vol. 24, no. 11
Primary tabs
American
Civil Liberties
Union
Volume XXIV
Birth Control Devices
Laws Forbiddi
ung
Sale Violate
Civil Liberties
The American Civil Liberties Union recently asserted in
-a new policy statement that state laws prohibiting the sale
and use of birth control devices are a violation of civil liber-
ties.
The policy, adopted by the Union's national Board of
Directors, declared that such
laws are contrary to the due _
process guarantees of the Four-
teenth Amendment to the U. S.
Constitution and also infringe
upon the rights "reserved to the
people under. the Ninth and
Tenth Amendments to live, en-
joy liberty and pursue happiness
free of unnecessary govern-
mental restraint." The ACLU's
new policy was announced by
its executive director, Patrick
Murphy Malin. .
Dissemination of Information
The ACLU statement also re-
affirmed its position that govern-
mental bans on dissemination of
contraceptive information or ad-
vocacy of birth control methods
violatee, the First Amendment
protection of free speech. It
added tnat the First Amendment
guarantee of the free exercise of
religion also is affected by such
restrictions because the free
speech of clergymen who wish to
counsel their parishoners on the "
use of contraception is denied.
The new policy position was
_ prompted in part by a series of
- suits now in the Connecticut
state courts challenging the Con-
necticut statutes prohibiting the
use of contraceptive devices or
the counseling on the use of
such devices. These suits are
based upon the claim that the
statutes violate the Fourteenth
`Amendment to the U. S. Consti-
tution by depriving the plaintiffs
of life and liberty without due
process of law.
Contentions In Conn. Suits
In three suits, the plaintiffs
allege that their ill-health for-
bids pregnancy or that in the
past their pregnancies have in-
variably resulted in the death
of their children shortly after
birth because of congenital de-
fects. One additional suit was
filed by the physician for the
plaintiffs claiming that his liber-
ty to practice medicine to the
best of his judgment was unreas-
onably restricted by the state's
ban against prescription of con-
traceptive devices.
These cases are now before the
Supreme Court of Errors of
Connecticut, the state's highest
court, on appeal from a lower
court decision rejecting the
plaintiff's argument. In the event
that an appeal is taken to the
U. S. Supreme Court, the ACLU
and its affiliate, the Connecticut
Civil Liberties Union, would seek
to participate as a friend of the
court in the first three cases.
Malin's Comment
Commenting on the new ACLU
policy, Malin said the Fourteenth
Amendment's "life and liberty"
clause squarely puts the civil lib-
erties issue.
context of the birth control is-
sue," Malin said, "where an in-
dividual's life or health is con-
"Certainly in the
In This Issue...
Another C.0. Forced to
Withdraw at U.C........... p. 2
How the ACLU of No.
- Calif. Got Started.......... p. 2
New Members of ACLU
Board of Directors...... p. 3
Prof. Commager's Speech p. 3
Seek High Court Review
in Wendy Murphy Case p. 2
cerned, a state ban on a means
of preserving that life or health,
including medical prescription,
is an unreasonable interference
with the `life and liberty' of the
individual." Similarly, Malin
stated, the Constitution's Ninth
and Tenth Amehdments "ex-
pressly reserve to the people the
right to enjoy freedom without
the government imposing un-
necessary controls."
Text of Statement _
The full text of the ACLU pol.
icy statement follows:
"The ACLU reaffirms its posi-
tion that governmental restric-
tions on dissemination of contra-
_ ceptive information or an advo-
cacy of contraception, are viola-
tive of the First Amendment -
including the guarantee of the
free exercise of religion, in the
sense of free speech for pastoral
counseling of contraception. It as-
serts further that restrictions by
State `governments on the sale
and use of contraceptive devices
are violative of the due process
guarantees of the Fourteenth
Amendment, and infringe upon
the right reserved to the people
by the Ninth and Tenth Amend-
ments to live, enjoy liberty and
pursue happiness free of unnec-
essary governmental restraint."
Rehearing Denied
In Wolstenholme Case
On October 22, the California
District Court of Appeal denied
Oakland's petition for a rehear-
ing in the Rebecca Wolstenholme
case. :
Mrs. Wolstenholme was _ or-
dered reinstated to her former
position as librarian in the Oak-
land Free Library by a decision
of the District Court of Appeal
last September 24th (See Octo-
ber NEWS). Oakland then peti-
tioned the Court of Appeal for a
rehearing, claiming that the
Court had misconstrued the law
and that it had misread the rec-
ord in the case.
It is anticipated that Oakland
will now appeal the case to the
State Supreme Court.
Joint Editorial Protests U.C.
San Francisco, California, November, 1959
Number 11
400 Attend
Sac'mento ACLU
Sun. Breakfast
Four hundred persons attend-
ed ACLU's Sunday morning
breakfast at the Sacramento Inn
on October 18 to hear Attorney
General Stanley Mosk discuss
the "State. of Civil Liberties In
California."
The meeting was part of Sac-
ramento's delayed membership
drive and was the most success-
ful meeting ever held in that
area, Thus far, exactly 12 mem-
berships have resulted from the
meeting, thereby raising to 20
the number of new members
secured in Sacramento in the
membership drive.
"Our big problem," said Mosk
in his speech, "is that of discrim-
ination against minorities in job
opportunities and in community
acceptance .. . it is just as im-
moral to rob a man of his equal-
ity of opportunity as it is to rob
- him of his purse.'
Fred H. Smith, IV, ne ACLU's
Treasurer, spoke briefly about
the Union's work and the need
for new members.
The success of the meeting,
which was well publicized in the _
local press and on TV, is due to
Chairman Jane Cassels Record
and the hard-working members
of her steering committee. They
were scheduled to meet late last
month to plan next year's pro-
gram in what is expected to be
an annual affair, with a crowd-
drawing speaker, Some consid-
eration is also being given to an
interim program for the group.
SCLU in Berkeley
Recognized for
Another Year
Last month, the Board of Di-
rectors of the ACLU of Northern
California granted recognition to
the Student Civil Liberties Un-
ion, made up of students at the
University of California, as a co-
operating organization for the
fall and spring semesters.
The officers of the organization
are as follows: Chairman: Eugene
Savin; Vice Chairman: Miki Stie-
fel; Secretary-Treasurer: Sandie
Schwartz. Prof. Paul Seabury of
the Political Science department
has agreed to serve as Faculty ~
Advisor.
The SCLU was first established
in 1954 and since that time has
operated except for one year. It
meets twice a month at Stiles
Hall.
At its first meeting, on October
13, Prof. Christian Bay declared
that `Rule 17 is a monstrosity
on a campus dedicated to the pur-
suit of wisdom." This rule gov-
erns political activities on cam-
pus as well as the discussion of
controversial issues.
ACLU Budget Drive Begins
Seek to Rai
71
ise
Fiscal Year
Approving a record budget of $44,447.17, the Board of
Directors of the ACLU of Northern California last month
urged the Union's supporters to make their contributions
NOW towards the Union's work for the fiscal year beginning
November 1.
Contribute In November
The budget appeal was mailed
late last month to all of the Un-
ion's supporters except those
who renewed their memberships
during September and October.
The board hopes that as far as
possible all members will make
their budget contributions dur-
ing November. Thus, by concen-
trating the ACLU's fund-raising
Anniversary
Celebration
Big Success
The twenty-fifth anniversary
celebration of the ACLU of
Northern California, held at the
Sheraton-Palace Hotel in San
Francisco on October 17, was a
tremendous success. More than
650 persons attended the meet-
ing at which Prof. Henry Steele
Commager spoke on "Civil Lib-
erties in Perspective" (See page
8 of this issue of the NEWS for
the first half of the speech), and
about 450 persons attended the
four workshops in the afternoon.
While many persons contrib-
uted to the success of the meet-
ings, Mrs. Emily Skolnick, chair-
man of the Program Committee,
and Mrs. Shirley Poirier, Mem-
bership Director, deserve special
mention for their outstanding
performances.
The banquet was presided over
by Prof. John Henry Merryman,
board chairman, and Ernest
Besig, the local director, gave a
report of how the branch was
started and a summary of its
past work. (For a portion of his
report, see page 2.)
Mrs. Helen Salz, vice-chairman,
who has served on the board of
directors since the ACLU was
founded, and Ernest Besig, were
presented special gifts to mark
their long association with the
ACLU of Northern California.
There were two last-minute
changes in the personnel of the
workshops. Anthony Boucher was
unable to participate in the Cen.
sorship workshop because of ill-
ness, and Franklin H. Williams
went to Puerto Rico on an assign-
ment. The latter was replaced as
chairman of the "Law Enforce-
ment and Individual Rights"
workshop by Prof. Edward L.
Barrett of the Univ. of California
Law School, we did an outstand-
ing job.
Restrictions on Student Government
President Clark Kerr of the
University of California on. Oc-
tober 23 issued three directives
that were met with immediate
opposition by the student papers
at Berkeley, Santa Barbara and
Riverside. The directives regu-
late student government, recog-
nition of student organizations
and use of campus facilities. The
latter is an amendment of Rule
17, which has been subjected to
ACLU criticism for many years.
Joint Editorial
In a joint editorial, the news-
papers declared that the Presi-
dent's action "slapped student
government in the face." They
`pointed out that the directive re-
writes "the preamble of student
government institutions to put
each student government under
the thumb of the chief officer
of each campus.
- "Tt forbids student govern-
ments from speaking out on cru-
cial off-campus issues.
"It subjects amendments of
student government constitutions
to prior approval by campus
officials.
Legal Right Not Questioned
"We do not contest the legal
right of the president to assert
his executive authority over stu-
dent government.
"But this does not mean we
should not protest his action. It
is unjustified, ill-considered, to-
tally unnecessary.
"Precensorship of amendments |
to student government constitu-
tions by campus officials is an
infringement on your freedom of
expression. ...
wore
"To prevent student govern-
ments from expressing student
opinion on off-campus issues is
absurd. In these times what is-
sue is really off-campus? .. ."
ACLU Concerned
Last June, a Committee of the
ACLU Board of Directors met
with Chancellor Seaborg and
Vice-Chancellor Alex Sherriffs
to discuss the University's re-
fusal to allow "Slate," a student
organization, to hold a campus
meeting to discuss an `off-cam-
pus" issue. When it became clear
that revised regulations would be
released in the fall, further ac--
tion on the matter was post-
poned. The new directives will
now be referred to the ACLU's
special committee and then be
considered at the next board
meeting on November 19.
activities at the beginning of the
fiscal] year, it not only allows
proper financial planning but
results in, a minimum of inter-
ference with the job of defend-
ing civil liberties,
9% Increase In Budget
The new budget is about 9%
more than last year's or exactly
$3,667.87. A third of this increase
is for salaries, another third is
for printing of the biennial re-
port, while the remaining third
is for postage, furniture and
equipment, stationery, the
monthly NEWS and telephone
service.
The budget is again based on a
staff of 4% persons, although in
approving the budget the board
authorized appointment of a
special committee to consider
possible expansion of the Union's
work. It is hoped that some per-
sons Will wish to mark the 25th
anniversary of the branch with
$25 contributions ear-marked for
this purpose.
Estimated Income
The Board expects to raise
$38,300. of the needed $44,447.17
by membership dues and contri-
butions from 90% of.the present
membership, $3,500 in the 1950
Spring Membership Drive, $650
in interest and dividends, $500
in special gifts, $250 in memorial
funds and $300 in miscellaneous
income. It is alsu hoped to raise
an additional $1,000 by holding
a theatre benefit. The total esti-
mated operating income for the
fiscal year is $44,500,
The ACLU receives no support
from any foundation, the United
Crusade, financial angels or the
Union's national office. Money
that is sent to the ACLU in New
York is not returned here to meet
local needs.
Average Contribution $10
All of the money that is used
by the ACLU of Northern Cali-
fornia in meeting its operating
expenses is raised from its local
members and friends, On the
basis of its present membership,
the ACLU needs an average con-
tribution of almost $10 from each
of its members, Of course, some
members cannot afford to give
more than the minimum dues,
{
-so many larger gifts are neces-
sary in order to balance the
smaller contributions,
Last year, 1300 of the Union's
supporters made their `contribu-
tions in November, and every
year the November response
`grows larger. Won't you please
make your PRESENT and FU-
oa contributions in Novem-
er
The Budget
Here is the way your money
will be spent:
Salaries
Exec, Director =. $9,600.00
Staff Counsel]... 6,950.00
Membership Dir. (%
time) Ua 2,808.00
Legal Steno. .............. 4,582.50
Bookkeeper- Clerk _. 4,060.00
Extra Help _................ 200.00
Retirement _................ 741.30
ACLU NEWS ............... 2,600.00
Printing and Stationery . 3,448.00
"Rent 2020 oe 3,500.00
Postage 2,200.00
Mel and Velo. 2. 1,300.00
Taxes and Ins... 847.37,
Travel and Transp. ...... eset 710.00
Education Comm. .......... 160.00
Furn, and Equip. _............... 350.00
Publications. ................... 100.00
Miscellaneous .................. 50.00
Audit. 2 5 300.00
Total 2 ee $44,449.17
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION NEWS
Published by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California
Second Class mail privileges authorized at San Francisco, Calif.
ERNEST BESIG .. . Editor
503 Market Street, San Francisco 5, California, EXbrook 2-4692
Subscription Rates-Two Dollars a Year
Twenty Cents Per Copy
Quotes from
Opinion Banning
Bible Reading
Last month, the ACLU NEWS
reported the September 16 de-
cision of a special three-judge
federal court which declared un-
constitutional a section of a Penn-
sylvania law requiring Bible
reading in the public schools. The
law requires that at least ten
verses of the Bible be read at the
opening of each school day.
The unanimous opinion of the
court, which is now available, de-
clares that the "Bible is essential-
ly a religious work. To character-
ize the Bible as a work of art, of
literary or historical significance,
and, to refuse to admit its essen-
tial character as a religious doc-
ument would seem to us to be
unrealistic.
"The verses of the Bible,
though they are of great literary
merit, are embodied in books of
worship, regardless of the ver-
sion, devoted primarily to bring-
ing man in touch with God. If
study of the Bible as an artistic
work, a treasury of moral truths,
or historical text can be sepa-
rated from the espousal of doc-
-trinal matters and religiousness,
we should find no objection. .. .
The daily reading of the Bible,
buttressed with the authority of
the State and, more importantly
to children, backed with the au-
thority of their teachers, can
hardly do less than inculcate or
promote the inculcation of vari-
ous religious doctrines in child-
ish minds. Thus the practice re-
quired by the statute amounts to
religious instruction, or a promo-
tion of religious education. : . .
In our view, inasmuch as the
Bible deals with man's relation-
ship te God and the Pennsylvania
statute may require a daily re-
minder of that relationship, that
statute aids all religions. Inas-
much as the `Holy Bible' is a
Christian document, the practice
aids and prefers the Christian
religion."
The test case, brought with the
active support of the Greater
Philadelphia) Branch of the
ACLU, concerned Mr, and Mrs.
Edward L. Schempp and their
three children all of whom are
members of the Unitarian church
and who attend that church reg-
ularly. The court ruling will be
appealed to the U.S. Supreme
Court by the Abington Township
schoo] district.
Sue Postmaster
For Seizure of
Foreign Mail
Another damage suit was filed
against the Post Office last
month to prevent its seizure of
alleged foreign propaganda, This
time the suit was brought by A.
L. Wirin, Southern California
counsel of the ACLU, who filed
a suit against Postmaster Arthur
E, Summerfield for confiscation
by the Seattle postmaster of a
copy of the "Peking Review."
The suit was filed in the U.S.
District Court in Washington,
DC,
Wirin's suit seeks damages of
ten cents, for the cost of the
newspaper, and $100 general
damages. It also seeks an injunc-
tion to halt further interference
with his mail and to prevent
postal officials from destroying
the journal.
Wirin charged that pondiiions
imposed for the delivery of the
newspaper "are unreasonable
and unwarranted" and that the
postmaster has no authority to
inquire whether the addressee
has ordered or subscribed to the
periodical.
In a similar Illinois suit, the
Chicago postmaster recently be-
ACLU NEWS
November, 1959
Page 2
@
Seek High Court
@ e
Review in Wendy
Murphy Case
The U.S. Supreme Court is be-
ing asked to review the convic-
tion of Wendy Murphy, erstwhile
barefoot girl with cheek. The
ACLU, Miss Murphy's defender
throughout, has filed a petition
for certiorari in the case, seeking
consideration of the question
whether the constitutional right
to be free from arbitrary arrest
includes also the right to be free
from criminal conviction for re-
sisting reasonably a wholly illegal
arrest,
Readers of the "News" will re-
call that Miss Murphy was walk-
ing bareboot on San Francisco's
upper Grant Avenue last year,
`when she was intercepted by
Officer W. C. Bigarani, who said
he would arrest her if she at-
tempted to enter a restaurant
known as the Bagel Shop. The
Bagel Shop was orderly, as was
Miss Murphy. She insisted on her
right to enter the restaurant, and
Bigarani, who had offered no
reason for his ukase other than
his self-asserted authority, placed
her under arrest on a vagrancy
charge and proceeded to drag
her to the paddy wagon under
compulsion of a wrist lock.
Miss Murphy, who did not look
kindly upon all this, informed
the policeman in round and cer-
tain terms that he was violating
her constitutional rights. She also
included her opinion of him. In
struggling to free herself from
the officer's grasp, they both
tumbled to the middle of Green
Street, midpoint between the
Bagel Shop and the Old Spaghetti
Factory. After her arrival at the
police station Bigarani arrived
to book her, and in response to
her screams that he be kept from
touching her, gave chase behind.
the sergeant's desk, where Miss
Murphy had sought refuge. After
triumphantly regaining Miss
Murphy's custody, he forcibly
replaced her in the chair, where
she had been peacefully sitting
when he came in,,only to be hit
on the left elbow with a paper
punch which had conveniently
come to Miss Murphy's hand.
When Miss Murphy was finally
booked, four charges were placed
against her: the original vag-
rancy charge, a malicious mis-
chief charge based on alleged
damage to a typewriter which
had been knocked to the floor in
the course of her scuffle with
Bigarani, interfering with an of-
ficer in the discharge of his duty,
and a battery charge for hitting
Bigarani on the elbow with the
paper punch.
At the trial the prosecution
dismissed the vagrancy charge,
after the judge had indicated
he would instruct the jury that
there was no evidence to support
the arrest. The judge refused to
dismiss the other charges, re-
jecting the argument that Miss
Murphy had rightfully defended
herself against -a wholly illegal
arrest. The jury acquitted Miss
Murphy on the malicious mis-
chief charge but convicted her of
`battery and resisting arrest,
The petition for certiorari was
prepared by volunteer ACLU at- .
torney Kurt Melchior and staff
counsel Albert M. Bendich.
A.M.B.
latedly delivered the seized pub-
lications and then unsuccessfully
sought dismissal of the suit,
which will now go to trial.
Wirin said he subscribed to the
"Peking Review" in connection
with his preparation of the Pow-
ell sedition case in which he is
serving as private counsel. He
charged that the post office ac-
tion violates freedom to read and'
freedom of the press under the
First Amendment, and arbitrar-
ily interferes with his occupation
as an attorney at law.
a
`many years,
25th Anniversary
How the ACLU
of No. Calif.
Got Started
Following is a portion of the talk given by Ernest Besig, Executive
Director of the ACLU of Northern California, at its twenty-fifth anni-
versary celebration on October 17, telling how the branch got started:
The ACLU had its beginnings
on July 2, 1917 as the Civil Lib-
erties Bureau of the American
League Against Militarism. When
the League disbanded, upon our
entry into the First World War,
the Bureau continued as an inde-
pendent body under the name of
the National Civil Liberties
Bureau, which, in January 1920,
was succeeded by. the American
Civil Liberties Union. So, Nation-
ally, the ACLU will celebrate its
40th birthday next January. ~
Pacific Coast
Here on the Pacific Coast, a
branch of the ACLU was estab-
lished in Southern California in
1923. In other areas of the Pacific
Coast, however, the ACLU had a
tougher time getting started. For
attorneys Austin
Lewis in San Francisco and Col.
Erskine Scott Wood in Portland
served as one-man civil liberties
organizations. Col. Wood, for ex- -
ample, defended gratis Emma
Goldman, Margaret Sanger, Ben
Reichman and innumerable oth-
ers-anarchists, I.W.W.'s, strik-
ers, picketers, etc. Today, his
wife, Sara Bard Field Wood, her-
self a staunch civil libertarian
and participant in civil liberties
activities, is an honorary mem-
ber of our board.
San Francisco
Here in San Francisco, when
the National Civil Liberties Bur-
eau was established in 1917, at-
torney Austin Lewis agreed to
be. among its legal counsel. In
1920, when the ACLU was found-
ed, he organized the Labor De-
fense League of the ACLU which
apparently died the same year.
Finally, on July 6, 1926, Roger
Baldwin, the ACLU's national di-
rector, assembled a group at a
luncheon meeting in San Fran-
cisco and induced them to consti-
tute themselves the Northern
California Committee of the
ACLU. Prof. Guido H. Marx of
Stanford became Chairman, Prof.
Elmo Robinson, who now teaches
philosophy at San Jose State
College, became Executive Direc-
tor, and, of course, Austin Lewis
became its counsel.
Financial Troubles
After only 8 months, however,
the Committee ran into financial
difficulties and found itself un-
able to pay a full-time director.
Valeska Bari then took over on
a part-time basis. Active on the
committee were such persons as
Mary Hutchinson, Robert Hook-
`er, R. L. Burgess, Dr. Robert
_legal appeals failed,
Leavens and David Starr Jordan.
Also such men as Rabbi Newman,
Bishop Parsons and Col. Charles
Erskine Scott Wood allowed their
names to be used as sponsors.
The Work in 1926-1927
While many of the names I
have mentioned will be meaning-
ful to only a small part of this
audience, the work they did as a
Civil Liberties Committee was
significant. This was a time when
the California Criminal Syndical-
ism Act, which is similar to the
present Federal Smith Act,. was
used principally to send hun-
dreds of members of the I.W.W.
to jail, not for their actions, but
for mere membership in the
I.W.W. The Committee cam-
paigned vigorously but unsuc-
cessfully for the repeal of this
iniquitous law and for the release
of seven victims who were still
in prison. Also, "In the case of
the pardon of Miss Anita Whit-
ney," a social worker who was
convicted under the Act for mem-
bership in the Communist Labor
Party but pardoned after her
"we may
justly claim that our activities
were not without effect on the
happy outcome," said Chairman
Marx in a report on the Union's
activities.
credit," said he, "for a share in
the defeat of the bill to introduce
the Bible into the public schools
(where it was to be read without
comment and studied), as well as
in the death (in committee) of
the proposed anti-evolution law
. (Also) Illegal deportations
have been fought in the courts
and cases won. Segregated
schools for Chinese children in
Oakland were successfully op-
posed. Police interference with
open-air meetings in Sacramento:
was brought to an end," and
Karl Rave was successfully de-
fended when he was prosecuted
for distributing birth control
literature.
Group Disbands
After October 5, 1927 the for-
mal organization disbanded but
the ACLU continued, as it had
from 1917 to 1926, as more or less
of a one-man organization with
attorney Austin Lewis as that
`man, supported by a few devoted
friends.
On July 16, 1934, the San Fran-
cisco Bay Area was jarred by a
general strike, which ended four
days later. It was followed by an
anti-red hysteria which resulted
in police and vigilante raids on
radical headquarters and arrests
of alleged radicals. Vigilante
committees raided union halls
and threw bricks through the
windows of homes. In San Fran-
cisco, headquarters of the Inter-
national Workers Order and the
I.W.W. were raided and the
furnishings smashed, while in
Richmond, the photographic
studio of W. H. Prater was de-
stroyed. In Berkeley, the Finnish
Comrades Association hall was
raided by so-called Berkeley Na-
tionals and much of the building
was wrecked while the police
waited nearby.
Branch Re- Organized in 1934
After these incidents occurred,
the national office sent Chester
S. Williams and Ernest Besig
from Los Angeles to organize a
protest against the vigilante ter-
rorism. On August 9, 1934, a
meeting of 30 prominent citizens
was called at the Bellevue Hotel
to plan a protest rally. Unfor-
tunately, our efforts to organize
such a meeting were disrupted by
our left-wing brethren, who came
uninvited, and had to be aban-
doned. We, therefore, proposed
to our national office that a
branch of the ACLU be re-estab-
lished in northern California.
The proposal was accepted, the
national office provided $500 to
finance the venture and Chester
Williams remained as organizing
director. On September 14, 1934
-twenty-five years ago-he sent
a letter to prospective members
urging them to support re-estab-
lishment of a Northern Cali-
fornia Committee of the Ameri-
can Civil Liberties Union. The
letter asserted that we were
faced with a recurrence of the
suppression and violence of post-
war days and the development of
a spirit of fascism. "In 18 coun-
ties," he said, "ordinances prevail
which make assemblage of three
or more persons illegal without
police permit. Organized groups,
claiming patriotic motives, are
urging the passage of more than
a dozen laws to aid in the sup-
pression of minority opinion -
all of which contradicts the very
foundations of constitutional de-
mocracy with its grant of free
assemblage. To combat this grow-
ing menace, the Northern Cali-
fornia Branch of the ACLU is
being re-organized." )
"
"We may also claim 0x00B0
Another C.O.
Forced to
Withdraw at U.C.
While the issue of compulsory
ROTC at the University of Cali-
fornia was dramatized last month
by the hunger strike and forced
withdrawal from school of Fred-
erick Lawrence Moore, Jr., little
public notice was taken of the
case of another Berkeley fresh-
man, Richard Casey, who sacri-
ficed a scholarship and was also
forced to withdraw from the Uni-
versity because of his refusal to
take ROTC. Casey's eloquent
statement of his case, in a letter
to the "Daily Californian, Ole
lows:
Must Retain Integrity
"I have decided after many
hours spent in wrestling with
this problem that in order to re-
tain my honesty and integrity I
must commit myself to a definite
stand concerning the ROTC pro-
gram at this University.
"I have gone along with the
program for four weeks in the
hope that I should be able to dis-
cover a way in which I could re-
_solve my beliefs with the fact
that this training is apparently
unavoidable.
Willing to Give Useful Service
"However, I can no longer con-
tinue to participate. I shall never
take a human life nor shall I will-
ingly participate in any program
which trains one to do so. I wish
no one to say that I feel no sense
of responsibility toward my coun-
try. I am willing to devote a seg-
ment of my life, energies and
talents to provide USEFUL serv-
ice for my country.
"The ROTC program does not
fall under this category. I feel
it to be a waste of time fer every-
one concerned. I feel very strong-
ly about this matter, as may be
indicated by what I have to lose
by taking this stand:
a. the possiblity of being un-
justly debarred from attending
a public institution set up to pro-
vide higher education at low
cost to qualified individuals;
b. the loss of respect of parents
and friends;
c. the possibility of having to
forfeit a $400 Regents' Scholar-
ship;
d. the lack of opportunity to
attend any other college because
`of finances;
e. having a black mark on my
record for the rest of my life.
`Wishes to Remain
"T submit this statement with
the sincere wish that I may be
allowed to remain at the Univer-
sity to continue my studies. If I
receive unjust treatment because
of this stand, I shall at least
know that I have done what I
must do to preserve my self re-
spect. I try not to feel bitter at
having to declare myself in such
a manner on this issue, but it is
indeed difficult."
On October 23, President Clark
Kerr disclosed that the Regents
had adopted a resolution Septem-
ber 18, directing him to appoint
a faculty review committee to
present "a detailed military pro-
gram and curriculum to be pro-
posed in lieu of the present
program."
May Abandon Compulsory ROTC
The resolution also directs
Kerr to present the program to
the Department of Defense and
to tell the department that the
Regents are "considering the
feasibility of abandoning the
compulsory military training re-
quirement and, in any event, be-
lieve that the present program
should be extensively revised."
_ The Regents have the author-
ity to place ROTC on a voluntary
basis. On December 3, 1934, how-
ever, in the ACLU sponsored
case of Hamilton v. University of |
California, the U. S. Supreme
Court held that compulsory
ROTC could be made a condition
of attendance at the University,
and that such requirement does
not violate the constitutional
rights of any citizen, and partic.
ularly a conscientious objector.
Nevertheless, last Spring, the
students at U.C., Berkeley, voted
in favor of voluntary ROTC and
submitted their views to the Re-
gents. The Moore and Casey
cases will. undoubtedly result in
reviving student pressures for
voluntary ROTC.
New members of ACLU Board of Directors, who took office on November 1. Reading from left to right: Robert H. Har
Steiner, Sam B. Eubanks and Rey. Harry B. Scholefield.
OMMAGER'S SPEECH
While a written text of Prof.
Commager's speech at the 25th -
anniversary meeting of the ACLU
of Northern California on Octo-
ber 17 is not available, a tran-
script of a tape recording has
been made.
The speech is too long to
be printed in full in one issue of
the NEWS. Consequently, it will .
appear in two parts. The first
part follows, while the remainder
of the speech will appear in the
December issue of the NEWS:
Mr, Besig, Professor Merryman,
and Ladies and Gentlemen:
An anniversary, as Mr. Besig
has so well made clear, is a time
for rejoicing in the `past, but
more for taking stock and for
consideration of the tasks of the
future. Prodigious events of the
past quarter century, a period
packed with drama and with deep
moments of history, are suffi-
ciently familiar to many of you,
at least, so that I need not re-
hearse them.
Great Climacterics
In this brief period we have
lived through a series of great
climacterics: An acute depres-
sion, emergence of the Welfare
State, the greatest of World Wars,
a long period of Cold War with a
nation or an ideology that relies
on subversion, the Korean War,
creation of the atomic weapon,
with potentialities of annihila-
tion. All of these developments
would normally make for statism,
would normally make for an im-
mense growth of militarism, and
for impatience with anything
that seems to get in the way of
speedy and massive action by the
state.
Other Developments
So, too, with many of the other
developments of the last quarter
century: The rapid increase in.
population, speeding up of ur-
banization and of corporate con-
centration. All of these things
make normally for impatience
with mere individualism and for
the claims of traditional liberty.
Increase In Statism
We might, therefore, reason-
ably have expected a steady in-
crease in statism, a steady dimin-
ution of freedom in this country;
we might have expected the
swift development of the psychol-
ogy and the practices of statism
and even of the police state. We
might have assumed as inevitable.
a steady narrowing of the scope
of freedom and a steady decline
of individualism, a steady re-
striction of the scope and the ap-
plication of the guaranties of the
Bill of Rights, yet I think only
one unable to view developments
in longer perspective could sup-
pose that these events have, in
fact, come to pass.
Expansion Of Liberty
In the perspective of a quarter
of a century what appears most
remarkable is not, I think, the
constriction of liberty, but its ex-
pansion, not the defeats which we
must chalk up, but the victories
in which we may rejoice. May we
not say, with Lincoln, "The
times, the signs are better?"
Review, those of you who are
old enough for the task, the con-
ditions that obtained in this coun-
try as a whole 25 or 30 years ago.
Mr. Besig has reminded you of
the situation even in your own
state. Let me remind you that
this was the generation of Sacco
and Vanzetti; it was the day
when the Ku Klux Klan still
flourished, when Negroes were
almost everywhere denied their
most elementary rights in law
and in the political arena; it was
the day when the Supreme Court
was still accepting Herbert Spen-
cer's social statics, to use Holmes'
phrase in the Lochner dissent,
when Plessy vs. Ferguson still
controlled the constitutional po-
sition of the Negroes in the
South, when Atkins vs. Chil-
dren's Hospital stood as a barrier
against effective wage legisla-
tion, when Hammer vs. Dagen-
hart and the Bailey decision
stopped in its track the attack
on child labor, when the Thyssen
vs. New York. and the Oklahoma
ice cases drew firmly the line of
state intervention, limits of state
interference with what was re-
garded as private business, when
in a great series of decisions the
Supreme Court threatened the
very basis of the New Deal leg-
islation and overthrew a great
part of that legislative program.
Task of Survival
Franklin Roosevelt, with. Mrs.
Perkins and Henry Wallace and
Harold Ickes and others of that
group, were arousing the consci-
ence of the nation, to be sure,
and restoring something of the
traditions of liberalism, but the
terrible economic crisis of the
thirties - and how remarkable
that you should have organized
in the midst of that crisis - that
crisis concentrated almost the
whole of liberal energies on the
elementary task of survival.
. Assaults Weathered
Who can doubt that notwith-
standing titanic wars, a long con-
flict with Communism, the im-
pact of atomic warfare, the mas-
sive growth of the state and the
military, who can doubt that with
all these, the situation has not
degenerated but Improved, the
rights of most persons are better
than they were 25 or 30 years
ago, and the position of the
Negro has been vastly improved,
the state functions, not only in
the economic realm, but in the
realm of freedom as well, inter-
venes not only against the exer-
cise of freedom, but to protect
the exercise of freedom. We have
weathered the most dangerous
assaults of the past decade, wea-
thered them not unscarred or un-
scathed, to be sure.
The Explanation
What, then is the explanation
for such progress as we have
made in the past quarter of a
century? That Freedom is not in
retreat, that you gather here not
to hold obsequies over her corpse,
but to celebrate her vitality and
her youthfulness, results, I think,
from several factors: First, from
the compulsions which the role
that the United States now oc-
cupies in world affairs and the
necessity of vindicating at home
those moral values which we
champion abroad, the necessity
of proving our sincerity in claim-
ing to be the champions of de-
mocracy and freedom against the
counterclaims of totalitarian sys-
tems has had some effect. In a
sense our position as a world
power and as the defender of
freedom throughout the globe
has had the same effect on our
domestic conduct as the pledge |
that all men are created equal
had over a long period of years
on the attitude towards slavery.
We couldn't live permanently
with this paradox.
Growth of Economic Security
Second, the growth of econom-
ic security has brought with it
not that complete relaxation of
racial and class hostility which so
many liberals fondly hoped for,
but certainly some relaxation,
and at the same time it has
raised generally the lower levels
_of society, given security to those
who before did not have security,
and given them, what is perhaps
more important, economic and
even social power of a sort.
Whatever the disappointment
about the slowness of improve-
ment here, whatever the shock
of discovering that McCarthyism
had support from the middle
classes rather than from the
lower economic groups, improve-
ment, I think, has been substan-
tial enough to justify faith in
continued economic improvement
as one of the surest methods of
vindicating general freedom and
- equality.
Education
Third, education, again, has
given us one shock of disappoint-
ment after another, especially if
we thought of it as a great
panacea. It has not brought that
degree of enlightenment and of
unselfish devotion to the public
weal that was so confidently ex-
pected in the past, but, again,
who could contrast the attitude
toward the race question in the
south today, of the older and the
younger generation, can doubt
that education has had and
will continue to have a leavening
effect. Ours is probably the only
society - this is one of the most
remarkable sociological factors
in history - ours is probably the
only society in history where it
can be confidently assumed that
each new generation is better
educated than the past, each new
generation will continue to be
better educated than its prede-
cessors, and when more, there-
fore, can rightly be expected and,
nay, demanded of each new gen-
eration than of past generations.
In the past new generations have
not commonly disappointed us
and, assuredly, some of the prog-
ress toward enlightenment can
be credited to ever-higher levels
of education.
Contribution of Organizations
And assuredly, too, some credit
for improvement must be as-
signed to organizations such as
this and scores of others working
in the same realm, working intel-
ligently, courageously, tenaci-
ously for the advancement of
social welfare and the security of
freedom. There is no need to
pay tribute here to the role of
the voluntary association in
America, to its long record of
contribution to reforms. It is,
I think, a sobering thought that
on the whole the official organ-
izations designed for the pur-
pose of advancing freedom have
contributed relatively little com-
pared, to the work of the unof-
ficial and voluntary organiza-
tions.
Vigilance Still Needed
Yet with civil liberties ever so
many of our current problems
the moral of Alice and the Red
Queen is always relevant: You
have to run twice as fast to get
anywhere. New problems, new
issues, new threats, gloom and
glower upon us. Eternal vigilance
is still the price not only of lib-
erty but of survival.
Unsolved Problems
Nor have we, in fact, solved
the central problems of the rela-
tions of man to government, the
reconciliation of freedom and
order, that confronted us so in-
sistently throughout the past dec-
ades. Again, as Santayana ob-
served, Americans do not really
solve problems; they gently bid
them goodby. We have not really
repudiated McCarthyism; we
have drifted away from it. David
Schine, as Mr. Pearson pointed
out this morning, welcomes Mr.
Khruschev, and only Mr. Buckley
survives to defend McCarthy or
to mourn him.
The Issues
I need not detail to you the
issues that crowd upon us. A
reading of your own report of
your activities is sufficient for
that. Great questions of censor-
ship, security, Congressional in-
vestigatory powers, the right to
travel and passports, citizenship,
denaturalization and deportation,
freedom of teaching and of learn-
ing, denial of due process, police
brutality, separation of church
and state, the exemption of the
religions from the reach of the
state, these and many others
make irresistible demands upon
your time and energy.
I have no intention of dealing
with these in any detail. I am not
competent to do so, nor is this
`the time and the place for an
analysis of that character. Let
me, rather, consider with you
the larger implications of two
current developments, implica-
tions for civil liberty, implica-
tions for the whole of our society
and of our culture. Both of these
issues are, in effect, philosophi-
cal issues; both are `rooted deep
in our history, but in both cases
their flourishing development is
a matter of recent years.
Trend Toward Statism
The first is a trend toward
what I call statism, toward the
acceptance of the doctrine that
the state has an existence by
itself; that there is a kind of
mythical entity distinct from the
entity of the people who make
it up, a past and present and a
future of its own; that it has
rights and attributes that over-
ride any considerations of the
original purposes or functions or
of the -constitutional ' restraints
placed upon it in the past, and
that it may therefore do all
sorts of things not specifically
authorized to it and even, in some
cases, specifically denied to it.
This is a very old doctrine in
European history, but it is a new
November, 1959
dgrove, Harold Winkler, Mrs. Martin
doctrine in American history. In
the light of this new doctrine of
statism, the prohibitions of the
Bill of Rights evaporate as under
the hot sun of necessity; extraor-
dinary powers of government
that were first tolerated and then
ratified and made ends in them-
selves. Who that has witnessed
the growth of the so-called secur-
ity system can doubt, for ex-
ample, the old observation that in
time we come to love the chains
that bind us.
Most Notorious Example
Perhaps the most notorious ex-
ample of the affirmation of
statism is the one already men-
tioned several times tonight and
so painfully familiar to all of us,
that of Japanese relocation dur-
ing the war, and the traditional
and even popular acquiescense in
it. But we find it true almost
everywhere we look; we find it
in the assumption, all but uni-
versal now, that of course every-
body must be investigated before
he is allowed to take a govern-
ment job, and that in the course
of investigation, of course, the
government has the right to
know everything relevant and ir-
relevant to the character of the
individual.
We find it in the growth of
such elementary things as finger-
printing and less elementary
things as dossiers of information,
always derogatory, about its cit-
izens. We find it in the curious
notion that work for government
is not a right but a privilege, as
if that ever got us anywhere. We
find it in the relatively new no-
tion that a great many activities
once thought private are really
functions of foreign policy. Thus,
travel - we travel on behalf of
the government. Thus, informa-
tion about China through the
press, and so forth. And that
these should stand, all of these
activities should be in what is
the best interests of the United
States, as if there is something
called the United States that has
an interest apart from the inter-
ests of its citizens,
Invasion of Freedom
We find it true in many of the
minor episodes of the state in-
vasion in what has long been con-
sidered the realms of freedom:
The claim of an overriding in-
terest of the state, for example,
in a guest list at a summer camp,
an interest so overriding that
even four years later it appears
to justify what will turn out to
be a life sentence of contempt
for not producing it. Or the in-
terest of the state in the names
of members of an organization
that flourished in another state
ten years earlier - I refer, of
course, to the Barenblatt decis-
ion - that has excited the inter-
est or curiosity of some commit-
tee or other. Or the interest of
the state in knowing what may
have been said in university lec-
tures some years back, or the in-
terest of the state in knowing the
religious and social and economic
-Continued on Page 4
ACLU NEWS
Page 3
Continued from Page 3-
belief of teachers in public
schools.
But you can fill out the list
for yourself. The important
thing is the new concept of the
state as a superior entity and
one that has rights over and
above those that are accorded to
it by the sovereign people them-
selves.
Loss of Citizenship
In this connection, I think the
most ominous of recent decisions
is one that has attracted rela-
tively little attention: Perhaps
among a group as learned as this
it has received more attention
than it has in the East. I refer to
the case of Perez vs. Brownell, a
decision which sustained a pro-
vision of the Naturalization Act
_ of 1940 with reference to the loss
of citizenship of an American-
born citizen. I need not remind
you of the opening lines of the
Fourteenth Amendment, that
every person born in the United
States and subject to its jurisdic-
tion is a citizen thereof.
Mr, Justice Frankfurter held
that it is a proper exercise of
Congressional control over for-
eign policy to exclude: from
citizenship a natural-born Ameri-
can citizen because it was part
of the `exercise, the conduct of
foreign policy. Justices Warren
and Douglas pointed out in mem-
orable dissents this is a radical
departure from long traditions
which held, ever since Chisholm
vs. Georgia, that in America the
people are sovereign and that the
power of government is limited.
-"The philosophy of the opinion
that sustains this statute," wrote
Mr. Justice Douglas, "is foreign
-to our constitutional system. It
`gives a supremacy to the Legis-
lature in a way that is incompat-
`ible with the scheme of our writ-
ten constitution. .. . This philos-
ophy has no place here. By pro-
claiming it we forsake much of
our constitutional heritage and
move closer to the British scheme
_ if the power to regulate for-
eign affairs can be used to de-
prive a person of his citizenship
because he voted abroad, why
may it not be used to deprive
him of his citizenship because
his views on foreign policy are
unorthodox or because he dis-
puted the position of the Secre-
tary of State or denounced a Res-
olution of The Congress or the
action of the Chief Executive in
the field of foreign affairs?" And
Mr. Douglas conjured up the no-
tion that we might shortly be
depriving people of citizenship
for pleading for recognition of
Communist China or opposing the
Eisenhower Doctrine or violating
passport restrictions or trading
with Communist countries, and so
forth.
`State Can't Take Basic Rights
' And the Chief Justice, speak-
ing on the same matter with un-
usual warmth, said that: "This
Government was born of its citi-
zens; it maintains itself in a con-
tinuing relationship with them
and, in my judgment, it is with-
out power to sever the relation-
ship that gives rise to its exist-
ence, I cannot believe that a gov-
ernment conceived in the spirit
of ours was established with
power to take from the people
their most basic rights. ... The
people who created this govern-
ment endowed it with. broad
~ powers. They created a sovereign
state with power to function as
a sovereignty. But the citizens
themselves are sovereign, and
their citizenship is not subject
to the general powers of their
government."
Change in Political Climate
But it is not alone specific leg-
islative acts or specific judicial
opinions that give us pause here;
it is, rather, a change in the polli-
tical climate of opinion, a change
in the attitude of men toward
government. We have only to
ask ourselves not only what Jef-
ferson or Madison would have
thought of many of these ges-
ACLU NEWS.
November, 1959
Page 4
tures towards statism, these
claims of the right of govern-
ment to know and to intervene,
but what the average American
~would have thought at an earlier
time.
Not long ago, reading in "Niles
Register," a very popular maga-
Zine in its day, for 1818, I ran
across an amusing letter from
a postmaster in a southern town
which was a vitriolic denuncia-
tion of the government and the
Postmaster General because he
sent out an inquiry wanting to
know the date of birth of the
postmaster. "What business," he
said, "what business has the gov-
ernment to know when I was
born or to conduct inquiries of
this kind?" And it: was interest-
ing that Hezekiah Niles backed
`him up in an editorial in his
paper.
Right To Know Everything
What business, indeed! But
now most everybody takes for
granted that the government has
a right to know everything; we
take for granted immense dos-
siers on everybody who is any-
body. Indeed, it is almost a mark
of insignificance not to have a
dossier, We take for granted the
solemn compiling of derogatory
information; we take for granted
the plea of the State Department
that one travels either in the best
interests of the nation or not for
the interests of the nation. It
makes you feel very important
when you travel abroad to know
you are really traveling in the
interests of the United States.
One takes for granted the elabor-
ate queries on passport applica-
tions: How are you going and
where are you going, and why
are you going, and how long are
you going? One takes for granted
the fingerprintings and the secur-
ity investigations and the check-
ings of private morals and pri-
vate characters among friends
and neighbors and professional
eolleagues. One takes for granted
the invasion of colleges and uni-
versities by government, the
pressure for a particular kind of
research on particular hirings
and firings. Businessmen who
fiercely resent union interfer-
ence with standards of hiring not
only welcome governmental sup-
ervision through security clear-
ance of truck drivers and sten-
ographers, but they all but in-
sist upon it. We take almost for
granted - there are still some
rumblings of dissent here - the
investigations of a hundred leg-
islative committees, the kind of
investigation of Corliss Lamont,
for example, because he wrote
a chapter in a book that the
Army later used, to know what
all of his beliefs ever had been,
of what books he had read in the
past. One takes for granted the
punishment of noncooperative
citizens by exposure, by citation
for contempt or by harrassment.
One takes almost for granted that
local agencies and even private
agencies will cooperate by firing
recalcitrant victims of these in-
vestigations, so that many private
agencies hoist themselves onto
the governmental chariot and do
its bidding.
Unprecedented Speed
What is particularly arresting
here is that this growth of
statism has come with unprece-
dented speed under an adminis-
tration which is ostentatiously
hostile to the growth of govern-
mental power and deeply com-
mitted to private enterprise. I
need not elaborate on anything
so familiar as the opposition of
President Eisenhower and his as-
sociates to the extension of the
reach of the state in the realms
of the economy or in other
realms: in education, in public
health, in hydro-electric power,
and so forth. Yet no administra-
tion in the whole of our history
has permitted, nay, encouraged
`so many invasions in the realm of
private enterprise; none has con-
tributed so much to the growth of
big government, that is, of
statism.
Not Easily Withdrawn
But governmental intervention
in such matters as slum clear-
ance or public health is, in a
sense, superficial, is something
that can easily be withdrawn if
events should prove it undesir-
able or unprofitable. But govern-
mental invasion into the realm of
thought, of the intellectual or
spiritual domain, is something
not so easily altered or with-
drawn.
The assumption of the govern-
ment of the right to know all
about the private lives of those
who have governmental jobs or
to know the reasons for foreign
travel or to know the details of
the membership of voluntary or-
ganizations, these things consti-
tute a far more serious impair-
ment of private enterprise than
anything done in the whole era
of New Deal legislation.
Stems from Confusion
All this, I should add, stems
not from wickedness, not from
some sympathy for a police state:
It stems from confusion of
thought or from absence of
thought, from failure to recog-
nize that the only important
private enterprise in the long
run is intellectual and moral en-
terprise, and failure to realize
that a government that can con-
trol] the minds. of men or can
even intimidate the minds of
men can ultimately control ev-
erything else. os
I am reminded that this is not
only the 25th anniversary of this
organization: it is the hundredth
anniversary of a great number of
things, among them of John Stu-
art Mills' marvellous essay on
liberty, and that memorable
statement there which can never
be too often conned that a state
which dwarfs its citizens and
makes them instruments of its
policies will find that with small
men no great things can be ac-
complished.
Deductive Thinking
Which brings me to the second
large issue: The growing habit
of deductive thinking, of abstract
and doctrinaire thinking; the
growing habit of taking refuge in
absolutes.
I said this was the anniver-
sary of a number of things.
Among other things we are cele- (c)
brating this year the centennial
of John Dewey and along with
it the centennial of the publica-
tion of "The Origin of Species."
I need not remind you that
Darwin and Dewey between them
established, it was thought once
and for all, the validity of the
scientific or experimental meth-
od not alone in the realm of sci-
ence but in the realm of the so-
cial thought as well, and social
conduct, From the 1890s on that
experimental method and the so-
cial sciences won victory after
victory. It gave us sociological
jurisprudence; it liberated poli-
tics from the abstract theories
that had strangled it and enabled
us to get on with the job of ad-
ministration and reform; it
dealt a death blow to most of
classical economics, the abstract
laws of supply and demand or
the ideal economic man, for ex-
ample, and permitted economic
thought to direct itself to the
real problems of how .the econ-
omy worked, not how philoso-
phers thought it ought to work.
It freed education from much of
its preoccupation with meaning-
less rules and practices and made
it a dynamic process concerned
with the place of the young in
our society. I need not expand on
anything as familiar to all of you
as the great intellectual revolu-
tion that accompanied evolution
itself and that accompanied the
rise of pragmatism or instrumen-
talism.
Attack on Pragmatism
What we are witnessing now is
a full-dress attack on pragma-
tism, on the inductive method in
the social sciences. What we are
witnessing is the return if not to
absolutes, at least to a world of
a priori thinking, of unquestioned
assumptions and unchallenged
principles.
In no realm is this more osten-
tatious than in the realm of civil
liberties, and in no realm are its
manifestations more dangerous.
If words do not wholly determine
what and how we think, they are
certainly an index to our meth-
ods of thinking, and I think no-
thing is more illuminating than
the habit of our time of substi-
ftuting words for things, and
words all but drained of mean-
ing. j
Ambiguous Language
The whole security-loyalty pro-
gram has taken refuge, as indeed
it must, in watering an ambig-
uous language, language de-
signed to hint at vague impropri-
eties rather than describe speci-
fic deeds or misdeeds. Thus the
very primary words themselves-
un-American, for example, or
loyalty, or subversive, or sympa-
thetic affiliation with, or security
risk, or linked to, or in other
fields, such as those of censor-
ship, words like decency.
Lewis Carroll anticipated the
development of this language in
Alice in Wonderland: When I
use a word said Humpty Dumpty
it means just what I choose it to
mean. And that is the way words
are used even in laws, and I
think, sometimes in judicial
Opinions today.
Intangibles
Laws, rules, regulations, inves-
tigations, private boycotts, all
have this in common, this com-
mon denominator, that they ad-
dress themselves to intangibles;
they do not deal with acts-after
all, there are enough laws on the
statute books that do deal with
acts. For example, we could have
foregone the whole body of secur-
ity-loyaity investigation, of prob-
ing and the rest of it, by the
simple method of applying the
terms of the Hatch Act of 1940,
which struck from the payroll
anybody who advocated - who
belonged to an organization ad-
voeating the overthrow of our
constitutional form of govern-
ment. All we needed to do was
enforce the law and we could
have escaped everything that
happened from the 1940s on to
the present. So again and again
in almost every battlefield where
these crusades. for true Ameri-
canism are fought they are
fought over intangibles.
After all, the tangibles are gen-
- erally provided for in law and
have been for many years. No-
tice what happens as soon as we
abandon our traditional insist-
ence on dealing with things, not
words, with deeds, not intentions.
As soon as We abandon the ex-
perimental and the
method in favor of the abstract,
the doctrinaire and the specula-
tive, as soon as we turn away
from the true and tested methods
of scientific proof, or of any kind
of proof, to the world of assump-
tions or the world of absolutes.
Examples.
Examples crowd upon us, I
cannot possibly enlarge upon
them; I can barely mention a few
of them. There is a notion that a
man is to be judged by his as-
sociations, and the exhaustive
search, therefore, for associations
and affiliations that inspires so
The first right of a citizen
Is the right
To be responsible.
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-much of our current investiga-
tions is precisely this, and
through this method a series of
links are somehow meaningful in
terms of conduct, Investigators
never look to conduct. itself;
that is much too simple er else
too frustrating; they look to as-
sociations that might presumably
affect conduct and assert that
character is determined by as-
sociations, but we know that is
not true. They assume that men
who belong to a dangerous as-
sociation must invariably share
its dangerous views, though no-
body ever assumes that all those
who belong to the Republican
Party necessarily share all the
views of that party, because they
would be involved in too much
mental confusion if they did. The
notion in this whole realm of the
search for private associations
and the investigation of private
organizations, the notion that
comes up in one dramatic case
after another - again I must be-
ware of getting involved in these
details - the idea is that we
have to know, for example, just
who attended the peace confer-
ence in New Hampshire four or
five years ago, because, theoreti-
cally those who attended might
spread subversion in the state
and therefore destroy the state,
and this in the face of the.fact
that there is no shred of evi-
dence after five years, and if it
did not happen after five it prob-
ably would not happen.
Universal Phenomenon
This is almost the. universal
phenomenon, this insistence
years after the event of grave
consequences that will inevitably
follow unless there is instantan-
eous action by government, Thus
the extreme example, and a
rather melancholy one, of the
Attorney General of the United
States insisting that the court
must apprehend a naturalized
citizen who 20 years earlier, be-
longed to a subversive organiza-
iton, instantly put him in jail and
withhold bail because if he was
at liberty he might prove danger-
ous to the safety of the nation,
though in the previous 20 years
he had not been dangerous to
anything.
(To be concluded next month)
Reception for
Trevor Thomas
On November 22
The Friends Committee on
Legislation will hold a reception
in honor of Trevor Thomas, re-
tiring Executive Secretary, on
Sunday, November 22, 3 to 6
p.m., at 1830 Sutter St., San Fran-
`cisco,
Thomas has been associated
_with the Committee for seven
years, during which time he has
made the defense of civil liber-
`ties one of the paramount legis-
lative purposes of the group,
Dr, Louis Gottlieb wil] serve
as master of ceremonies,
A donation of $2 will be asked
to help forward the work of the
committee,
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