Evening star., 1941-04-06
Written Constitutions Tremble
Under Impact of Total War
Britains Residence Held Closely Tied to Absence
of Parliamentary Curbs; Pressure
Felt in United States
By Felix Morley.

IF it is necessary to preserve this
country said the chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee in a recent
speech in Congress, that body would
not hesitate one split second to enact
legislation" which would send enemies
of the Nation, in the factory or else
where to the electric chair"
This observation by Representative
Summers, made in the course OF gen.
eral denunciation of the epidemic OF
strikes in plants working on defense
contracts, must be regarded as extreme.
Public opinion would have to work itself
to fever pitch before any such leglsla-
ton could be expected and even then
it is doubtful that the electric chair
would be adopted as the instrumentalty
for dealing with recalcitrant labor lead
ers or employers.
But of the various criticisms which
may be made of Mr. Summers heated
observation, there is one which has lit
tie validity. The way the tide is run
ming, it would not be convincing to
point out that the legislation suggested
is by any normal standards. unconsti-
tuticnal Most people realize that in
a war like that now raging, constltu-
tional guarantees are likely to be laid
IN cold storage, or consumed in the
hot fires of unleashed passion, to use
a more appropriate figure OF speech
There is significance for the United
States in the fact that governments
with written constitutions have shown
themselves particularly susceptible to the
terrific strains of recent years. Because
of the underlying moral, it is worth while
to recall a few instances.
Constitutional Governments Strained.
During the other great war both
Czarist and Communist Russia, COM
parable as absolutist governments, were
able to withstand a terrible hammerlng
better than the liberal constitutional
regime over which Kerensky presided for
a brief interlude. In victorious but eX-
hausted Italy, constitutional government
proved less competent than Fasclsm 70
maintain the minimum requirements OF
domestic order The German Republic
was overthroWn less by Hitlers propa-
ganda than because it could not cope
with either the causes or manifesto
tions of Communism.
More recently. the short-lived constitu-
tional republic in Spain was first be-
deviled by pressures from the left and
then succumbed to those from the
right. During the present war, Bel
giurn. Holland and France all SEEM
ingly stable constitutional governments,
went down before the German drive for
causes in which irresolution counted as
much as military disparity. Even the
one exception TO the rule, found in the
dogged, heroic resistance Of the British,
tends to confirm belief that in emer-
gency, constitutional guarantees will
always be subordinated to urgent ma
tional need.
We are sometimes apt to forget that
bv American standards. which demand
a supreme organic law with a Supreme
Court to interpret it, Great Britain is
without constitutional government. The
very essence of the unwritten English
constitution is the absolutely unlimited
authority of Parliament. With us the
courts, rather than the legislature, have
the final word. But in England there
is no appeal from law which is passed
by Parliament and signed by the King
Parliament Supreme.
There is nothing fanciful in the Sug-
gestion that the strength of the British
resistance in this war is closely related
to the absence of any constitutional linn
itations on the government. For the
complete supremacy of Parliament means
that there can be no question of an
invasion of constitutional rights when
drastic legislation is approved by that
body.
When, as part of the war effort, the
British government decides to suppress a
critical newspaper. to ban strikes in
defense industries, to conscript labor OF
to nationalize factories, no issue OF