The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1941-11-06
Peoples S Character

ler, Jr., Director of the Workers Edu-
cation Bureau of America, on Thurs
day, September rs, 1941 at Federal
Hall, New York City, in connection
with commemoration of the ami
versary of the enactment of the Bill
Of Rights under the auspices of the
Citizenship Educational Service and
Federal Hall Memorial Associates.
The Bill of Rights is the heart of
our constitutional democracy. 1t came
from the heart of the people. The
first ten amendments to the Constitu
tion enacted by the first Congress of
the United States one hundred and
fifty years ago today were in fact a
peoples charter. These amendments
arose out of the insistent demand of
the common people-the farmers and
town artisans of that day-together
with such leaders of the democracy as
Jefferson and Madison. They and the
other colonists had seen their houses
broken into, their papers ransacked,
their charters taken from them, their
right to trial by jury jeopardized,
troops quartered in their midst, the
right to speak, assemble, and print
suppressed They had made heroic
sacrifices to secure the recognition of
these rights; they were determined
that these rights should be preserved.
$50 strongly indeed did the people
feel about the fundamental guaran-
tees against encroachments on their
rights that the Constitution could not
possibly have been adopted" in the
words of James TrusloW Adams, eff
the people of some Of the more i'm
portant states such as Massachusetts
and Virginia had not been assured
that as soon as it was adopted ap
propriate amendments would be rec
commended by Congress in the way
provided under the instrument itself"
Moreover, it is interesting to recall
that before the Bill Of Rights was in
corporated into the Constitution, there
were Bill of Rights in many Of the
State Constitutions. Many of the
Founding Fathers thought these
guarantees sufficient. The people,
however, OWNED the future more
clearly. They sensed that the Fed
eral Government would in days to
come acquire more power and that re-
straints on such power should be in
corporated into the Federal Constitu-
ton. History has certainly vindicated
their conclusion. 1t is the peculiar
virtue of the Bill of Rights that it's
substance has changed and is chang
ing by the gradual process Of inter-
probation. But with all this change,
after a hundred and fifty years this
Peoples Charter is still the bulwarll
Of our liberties.
Today the American workingmen
four freedoms guaranteed in the Bill
of Rights are their very breath of
life. Without freedoms to speak, to
print, to assemble, to worship there
can be no democracy and no labor
movement; without freedom to think,
to teach, and to act in cooperation
with others there can be no Great
Society. Where labor is not free,
these all are in bondage. Where labor
is not free, there can be no enduring
democracy. Where labor is free,
there is the possibility of democracy
and justice for all. For the trade
union movement is the very bulwark
of the democratic way of life and the
fearless champion of social justice.
Destroy the trade unions and you de-
stroy the first line of defense of a
democratic society and the best hope
of social justice.
This Peoples Charter which we
have come to commemorate this day
is not only the shield of our liberties
but the very buckler of unity for a
free people, through which we shall
be able to achieve the American
dream. Americans all will do we'll to
rededicate themselves to the timeless
principles as embodied in this great
document, for in it lives "the sum Of
mans victories over the forces of
barbarism and oppression, and in its
preservation lies the hope of man as
free Individual"