Court Opinion

ID: 9644094
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:47:58.632534+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:19.039778
License: Public Domain

LINDLEY, District Judge
(dissenting in part).
Whether it is libelous to accuse one of being a communist is to be decided according to the law of Illinois and, though the courts of that state have not directly passed upon the specific question, I have no quarrel with reasoning of the majority opinion. The word “communism” probably does not mean the same thing to everyone. I asr sume, however, that its ordinary connotation carries with it the idea of seeking to overthrow the Government of the United States by force and violence or trickery and to impose upon the people, by force or violence, if necessary to achieve the end, a form of totalitarian government. Therefore, I can persuade myself only that the majority rightfully concludes, in view of the pertinent. Illinois decisions, that a charge of communism is beyond the pale of legitimate expression.
I feel constrained, however, to disagree as to the conclusion that the ordinary reader could reasonably draw from the article m question the inference .that it was intended to charge plaintiff Spanel with being a communist and plaintiff International La-1 tex Corporation with being under the control of communists. Everything said or hinted about either plaintiff is contained in the following language: “The International Latex Company of Playtex Park, Dover, Del., has been running political arguments as paid advertisements. * * * These have been New Deal preachments, and anti-Nazi, but, as far as my reading of them reveals, never anti-Communist nor hostile to totalitarianism, as such.. * * * There are points of similarity between Novick' of Electronic and the president of International Latex, whose name is Abra■ham N. Spanel. Like Novick, Spanel was born in Russia and, like Novick, he is diligently engaged in war production and would appear to have prospered enormously. His advertisements run two .or three columns wide, the length of the page, in a national list of newspapers, a campaign suggesting a huge appropriation for political propaganda, and he is a rapturous advocate of Henry Wallace as an American political prophet. * * * „ To this end he has published at advertising rates on a national scale several eulogies of Wallace, ostensibly as ‘a public service/ including one by the ineffable Sen. Joe Guffey of Pennsylvania, * * * Another of Mr. Spanel’s rhapsodies was a reprint of a column by a member of the Roosevelt newspaper following in Washington, which described Wallace as a champion and symbol of the ‘aspirations of the common man and the underdog/ This was a poetic construction well .expressing the attitude of some demagogues of the extreme left who regard the American citizen as a soulless lump to be fed, quartered, ordered and disciplined even as a dog. A native of Russia and an admirer of the Soviet system might be pardoned in the error. Collier’s recently published a laudatory personal history of Mr. Spanel, praising him for his invention and manufacture of pneumatic boats for jungle warfare and a pneumatic stréteher for the recovery of casualties, and for his foresight in laying up, before Pearl Harbor, a reserve supply of liquid latex, or pure rubber. He formerly ■ had manufactured girles for women and baby pants. Collier’s tells us that, like Gailmor, Spanel studied for the clergy. He is said to have returned voluntarily' $1,500,000 of his profits to the Treasury, but we are not told whether he might have had to do this anyway, as many manufacturers must, under the renegotiation process. A war contractor thus could make patriotic virtue of legal necessity. We do know, however, that the advertising matter is entirely political and ideological, -with no mention of any commercial product, and that it represents a lavish outlay of money by a corporation for political propaganda in the guise of public service, financed by an immigrant from Russia, who seems to admire Russia as a trustworthy national comrade of the United States, without reference to the record of Russia’s past performances or examination of the 'Communist system.”
Whether these words are reasonably susceptible of the meaning attributed to liiem .by-plaintiff is, in Illinois, a question of !?w for the court. Payne v. Evening American *625Pub. Co., 267 Ill.App. 610, cert. denied, 271 Ill.App. xxxii. And the motion to dismiss does not admit that the language of the article is susceptible of the interpretation attributed to it by plaintiffs; for the courts of that state have declared that it is well settled that a motion to dismiss will not be sustained if the words claimed to be libelous are not reasonably or fairly “capable of the construction” placed upon them by plaintiffs and that it is for the court to decide whether the publication is “reasonably capable” of the meaning ascribed to it. Kulesza v. Chicago Daily News, Inc., 311 Ill. App. 117, 35 N.E.2d 517, 521. So the specific question before the District Court and before this court upon review is whether the article quoted is reasonably susceptible of being interpreted by a reader as meaning that plaintiffs are charged with being communistic or communistic “fellow-travelers.”
I search the words in vain to find any statement or implication that Spanel is a communist or that he seeks unlawfully to overthrow the Government of the United States or that the International Latex Corporation is managed by or is under the control of communists. The article does not state that either-plaintiff is a member of the communist party, a criminal, or engaged in any movement to overthrow the Government or in any course of action which would subject either of them to scorn or ridicule. Indeed, it seems to me, the article is susceptible of only one interpretation, merely that it is announcement of ideologies opposed to those promulgated by the plaintiffs in their paid advertisements. The author of the article evidently considered the paid advertisement of political doctrines unsound. Consequently he commented that plaintiffs have been running political advertisements which are anti-Nazi in character but, so far as he had observed, not anti-Communistic. He did say that Spanel was born in Russia; that he had been engaged in war production; that it seemed that he had prospered enormously; that he was a rapturous advocate of Henry Wallace; that he had been educated for the clergy; that he had been praised for his invention and manufacture of pneumatic boats for jungle warfare and a pneumatic stretcher for the recovery of casualties, and for his foresight in laying up, before the war, a reserve supply of liquid latex or pure rubber; that he had voluntarily returned $1,500,000 in profits to the United States Treasury; that the author was unadvised as to whether he had done this because required to do so under the renegotiation process; that the advertising matter criticized had to do entirely with political matters ; that it was financed by an immigrant from Russia “who seems to admire Russia as a trustworthy national comrade of the United States, without reference to the record of Russia’s past performances or examination of the Communist system.” I think it is impossible to read into these words a charge of communism, of belief in a revolutionary proposal to overthrow this government by force or violence and by such means to impose another political system upon the American people. I do not believe any reader would or, could be justified in drawing such a conclusion. Indulging the worst possible implications, I think no reader could reasonably infer anything libeling either plaintiff. One who seeks to enlighten the public through thought provoking advertisements should not be offended by public comment of those who refuse to be enlightened. Plaintiffs have voluntarily chosen to comment on controversial issues. The court should not permit them, by libel actions, to stifle those who honestly oppose their views and question their purposes and motives. Our Government was built and stands firmly upon the principle of free and full discussion of all political issues.
I think plaintiffs failed to state a case. I would affirm the judgment.