Evening star., 1943-04-14

processes where
by public opin- David Lawrence.
ion is formed in our Republic.
1.-THE grandeur of the aims of de-
mocracy," he said in an address pre-
pared for delivery at the Library of
Congress in connection with the
Thomas Jefferson Bicentennial cele-
bration, "is matched by the Difficult
ties of their achievement. For de-
mocracy is the reign of reason on
the most extensive scale. And the
difficulties have appallingly multi
piled since Jefferson's day.
mot only has our industrial civih-
Zation, which he so feared even in
its incipiency, thrown up an intri-
cate range of problems, but the
misuse and manipulation of modern
devices, chain newspapers, cheap
magazines, popular polls, the movies,
and the radio, have enormously en-
larged opportunities for arousing
passions, confusing judgment. and
regimenting opinion. And we now
know how slender a reed is reason
how recent its emergence in men,
how deep the countervailing in
stincts and passions, how treacher-
Gus the whole rational process"
View Similar to Bureaucrat's.
Justice Frankfurter reflects a view
not infrequently articulated by the
bureaucrat, by the man who wields
tremendous public power. 1t is that
somehow the intelligence of the
country is far below the level of gov
errment and that the American peo-
pie are not capable of sitting ideas
and reasoning for themselves.
Another manifestation of it is to-
ward the press. The New Deal ad-
ninistration has been annoyed by
the press, and particularly its criti-
cism, for the last decade. Instead
of accepting criticism as a part of
the normal and natural processes of
debate in democracy, the tendency
has been to hold up to ridicule or
scorn the very processes by which
opinion is formed. Who is misusing
chain newspapers, who is misusing
the radio or the movies? And by
whose standard is the word misuse"
truly Judged?
Too often it has been apparent
that the officials in power consider
those vehicles of public opinion to be
nisused which are not under their
own domination or control.
Technique of Discrediting.
Democracy is on trial in America,
not because too many opinions have
been expressed but because of a
trend toward control of public opin-
ion. The tendency to belittle and
discredit our institutions, such as
Congress, is part of the technique of
those exponents of an all-powerful
executive who, through his coterie of
master minds. shall tell the people
what to think and how to act.
Justice Frankfurters speech pre-
sents no surprise in viewpoint, be-
cause the New Deal lawyers ri
twisters of statutes have been i'm
patient all along of those who expose
smart aleck and trickster Govern
ment. 1t does no service to the Su-
preme Court to have it's justices
make speeches questioning the use
of the freedom of speech and of the
press which the present war is sup
posed to underwrite and strengthen.
What If there are extremists
among us all? What if some are
isolationists and some are co-opera-
tionists? What If some are dema-
gogues and arouse passions by the
Use of executive power and by sowing
the seeds Of class hatred, and some
try to reason with their elected Off
cials, pleading with them often in
vain to respect and preserve the
rights of the minority? The Ameri-
can people collectively can be de-
pended on to vote their untrammeled
judgment for persons and policies
in democratic process. 1t takes
time, but in the end the demagogue
Is defeated.
Holmes Definition of Freedom
Literally accepted, the Frankfurter
doctrine betrays an impatience with
election campaigns, but who would
want to abolish them in favor of
ponderous speeches and pontifical
commands from the so-called in
tellectuals in our midst?
1t takes all kinds of people and
all kinds of opinions to make a
democracy, and he who is impatient
with those who disagree and feels
they misuse" their power has
forgotten great adage that came
from the lips of another Supreme
Court Justice Oliver Wendell
Holmes-who defined freedom of