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It Is' Happening Here 000443, IT IS ' HAPPENING HERE. SOC1AUSl - lA80R FL A1tAfmc U IVERSfTV . l , BRA p'v c.nu.r.cnn..tL "The threat to democracy. ... Its greatest oonger comes through gradual invasion of constiuuionai rights with the acquiescence of an inert people; through failure to dis­ cern that constitutional government cannot survive where the rights guaranteed by the COnBtitution are not safeguarded even to those citisen« with whose political .and social views the majority may not agree." GOVERNOR HERBERT H. LEHMAN March .10, 1938 By SIMON W. GERSON I I FOREWORD In 1920 there occurred in New York State an event that shocked the people of America-the expulsion from the Legisla­ t ure of five Socialist Assemblymen solely because of Weir political affiliations. Liberty-loving Americans of all shades of opinion then united in branding that action as fundamentally hostile to our traditional concepts of representative democracy. Today a sinister movement is under way to undermine the democratic process, the right of the people to name and elect represen tatives of their own choosing. This time the witch-hunters are not waiting for an election to deny representation to a portion of the community. They propose to disfranchise voters of our State by forbidding t hem from nominating or pl.acing on the ballot minority paTties, in t he first place the Com71lJUnist PaTty. Recent European history has shown all too vividly that out­ lawing the Communist Party is the first step down the steep incline to fascism. The- remorseless pattern is the same; first, the illegalizing of the Communists; then, swiftly in turn, the labor movement, racial and religious minorities. The Dunnigan, Devaney and Coughlin bills, aimed ostensibly a t the Communist Party, would open the gates to repressive laws again st labor and all minority groups. The Communist Party m ight be the first victim but the civil liberties of all would soon follow . To prevent another 1920"':-with the far more serious conse­ quen ces for American democratic rights that such implies today­ our memories of that fateful period must be refreshed. To this end we have gone back into the files of that period and review ed the stale arguments then advanced against everything progressive, arguments that are still the common currency of the red-baiters. More important, perhaps, we have reviewed in con­ siderable detail the expressions of resentment against the arro­ gant enemies of democracy in high places. Given the facts of 1920 and shown the dangers of such a course today, labor, the farmers and all other progressive people of New York will not permit the passage of the Dunnigan, Devaney, Coughlin home-grown fascist measures. It is in that confidence that this little pamphlet, based on articles in recent issues of the Daily and Sunday Worker, is penned. S. W. GERSON New York, Feb. 1, 1941 Published by New York State Committee, Communist Party, 35 East 12th Street, New York February, 1941 ~209 IT IS HAPPENING HERE It was in the wee, small hours of -March 31, 1920. The State Assembly had been in session for more than sixteen hours. Most of the spectators had left the galleries and only a few idlers remained. Legislators dozed in their seats or fortified themselves in the spirit of the Volstead Act in th e locker rooms. One Assemblyman, still under the influence, staggered out on the floor, listened briefly to the interminable flow of oratory, and finally demanded recognition from the speaker. " Misser Speaker," he said, swaying to and fro, "I-I-I'm in favor of"~here the gentleman hesitated, unclear as to exactly what he favored-"throwin' 'em out I" The motion of the gentleman, incredibly enough, was carried. Five Socialist Assemblymen, duly elected by their New York City constituencies, were expelled from the Assembly under circumstances resembling a Southern lynch party. Its atmosphere was well described by newspapers of the period. "Never was there a better irrigated debate," said the New York Globe the next day. "It seemed at times as if every man one met had a bottle of old time whiskey on his hip and was ready to share it. The cloak room of the Assembly and most of the breaths one encountered in the lobby were redolent of the still." HUGHES' COMMENT T hat action, now deemed one of the most shameful pages in the history of the State, stunned even thoughtful con­ servat ives. Commenting on the decision the next day, for- 3 mer Governor (how Chief Justi ce) Charles Evans Hugh es said: "I regard it as a serious blow at the standards of true Americanism and nothing short of a calamity. Those who make patriotism a vehicle for intolerance are very dangerous friends of our institutions." Louis Marshall, the distinguished constitutional lawyer, wa even more vigorous : "T his is the saddest day in the history of the State of New York. If the precedent set by this action is to continue, it will wipe out every vestige of representa­ tive government in this state. The action of the As­ sembly is an action of anarchy... ." On the day after the expulsion the New York 'W orld carried an edito rial entitle d "A Legislative Lynching" and followed it the next day with another leader headed, "Nothing Short of a Calamity" in which it said : " No more lawless act was ever committed by a law­ making body than that which stains the record of the New York Assembly. "... in this case a lawfully constituted political party was brought before the bar of the Assembly and denied representation on the ground that its platform was objectionable to the majority.. ." BAITERS FORGOTTEN Like the fra me-up of Tom Mooney, the expulsio n of the Socialist legi sla tors in the post-war period has brought only shame to its instiga tors. The charitable ve il of obscur­ ity dims the mem ory of that lynching of democracy. Speaker T haddeus C. Sweet, who hoped to ride to the Governor 's chair on the crest of the red-bai ting wave; Senator El on R. Brown ; Senator Clayton R. Lu sk, chair­ man of a notorious committee bearing his na me ;- all ar e now footnotes in the mu sty acco unts of the period, their 4 moments of glory brief, their public records passed over in silence even by th eir erstwhile sup porters. But if Thaddeus Sweet and the Lu sk Committee report ha ve passed on, one to his reward and the other to the archives, th eir policies and methods are apparently green as the bay tree in the minds of the 1941 New York legi slature. Gone may be Hie old sure-fire argume nts about Socialism destroying the home and fam ily. Messrs. Louis Waldman, August Claessens, et al, then punished for beli eving in a better world, ha ve since repented of their ways and bec om e pillars of capitalist society. But to day the Communist Party has taken their place, th e Coin munists and militant labor. NEW TRIO Where once Sweet, Lusk and Br own stru tted the st age, there now appear Dunnigan, Coug hlin and De vaney, echo­ ing the cry of "nat ional def en se" as uttered daily in th e White House at Washington and th e Executive Mansion at Albany. All are proud authors of anti-Communist, an ti­ lab or measures. All three bill s ( Dun nigan's legislation is really a set of two companion pieces) are, significantly enough, sponsored by members of the Democratic minority in response to the request of Democr atic Govern or Herber t H. Lehman for "anti-sabotage" legi slation. Senate minority leader John J. Dunnigan from the Bronx, a kingpin of the county ma chine bossed directly by Demo­ cratic National Chairman Edward J. F lynn, authored two measures. The first would make ineligible for public office an y Communist or signer of a Communist petition.A school teacher wh o had signed a Communist petition could be discharged under the first Dunnigan bill. The second. hinging directly on the first, would not permit on the ball ot any party whose members are ineligible for public office. 5 The trick is apparent at a glance:' first you make Com­ munists ineligible for public office; then you pass a law saying that a party whose members are ineligible for public office has no right on the ballot. It would be comparable to passing two laws, one, that red-headed men have no right to hold public office; the second, that any party which contained red-headed men (who have already been declared ineligible for public office) could not go before the people in any election. NEW SYNDICALISM LAW Far more sweeping than the Dunnigan bill in its direct application to labor is the measure introduced by Senator Edward J. Coughlin, Brooklyn Democrat, which is iden­ tical with the- Oklahoma criminal syndicalism and 'ant i­ sabotage law. The Coughlin bill would make a ten-year offense of advo­ . eating "syndicalism" or circulating literature to that effect or "injuring property of an employer." What constitutes "syndicalism" in the minds of the powers-that-be is clearly indicated by the ten-year sen­ tences already meted out to two Oklahoma Communist leaders under the terms of the identical law now proposed by Coughlin for the Empire State. Assemblyman John A. Devaney, Bronx Democrat, is co-sponsoring with Republican Senator William I:I. Hamp­ ton of Utica a measure aimed at the Communist Party even more sweeping than the Dunnigan Bill.
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