Federal Government rests
"This means in practice that thu
press must be vigilant for US. Onl!
if the press is free to perform thi
function in our policy, can we be sur'
that wars to maintain democracy d'
not result in becoming wars to es
Al