vol. 4, no. 1

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION-NEWS

FREE SPEECH FREE PRESS FREE ASSEMBLAGE

“Eternal is the price of liberty.”

Vol. IV SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, JANUARY, 1939 No. 1

ACLU SPONSORS LEGISLATION

Comprehensive Civil Rights Program Faces California Legislature

The fifty-third session of the California Legislature which convenes in Sacramento on January 3 will be presented with a comprehensive civil liberties legislative program sponsored by the A.C.L.U. and many liberal and labor groups. As in 1935 and 1937, Ernest Besig, Northern California director of the Union, will attend the session to look after the A.C.L.U. program and to oppose any red-baiting and fascist measures violating civil rights.

The Executive and Advisory Committees of the Union have endorsed the following proposals:

1. Repeal of the criminal syndicalism act;

2. Elimination of criminal syndicalism as cause for dismissal of permanent teachers, and a guarantee that no employee shall be dismissed on any charge of political ac- tivity occuring outside of school teaching hours or for any religious, political or eco- nomic beliefs held by such employee;

3. Prohibiting consideration of political, economic and religious beliefs of applicants for teaching positions;

4. Amending Civic Center Act to permit ALL groups to use school houses without discrimination ;

5. A constitutional amendment exempting conscientious and religious objectors from taking military drill at the University of California; ,

6. A bill declaring it to be lawful to distribute economic, political and religious handbills;

7. A regulatory act prohibiting discrimination in the issuance of parade permits;

8. A bill declaring that picketing is lawful;

9. Making municipalities liable for personal injury or death suffered by mob or vigilante victims;

10. Liberalization of the Direct Primary Law by reducing the number of signatures to qualify minority parties for places on the ballot;

11. Excusing radio broadcasting stations from liability for slander committed by lessees of time;

12. Providing for jury trial in cases of indirect contempt of court; and

13. Broadening the application of the Ae Rights Law and punishing violations of it. :

The Executive and Advisory Committees of the Union will consider several important additions to the above legislative program at a meeting early in January.

MEMBERSHIP FIGURES

As we go to press, the Northern California Branch of the A.C.L.U. shows a paid-up membership of 507. This compares with a paid-up membership of 468 on the first of January a year ago.

Flag Case Appealed To U. S. Supreme Court

Acting Chief Justice Emmett Seawell of the California Supreme Court on December 23 signed an order allowing an appeal in the Sacramento flag salute case to the United States Supreme Court. The record in the case must be submitted to the latter court in 60 days.

Hopes for a favorable decision in the U. S. Supreme Court are none too high. Twice before that court has dismissed similar appeals from other states without a written opinion. But if the Sacramento case is similarly disposed of, the Supreme Court will still be faced with a flag salute case arising in Pennsylvania which was recently argued in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Sacramento case has been pending since October 25, 19385, when Charlotte Gabrielli, then nine years old, was suspended from school for refusing to salute the flag because of religious objections. She is a member of the religious group known as Jehovahs’ Witnesses.

A. C. L. U. Financial Statement for 1938

The following statement indicates how your money was spent during the calendar year 1938:

Income On hand Jan. 1, 1937..$ 224.38 General Receipts ........ 3,399.96 Total Income ............ $3,624.34 Expenditures Salaries: fo $1,900.00 Printing andStationery 655.96 Rent 3 330.00 Postage ........: ee es 282.32 Tel, and Vel... 89.55 Traveling 2.0: 224 Furn. and Equip........... 20.00 Miscellaneous .............. 64.77 Total Expenditures 3,365.31 Cash on Hand Jan. 1, 1939............ $ 259.03

Westwood Company Promises to Stop Organizing Vigilantes

The National Labor Relations Board recently announced a stipulation and order requiring the $3,500,000 Red River Lumber Co., Westwood, Calif., to stop organizing vigilante groups among “business men and the general public” in order to destroy labor unions of its employees.

Under the stipulation, the company agreed and was ordered to discourage any “invasions of the civil rights of its employees,” or their families on account of union affiliation or activity.

The company likewise agreed and the Board ordered it to stop hindering membership in the CIO’s International Woodworkers of America, and to refrain from aiding the AFL’s Brotherhood of Carpenters. It agreed to stop contributing ‘“‘financial or other support” to the local of the Industrial Employees’ Union, Inc., an outgrowth of The Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen.

Under the terms of the stipulation, the company and its agents are directed to stop “urging, persuading, or warning”’ its employees to form any kind of labor organization and to refrain from making a closed shop union contract without majority representation.

The company agreed and the Board ordered it to reinstate with back pay 19 em- ployees, to award back pay to 20 others, and to rehire one worker without back pay. At the same time, under the terms of the stipulation, the Board ordered an election to be held at such time as the Board shall in the future direct, among all the production and maintenance workers employed by the company in the operations at or contributory to its lumber mill at Westwood. Workers will determine whether they desire to be represented by Lumber and Sawmill Workers’ Local, Union No. 53, International Woodworkers of America (CIO); United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Lumber and Sawmill Workers, Local 2863, Joiners (AFL), or by neither.

Also, under terms of the stipulation, the Board certified that Office Employees’ Union 21697 (AFL) had been designated by a majority of the clerical and sales force as their representative.

The operations carried on at or contributory to the Westwood plant consist of log- ging, transporting the logs to the plant, and there manufacturing the logs into lumber, sash, cutstock, pencil slats, moulding and siding, and veneer, all of which is sorted, surfaced, and shipped. A moulding mill, box factory, and plywood plant are also operated here. Until the 1985 season, all of the logging, transporting and manufacturing operations were performed by the respondent directly. Most of the logging and all of the transporting are now done by contractors.

Page 2

HAGUE APPEAL ARGUED

With the dissolution by the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Philadelphia of a fed- eral court injunction against the Jersey City Police Department issued by Judge William Clark in March, 1937, the civil rights bout in Jersey City enters its semifinal stage as the Circuit Court hears arguments on Judge Clark’s omnibus injunction of November 7.

The injunction dissolved had restrained the Jersey City Police Department from “deporting’”’ or otherwise interfering with picketing at. the Uneeda Slipper Corpora- tion and the Pacific Parlor Frame Company. The Civil Liberties Union, represented by Arthur Garfield Hays as counsel, had joined striking labor unions in seeking the injunction. The Circuit Court, in reviewing the appeal by Jersey City, did not rule on the fundamental question of civil . liberties. The court held that the case had become moot, since the strikes against the two companies no longer existed. Judge John Biggs, Jr., entering a partly dissenting opinion, held that the whole case should not be dismissed because “the fundamental question of the constitutional rights of the parties remain undetermined.”’

Commenting upon the decision, Mr. Hays said:

“A court can always make a case ‘moot’ by holding up its decision long enough. This case was held for twenty-two months. In my opinion this is an outrageous denial of justice. It is exactly this kind of thing that makes people skeptical of court pro- cedure.”

Hope for the return of civil rights to Jersey City meanwhile rests on the second and broader injunction issued by Judge Clark last November in the omnibus suit brought by the C.I.0. and A.C.L.U. The questions of a stay or supersedeas, which had been granted in the first injunction, are not undér consideration. Observation of the status quo in Jersey City, ordered by Senior Judge Warren J. Davis of the Circuit Court, is being respected by both the C.1.0.-A.C.L.U. forces and Mayor Hague.

U.S. SUPREME COURT TO GET GERMAN EMBASSY PICKET CASE

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union will shortly ask the U. S. Supreme Court to review the conviction of four men for violating the law passed last February prohibiting picketing within 500 feet of embassies in Washington.

The four defendants, members of a group of forty-nine demonstrators arrested on March 15 for picketing the German Embassy, were found guilty in the police court of the District of Columbia and fined $50 each. The convictions were upheld on October 31 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Union attorneys representing the defendants held that the law abridges freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly and “fails to satisfy the requirements of due process of law embodied in the Fifth Amendment.”

PRESIDENT COMMENDED FOR EXTENDING PERMITS OF REFUGEES

President Roosevelt’s recent action in extending the visitors’ permits of aliens who would face political or religious persecution if they returned to their home countries has received the “‘very warm endorsement” of the American Civil Liberties Union.

in a letter to the President written in behalf of the Union’s Board of Directors, Dr Harry. F. Ward, A.C.L.U. chairman declared:

“In the present crisis in international affairs we know of no action better. calcu- lated to serve the American tradition of asylum than this—although we appreciate that under the law, asylum cannot be indefinitely assured. But even as a temporary measure of relief it is heartening.

And that would be all! tions to the Union. reminders until you can.

AN OLD STORY

The job we dislike most of all in this struggle for civil liberties is the begging that must be done to carry on. If we had a choice in the matter, you may be sure we’d content ourselves with a brief statement that we needed $4000 during 1939. s Yes, that would be all! It would be the end of the Union, too. Because we have found that most people must be reminded repeatedly about their annual contribuTo the 231 faithful who have thus far responded with pledges and contributions for 1939 we express our gratitude and apologize for intruding another plea for funds. We’ve got to do it, because we’re still far from raising our budget for 1939.

Still unheard from, however, are 276 members upon whom we are counting to contribute the balance of our small budget. If you are one of these, now that the holiday demands have subsided, won’t you please respond without any further ‘ Pledge cards and return envelopes again accompany the bulletin. If possible: : won’t you please pledge $15 for the year. If that is too much, send what you can. And, if you can’t afford anything, we’ll be glad to keep you on our mailing list

Requires a Happy Padma

MONTANA PROFESSOR AIDED IN FIGHT FOR REINSTATEMENT

Contendine that Professor Philip O. Keeney, ousted University of Montana librarian, could not be removed except on charges and after a hearing in accordance with tenure regulations, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a brief amicus curiae in his behalf before the Montana Supreme Court.

The Montana State Board of Education

has appealed from the mandamus granted by the District Court last March ordering Prof. Keeney’s reinstatement. Prof. Keeney has charged that he was dismissed in April, 1987, because of his efforts in organizing a local of the American Federation of Teachers.

The Union’s brief, signed by A. Mark Levien, of the New York Bar, holds that Prof. Keeney’s reappointment i in 19384 after three years of service. was a permanent appointment under the tenure regulations of the State Board of Education. ‘‘There- after, he could not be removed except on charges and after a hearing in accordance with the tenure regulations. No reappointment was necessary to entitle him to his position for the year 1937-38. The State Board of Education was duty bound to assign him to his position for that year and fix his salary. It could not breach its contract with Prof. Keeney whereby it had granted him a permanent reappointment.”’

SUPREME COURT RULES MISSOURI MUST ADMIT NEGRO TO LAW SCHOOL

An important victory for the civil rights of Negroes was scored recently with the U. 8. Supreme Court decision granting equality in educational privileges to white and Negro law students. The court ruled that the University of Missouri Law School must admit Lloyd L. Gaines, St. Louis Negro, as a student. The American Civil Liberties Union submitted a brief amicus curiae in behalf of Gaines.

In compelling Negro law students to attend schools outside the state, Missouri had violated the equal rights provision of the Constitution, declared Chief Justice Hughes in delivering the majority opinion. Under the Missouri statute, the tuition of Negro law students were to be paid at universities in adjacent states, until a law school for Negroes was developed in the state.

The decision reversed a ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court sustaining the law school and denying a writ of mandamus sought by Gaines to compel the school to admit him.

Make A Pledge For ’39

Consulate Pickets Defended By A. C. L. U.

John Newton Thurber, State Secretary of the Socialist Party, and Jack Cope, local organizer of the Socialist Workers Party, were arrested in San Francisco on November 80 when they picketed the French Consulate. Thurber and Cope carried signs pro- testing Daladier’s decree laws.

Two charges were placed against them. The first charge “failing to move on,” was dismissed in the face of motion pictures showing they had been walking along at all times. The complaint also charged a violation of an advertising ordinance, which makes it unlawful “To appear on the streets of the City and County of San Francisco carrying banners or boards, or placards with advertisements.”

At a hearing before Municip Tidge Prendergast, A.C.L.U. Attorney Wayne M. Collins contended that the latter ordinance is restricted to advertising and can have no constitutional application to banners dealing with political, economic or religious matters. : Briefs will be submitted on the point at issue. In the meantime, Thurber and Cope are each at liberty on $10 bail, while the police, acknowledging the weakness of their case, have informed the A.C.L.U. they will ask the Board of Supervisors to draft an ordinance making it illegal to picket consulates.

Incidentally, the San Francisco Chronicle carried an editorial congratulating the police on the arrests and urging jail sen— tences. The Los Angeles Times recently was held in contempt of court for commenting on a case before trial. While the A.C.L.U. has gone to the defense of the Times, we wish to point out that the Chronicle while demanding the broadest civil liberties for itself is quite ready to deny civil liberties to others. Perhaps its attitude in the present case is influenced by the fact that the Chronicle owns the deYoung Building, where the picketing occurred.

FINAL ELECTION RETURNS ON PROPOSITION NUMBER 1

The California electorate defeated Proposition No. 1 by a margin of 407,150 votes, according to the official elections returns announced by the Secretary of State. The vote stood 1,067,229 in favor, to 1,476,379 against Proposition No. 1.

The sponsors of the measure spent more than $300,000 in their unsuccessful campaign. Reports to the Secretary of State show that the California Committee for Peace in Employment Relations disbursed $174,621.42 while Southern Californians, Ins., spent $118,854.85. Other groups spent smaller amounts.

‘Page 3

OPEN FORUM

Equal Rights for Nazis

Editor: No, Sir! You are so sentimental as to stand for equal rights for Nazis! This was exactly what the democratic governments of Germany did, not realizing that these animals understood only their own: language, that of beastly brutality. If the Germans would have hung Hitler and his gang after the first putsch, they would have been saved from the present horrer. Your misguided idea of liberty—the same freedom for decent people and for gangsters! —can lead only to one thing, the fostering of an American Hitler or Stalin, who will shrine beautifully on your dish of liberty until he is strong enough to spit it in your face. Liberty, yes. Childish sentimentality in the fact of past experiences, no! Liberte, eqalite, fraternite, for decent folks, yes. Freedom for fellows who are morally below the animal, no. Why do Nazis express their contempt for democracies in each and every speech? They contempt them for not slaying their enemies, they are contempting them for their failure to have’ hung them in time.

Excuse me, please, for not signing this letter. My relatives are hostages in Hitler’s hands.

Claims S.L.P.’s Appeal for Help Unanswered by A.C.L.U.

Editor: I have received your pledge card urging my support of the A.C.L.U. In spite of the fact that I contributed last year I will not do so this year, or until your organ. ization really becomes the non-partisan group it pretends to be.

Last year the Socialist Labor Party was prohibited from holding street meetings in Janesville, Wisconsin. An appeal was made to the Governor, the Civil Liberties Com- mittee of the Senate, and the A.C.L.U. In: no case did we get any assistance. If you doubt this please call at 2091 15th Street. in San Francisco, the state address of the 8.L.P. for verification. !

'“There have been other cases where the S.L.P. has been discriminated against and appeal to the A.C.L.U has brought no help. Whenever a real non-partisan organization is formed in this country, for the preservation of civil liberties, I will be more than willing to support it—Donald S. Locke.

S.L.P. Thanks A.C.L.U. For Aid

The best answer the editor knows to Mr. Locke’s complaint is the following letter of appreciation received from Edward Ward, State Secretary of the Socialist Labor Party, dated November 18, 1938:

“Referring back to my letter to you of November 1st regarding our distribution of leaflets in Vallejo on November 3rd, I should like to state, as a conclusion to that incident, that our members Herbert Steiner and Daniel Garcelon, successfully distrib- uted from five hundred to a thousand leaflets in Vallejo on November 8rd. They used the hand-to-hand method of distribution and met with absolutely no interference on the part of the authorities.

“Thanking you for your assistance and cooperation in this and related matters, I remain, sincerely yours, Edward Ward, ‘State Secretary.

As far as the Janesville, Wisconsin, incident is concerned, our New York office ad- vises us that the appeal for aid was received four months after the incident occurred. At that time there was little or nothing that could be done. Subsequently, the 8.L.P. advised the Union that it would hold a meeting in Janesville some time in April, 1938. “We communicated with and secured the cooperation of labor unions, a judge and attorney so that the meeting could be held peacefully. I advised the S.L.P. of an at- torney if they should need one. The next and last communication I got from the S.L.P. notified me that the planned meeting was a success and that ‘the right to free speech in Janesville had been vidicated.’ ”

Archibald MacLeish Comments On Porterville Academic Freedom Case

Archibald MacLeish, Pulitzer prize poet, former editor of Fortune Magazine, and at present curator of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, has sent us the fol- lowing comment on the Porterville, California, academic freedom case:

“I am informed that Miss Grace M. Griffiths, a teacher in English at Porterville, California, is threatened with the loss of her position because students of hers made use of my book ‘Land of Free’. I am naturally very much disturbed by this informa- tion, first because the book in question is a book of mine, and second because the threatened action seems to me as extreme an example of interference with academic freedom as has ever come to my attention.

“ ‘Land of the Free’ is a book made up of photographs taken by the United States Resettlement Administration and other agencies, with a verse commentary written by myself. The pictures are pictures of actual people and scenes in the United States. The verse commentary is an attempt to put those people and those scenes into their perspective in the history of this country. The theme of the poem is Liberty. It is the suggestion of the poem that traditional American liberty was liberty based upon land; that with the settlement of the land and the exhaustion of much of its natural wealth, this liberty has been disappearing; that it may be that we have come to the point where we must invent a new conception of liberty which will rest not upon the land but upon the human spirit.

“To my mind it is unthinkable that a teacher in an American school should be threatened with the loss of her place for permitting her students to have in their possession a book of photographs of the contemporary American scene accompanied by a poem on American liberty. If the citizens of the town of Porterville, California, have reached the point where they consider that it is communistic to show the true face of this country and to plead for the renewal of liberty in this country, then they have reached a point where the word American has very little to say to them. There must, however, be some citizens left in that town who would be ashamed to brand the town with the record of such un-American and undemocratic action.”

The Principal Explains

Commenting on the above letter and statements appearing in the A.C.L.U. News, My. B. H. Grisemer, principal of the Porterville Union High School and Junior College, minimizes the book incident and stresses previous incidents as the cause of Miss Griffiths’ present difficulties. ‘““Miss Griffiths became a member of our faculty in 1928,” states Mr. Grisemer. ‘For approximately four or five years she was very well received by the community. Since then there has been an accumulation of antagonisms which has caused us to be continually alert in an attempt to calm down the incidents as they arose.

“We feel that Miss Griffiths is sincere and conscientious. However, in our opinion, she is attempting the impossible task of carrying the burdens of the world on her own shoulders. We have advised her of the increasing opposition to her efforts in our community and have suggested or advised that she should be a successful instructor in a new community and especially so if she were a college instructor.” Mr. Grisemer assures us that, ““As far as we know Miss Griffiths will not be asked for her res- ignation.”’

Pupils Transferred

On the other hand, seventeen of Miss Griffiths’ pupils were recently transferred to another teacher. According to our information, we conclude that not all of such transfers were at the request of the pupils or their parents, but rather in spite of their wishes and without consultation.

As far as the MacLeish book incident is concerned, Mr. Grisemer states as follows:

“The book ‘The Land of the Free’ was loaned by a conservative family to one of our instructors who in turn loaned it to Miss Griffiths. She in turn loaned it to a sopho- more girl who is not enrolled in any of Miss Griffiths’ classes. The girl showed the book to her mother who had previously been engaged to spéak before the local 20-30 Club on ‘Radicalism’. After the close of her speech the book was exhibited to several of the club members who apparently were aroused over the appearance of the phrase ‘G— D— S— of a B—’ which occurs in the verse commentary two or three times. There was doubt expressed as to the advisability of the book being placed in the hands of 14 and 15 year old girls. According to the reports there was a commotion among the club members but at no time did the members of our governing school board and I receive any form of a protest from any club member and at'no time have any charges been filed against Miss Griffiths. Furthermore Miss Griffiths has not been asked to resign. You will agree that neither Miss Griffiths nor our governing board nor myself, nor the community can be blamed nor held responsible for this incident. Judging from rumors it was ‘hot’ while it lasted but the amusing thing is that the commotion evaporated almost as fast as it had arisen.”

Conflicts In the Stories

The foregoing story conflicts in some details with previous accounts, but in no mate- rial way. There is evidence, for example, that the book was borrowed by Miss Griffiths from the library; that the patrioteers’ daughter then borrowed it from Miss Griffiths, undoubtedly on instructions from her mother; and that the 20-30 Club members bombarded the school with telephoned protests. In any event, the book incident was used as an excuse to bring pressure against Miss Griffiths, and it was the immediate cause of the “suggestion” that she resign.

“Incidentally,” states Mr. Grisemer, “‘we have purchased a copy of ‘The Land of the Free.’ ”’ Later information discloses that the book has been placed on reserve ‘for teachers’ use only.”

QUICK DECISION EXPECTED IN LOS ANGELES PICKET LAW TEST |

An early determination of the constitutionality of the recently enacted Los Angeles anti-picketing ordinance, similar to Proposition No. 1 defeated at the last: general election, was assured when Municipal Judge Harold B. Landreth found pickets © participating in a test case technically guilty of violating the ordinance. In rendering his decision, Judge Landreth expressed serious doubts as to the law’s validity. Attorneys for the Southern California Branch of the Civil Liberties Union and Labor’s NonPartisan League are representing the pickets.

LOS ANGELES “TIMES” CONTEMPT CASE DELAYED

California’s Supreme Court has granted fifty days for the filing of additional briefs in the appeal from the conviction of the Los Angeles Times on charges of publishing editorials allegedly in contempt of court. Departing from its usual custom of not per- mitting oral argument by friends of the court, the Supreme Court heard counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union urge a reconciliation between the “independence of the judiciary’ and ‘‘freedom of the press”’ by adoption of the “clear and present danger” rule established by the U. 8. Supreme Court.

Continuation of the review of the case will enable both the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Bar Association, which originated contempt charges against the publishing firm, to file new briefs.

American Civil Liberties Union News

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Father Jailed Because Children Won't Salute

Henry A. Palusky was arrested in Delhi, California, on November 28, and charged with failing to send his children to school. He was arraigned before a Justice of the Peace in Livingston, plead “Not Guilty” and asked for a jury trial which was set for the County Court House in Merced at 10 a. m. on December 28. He is at liberty on $200 property bond.

Mr. Palusky, age 39, who resides with his father-in-law at Box 198, Route 1, Delhi, Calif., came to California from Duluth, Minn., with his wife and two children early in November. The children, Earl, 13, and Alice, 11, were sent to a local grammar school, but they were sent home when they refused to salute the flag. .

Mr. Palusky visited the three members of the School Board and the Clerk concerning the matter. The Chairman advised him there would be no Board meeting for 21

FLASH !

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 29.—Without cause, the jury trial of Henry Palusky, which had been shifted to Livingston, was indefinitely postponed by the District Attorney of Merced County. The D. A. agreed to release Palusky’s bond, but would not enter a formal dismissal of the complaint. Since the defendant was ready to go to trial, the Justice of the Peace has, no doubt, lost jurisdiction of the case. Palusky was represented by Attorney Wayne M. Collins of San Francisco.

days. One Board member refused to discuss the matter and slammed the door in. his face.

Then Mr. Palusky visited the County Superintendent of Schools who sought to have him compromise the matter by omitting the word “flag’’ from the pledge. To this Mr. Palusky declined to agree.

Next morning the children returned to school. They saluted the flag the first day, but when their parents showed them a passage in the Bible which they claim relates to the matter, the children next day refused to salute the flag and were again sent home.

On November 21, Earl and Alice were enrolled, respectively, in the Bret Harte Junior High School and the John Swett School, Oakland, where they are residing with their uncle.

On Saturday, November 26, the children visited their parents, and attended a school play. The following Monday the truant officer asked Mr. Pulasky whether the children had been sent back to Minnesota. He told them they had not, but fearful lest there be further interference, failed to state that they were attending school in Oakland.

County Probation Officer A. L. Silman then signed a complaint charging Mr. Palusky with keeping his children from school and thereby violating the compulsory attendance law.

A.C.L.U. COMMITTEES ELECT THREE NEW MEMBERS

Three members have been added to the A.C.L.U. Executive and Advisory Committees. Kathleen D. Tolman of Berkeley and Prof. J. Robert Oppenheimer of the University of California have accepted invitations to serve on the Executive Committee, while Gladys Brown of San Francisco has been elected to the Advisory Committee.

A. CL. Urges Congress To End Dies Committee Unsavory Career

Characterizing the conduct of the Dies Committee as a “public scandal,’”’ the Amer- ican Civil Liberties Union recently called upon the incoming House of Representatives to end the Committee’s “unsavory career.”’ In a letter to Rep. William B. Bankhead, Speaker of the House, signed by Arthur Garfield Hays, counsel, the Union charges that the Committee “‘has perverted its commission from Congress.”’

Contending that “rules of evidence have been wholly ignored” by Mr. Dies, and indicating the criminal record and strikebreaking activities of two agents of the Committee, Mr. Hays assails Mr. Dies for conducting ‘“‘not an investigation, but a prosecution without according the accused any safeguards whatever.”

Referring to the several attacks upon the Union by witnesses before the Committee, Mr. Hays points out that the Union’s request last August for an opportunity to answer its critics was accorded only a “perfunctory acknowledgment.”’ :

“We have been given no opportunity to reply, and we would not expect such an opportunity to be fairly accorded to any organization accused, in view of the Com- mittee’s record of prejudice and unscrupulous methods of inquiry.”

Mr. Hays’ letter to Speaker Bankhead follows:

“We desire to draw to your attention the conduct of the Committee of the House on Un-American Activities appointed by you under a resolution adopted by the last Con- gress. That Committee, under the chairmanship of the Hon. Martin Dies of Texas, has been conducting hearings of so extraordinary a character that they have aroused national condemnation. In our judgment the prestige of Congress suffers great damage from the loose and unprincipled manner in which the investigations have been pursued.

Rules of Evidence Ignored

“The accepted rules of evidence have been wholly ignored. Witnesses of no standing or reputation have been allowed to testify without examination of their credibility or cross-examined as to their motives.

Witnesses with personal grievances and grudges have aired their charges without opportunity for reply. The most fantastic statements have been placed in the record and spread over the pages of the press without any check whatever as to the alleged facts. Many of the Committee’s hearings have been held with only a minority of the Committee present. The chairman alone has presumed to endorse statements made by witnesses without the concurrence of the Committee or without the formulation of any findings or report.

“Two agents employed by the Committee to secure evidence were proved to be, one a man with a record of criminal prosecutions and associations wholly disqualifying him for such a task; and the other a former employee of a professional strikebreaking agency. We can conceive of no greater disservice to American democracy than the activities of a committee which has paraded before the country so great an array of witnesses opposed to the very democratic freedom which the Committee is presumed to preserve.

Committee’s Work Discredited

“We submit that these methods of inquiry have so discredited the Committee’s work that it is unworthy the serious attention of Congress. The Committee has conducted not an investigation but a prosecution without according accused any safeguards whatever. The chairman has constituted himself prosecutor, judge and jury. Such methods have never before, so far as we are aware, characterized an investigation by a House committee. Unless the House disavows them by rejecting the results of such proceedings and discontinuing the Committee, the prestige of Congress will be lowered throughout the country.

“Not only are the methods followed by the Committee open to unqualified condemnation, but its bias equally destroys its usefulness. Established to inquire impartially into the forces undermining American democracy, the Committee has perverted its — commission from Congress into a crusade against a wide range of progressive and lib- eral organizations on the ground that these are somehow or other connected with the international Communist movement. Only a feeble inquiry has been made into any forms of anti-democratic propaganda inspired from foreign sources or originating in the United States.

Playing Up To Popular Prejudice

“The Committee is evidently playing up to popular prejudice against Communism by loosely characterizing as Communist, movements which have no connection whatever with the Communist Party or in which a few Communists may be found. The Committee has revealed, through the comments of its chairman particularly, a reactionary bias against liberal supporters of the New Deal, the C.I.0. and’ men and women of public life sympathetic with organized labor. The pronouncements of the chairman of the Committee have made almost synonymous with Communism any form of militant labor activity on either the economic or political field, support of the Spanish government, or defense of democratic rights for unpopular minorities.

No Opportunity To Reply

“We cannot refrain in presenting this general charge against the Committee from alluding to the testimony involving the American Civil Liberties Union. When witnesses first charged the Civil Liberties Union with some vague connections with the Communist movement we at once re| quested of the chairman an opportunity to reply. To this request we received a perfunctory acknowledgment. We have been given no opportunity to reply, and we would not expect such an opportunity to be fairly accorded to any organization accused, in view of the Committee’s record of prejudice and unscrupulous methods of inquiry.

“The American Civil Liberties Union is interested in any genuine inquiry into the forces operating against American democracy, in whatever guises they appear. Such a genuine inquiry has already been undertaken by a Committee of the Senate under the chairmanship of Senator LaFollette. Yet even that inquiry has been the object of suspicion and attack by witnesses before the Committee of the House.

A Public Scandal

“We submit that the conduct of your Committee is, from the point of view of the declared purpose of the House in creating it, little short of a public scandal and that the sooner its unprincipled attacks upon progressive forces in American life are stopped the better for the country. We look to the incoming House to end its unsavory career.”

May we suggest that our members and friends, through their organizations and as individuals, send similar protests to the speaker of the House. We think that it is essential to put before Congress now the objections by representative organizations to the conduct of this Committee.

CIVIL LIBERTIES PUBLICATION

“Freedom of Inquiry and Expression.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political. Science, November, 1938. An up-to-date series of articles, edited by Prof. Edward P. Cheyney of the University of Pennsylvania. A remarkable ex position by a dozen or more authorities, effectively presented. (292 pages).

Copies may be ordered through the Civil Liberties Union for half publication rate: $1.00: per copy.