6668 .CONGRESSIONAL _RECORD-SENATE_ MAY 1 old-age and social-insurance bill United States, Gogebic Range Post, No. 1823, Ironwood, 8187. Also, petition of the State of Connecticut, regarding Mich., petitioning the President of the United States and United States Veterans' Hospital at Newington; to the Com­ Congress to authorize and appropriate sufficient moneys to mittee on World War Veterans' Legislation. build a Veterans' Administration hospital of 500-bed capac­ 8188. By Mr. SMITH of Connecticut: Resolution of the ity in the Detroit area; to the Committee on World War General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, urging Con­ Veterans' Legislation. gress to appropriate the necessary funds for the completion 8172. Also, resolution of Joint Council of Women's Aux­ of veterans' hospital at Newington; to the Committee on iliaries, organization composed of women relatives of mem­ World War Veterans' Legislation. bers of the trade unions in St. Louis, Mo., urging support of 8189. By Mr. TREADWAY: Resolutions adopted by Celtic the Wagner-Connery labor relations bill and also the Black­ Social Club, of Holyoke, Mass., urging the issuance of a spe­ Connery 30-hour-week bill; to the Committee on Labor. cial commemorative postage stamp in honor of Commodore 8173. By Mr. MERRIT'l' of New York: Petition of the Barry and the designation of Barry Memorial Day; to the Customs Tailoring Workers' Independent Union of New Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads. York, condemning the proposed sedition laws of the Mc­ 8190. By Mr. TRUAX: Petition of the Toledo Typographi­ Cormack-Dickstein congressional committee; to the Commit­ cal Union, of Toledo, Ohio, by their secretary, Roy G. Wool­ tee on the Judiciary. ford, requesting the support of House bill 7172, known as the 8174. Also, resolution passed by the Executive Council of "Mead substitute bill", and also the support of House bill the United States Cavalry Association, protesting against 6990, which provides for a 40-hour week for all postal em­ proposed legislation for Air Corps officers, before the Mili­ ployees; to the Committee on Labor. tary Affairs Committee, as being unjust to officers of other 8191. Also, petition of the Toledo Typographical Union, of arms and services, etc.; to the Committee on Military Toledo, Ohio, by their secretary, Roy G. Woolford, requesting Affairs. the support of the Wagner labor-disputes bill; to the Com­ · .8175. Also, resolution of the members of the board of the mittee on Labor. National Federation of Textiles, Inc., respectfully requesting 8192. Also, petition of the Joint Council of Women's Aux­ that the President of the United States extend the functions iliaries of St. Louis, Mo., by their secretary, Mrs. R. E. Mc­ of the Cabinet committee appointed to study the cotton-tex­ Clanahan, requesting support of the Wagner-Connery labor­ tile industry to include a similar study of the problems exist­ relations bill and the Black-Connery 30-hour-week bill; to ing in the silk- and rayon-textile industry; to the Committee the Committee on Labor. on Agriculture. 8193. Also, petition of David H. March and numerous·other 8176. By Mr. MILLARD: Petition of Ossining Aerie, No. citizens of Beverly Hills, Calif., requesting favorable action 1545, Fraternal Order of Eagles, supporting the social-secu­ on House bill 6628, to provide employment for the blind; to rity bill (S. 1130); to the Committee on Ways and Means. the Committee on Labor. 8177. By Mr. PFEIFER: Petition of the Allied Printing 8194. Also, petition of the United Association of Journey­ Trades Council of Greater New York, concerning the Gray men Plumbers and Steam Fitters, Local No. 268, of St. bill CH. R. 7442); to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Louis, Mo., by their secretary, G. A. Richards, requesting the Commerce. passage of the Wagner-Connery labor-relations bill and the 8178. Also, petition of the New York Typographical Union, Black-Connery 30-liour-week bill, because they feel sure if No. 6, New York City, concerning Senate bill 1629, providing these bills are passed they will be a great help in securing for the regulation of transportation by motor carriers; to the employment; to the Committee on Labor. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. 8195. By the SPEAKER: Petition of the Columbia Lodge, 8179. By Mr. RABAUT: Resolution of the Gogebic Range No. 85, I. B. P. 0. E. W.; to the Committee on the Judiciary. Post, No. 1823, of the Veterans of Foreign wm·s, of Ironwood, Mich., ·signed by Joseph Ebli, commander, and Leo Vigue, adjutant, petitioning the President of the United States and SENATE the Congress of the United States to authorize and appro­ WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1935 priate sufficient money to build a Veterans' Administration hospital of 500-bed capacity in or near Detroit; to the Com­ to authorize the acquisition of land for Steiwer Trammell Va.n Nuys White military purposes in Bexar County, Tex., for use as an addi­ Mr. LEWIS. I announce that the Senator from Connecti­ tion to Kelly Field Military Reservation, and to settle certain cut [Mr. MALONEY] is absent because of illness, and that claims in connection therewith; to the Committee on Military the Senator from Georgia [Mr. GEORGE] and the Senator Affairs from North Carolina [Mr. REYNOLDS] are unavoidably de­ By Mr. THOMAS of Oklahoma: tained from the Senate. I ask that this announcement A bill (S. 2728) authorizing an appropriation for payment stand for the day. to the Sac and Fox Tribe of Indians in the State of Okla­ Mr. AUSTIN. I announce that the Senator from South homa; to the Committee on Indian Affairs. Dakota [Mr. NORBECK] is necessarily absent and that the By Mr. HATCH: Senator from Rhode Island [Mr. METCALF] is absent in con­ A bill Charles Edward Russell. assure the most effective constitutional safeguards for the With various members of this board of directors I have bill which was originally introduced. conferred from time to time on the proposed legislation. I trust that this statement in a broad way will bring to I have also discussed it with numerous journalists and au­ the attention of the Senator from Alabama and to his col­ thors, such as the justly noted farmer editor and owner of league from the same State desired information with ref er­ the New York Nation, Oswald Garrison Villard. ence to the bill. If the Senator from Alabama desires me to particularize Mr. BLACK. Mr. President, will ,my colleague yield further, I shall be glad to do so. further? Mr. BLACK. Mr. President, will my colleague yield? Mr. BANKHEAD. I yield. Mr. BANKHEAD. Yes. Mr. BLACK. I note the statement "conference with va­ Mr. BLACK. Then I understand from the statement of rious groups of citizens." I believe the Senate would be the Senator from Colorado that he did confer on the orig­ interested in having information, and I am sure the Senator inal draft of this bill, before it was drafted, with Mr. Walter from Colorado would not object to giving information, as to White, and that he did aid in drafting the measure. whether conferences with those groups were with employees Mr. COSTIGAN. My recollection is that Mr. White did of those groups who depend for their salary or their wages not personally assist in drafting the measure. From time upon collections made from various groups of citizens. I am to time, however, after I became interested in this type of particularly interested to know whether or no~ a man by the legislation, I referred to him legal and constitutional ques­ name of White, whose first name I do not know, is associated tions which appeared to me to call for discussion, and asked with any group of citizens and conferred in connection with him to confer with members of the association which he this bill and aided in drafting it. represents with a view to advice as to the best methods of Mr. COSTIGAN. Mr. President, answering the last ques­ fortifying further the legal and constitutional features of tion of the senior Senator from Alabama, I wish to say tha-t the measure. I have conferred on numerous occasions with Mr. Walter Mr. BLACK. Did he have anything to do with this White, the unusually capable secretary of the National As­ change in the bill from the bill which was reported last sociation for the Advancement of Colored People. The year? organization for which Mr. White acts as secretary has an Mr. COSTIGAN. So far as I recall, he did not. office at No. 69 Fifth Avenue, New York City. Its present Mr. BLACK. May I ask if Mr. Charles H. Tuttle aided in president, according to my information, is a prominent New drawing the bill? York lawyer, Mr. J. E. Spingarn, of the New York Bar. Mr. COSTIGAN. I have never conferred with Mr. Tuttle The treasurer is Mary White Ovington. Mr. Roy Wilkins in person. It might assist me if the Senator will be good is assistant secretary. enough to read into the RECORD, or give to the Senate, the The board of directors of this association includes many particular language about which he is now expressing prominent Americans. One of them is a distinguished concern. Member of the United States Senate, Hon. ARTHUR CAPPER, Mr. BLACK. It is the part of the first paragraph to the senior Senator from Kansas. Other members of the which I referred in my remarks. There is a very great board are the fallowing: change. May I ask if the Senator knows whether or not Mr. Carl Murphy, of Baltimore; Mr. Joseph Prince Loud, Mr. Tuttle is connected with any law firm in New York of Boston; Prof. Manley O. Hudson, the eminent author­ which represents any of the Morgan interests, any of the ity on international law, a member of the Harvard law interests of the National City Bank, or the Chase National faculty, residing at Cambridge, Mass.; Mr. T. G. Nutter, of Bank, through associates, affiliates, or subsidiaries? Charleston, W. Va.; Miss Jane Addams, the noted well-loved Mr. COSTIGAN. Mr. President, I have no knowledge on humanitarian who is being honored in the city of Washing­ that subject; but in making that answer, I do not wish to ton this week for disinterested services which have brought be understood as ·suggesting that such information is not her national and international fame; Mr. Clarence Darrow, easily available. I assume it would be available through the widely known attorney, who, as is true of Miss Addams, Who's Who, and certainly upon inquiry addressed to Mr. is a resident of Chicago; Hon. Harry E. Davis, of Cleveland; Tuttle. Hon. Ira W. Jayne, of Detroit; Hon. Frank Murphy, Gov­ Mr. BLACK. I may state to the Senator that I have ernor General of the Philippine Islands, former mayor of Who's Who, and I could not find Mr. Tuttle in it. Detroit; the famous American writer, my long-time friend, Mr. COSTIGAN. Then, of course, there are other William Allen White of Emporia, Kans. methods. I am sure Mr. Tuttle, if he is connected with any The following board members are residents of New York of the business firms to which the able Senator from Ala­ City: bama refers, would be glad himself to provide the informa­ Lillian A. Alexander; Rev. Hutchens C. Bishop; Marion tion. Cuthbert; Hubert T. Delany; Rachel Davis Du Bois; Lewis Mr. BLACK. I have Martindale's Law Directory, which S. Gannett; Rev. John Haynes Holmes, one of the outstand­ gives the name of his firm; but may I ask if the Senator ing pulpit orators and divines of this generation; Rev. Wil­ knows whether or not he did have anything to do with, and liam Lloyd Imes; James Weldon Johnson; Hon. Herbert H. was paid anything by the association for, writing the brief Lehman, the present able Democratic Governor of the State or for aiding in any changes in the bill? of New York; James Marshall; Lucy R. Mason; Mary White Mr. COSTIGAN. The Senator refers to Mr. Tuttle? Ovington; Rev. A. Clayton Powell; Arthur B. Spingarn; J.E. Mr. BLACK. I refer now to Mr. Tuttle. Spingarn, president of the association as already stated; Mr. COSTIGAN. I have no information on that subject. Charles H. Studin; Hon. Charles E. Toney; William English As I have stated to the Senator from Alabama, I have never Walling, author; Frances Williams; and Dr. Louis T. Wright. conferred with Mr. Tuttle, and the introduction of his brief .6672 .CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE MAY 1 at the hearing of. the committee and in the report of the such, for example, as the directors of this association, speak­ committee was independently brought about so far as I am ing officially for such a group. . concerned. It was, of course, in harmony with several briefs - The original basis of this proposed legislation was, of which at prior public hearings were incorporated in the course, found in earlier legislative attempts to deal with record, in support of the constitutionality of the proposed what we consider a national evil. From time to time it has legislation. My information about Mr. Tuttle has come been necessary to examine certain legal doubts which are through biographical articles referring to him, and I have unavoidable, I think, for any careful lawyer or legislator in been inf armed that he is an exceptionally prominent mem- drafting any equally important legislation. As these doubts ber of the New York bar. . . developed I, myself, made amendments, and I conferred Mr. BLACK. Is he the same man who ran for Governor with such trained lawyers as the legislative draftsmen, who ·on the Republican ticket and was defeated? are frequently here in the Senate conferring with Senators. Mr. COSTIGAN. That fact, if a fact, is unknown to me. Also, because of the special concern of members of their I have, I believe, heard it stated that he was at one time a race over this sort of legislation, I took occasion to confer district attorney in the State of New York. with Judge Cobb, who has devoted much time and thought Mr. BLACK. The Senator asked as to the differences to American constitutional principles and precedents as they between this bill and the other, which I think is a very apply to this sort of enactment, and with Dean Houston, pertinent question. I have before me now Senate bill 1978, who is at the head of the Howard University Law School in which was reported January 4, 1934. Paragraph 1 of that this city. bill is composed of eight lines. Paragraph 1 of Senate bill I should say that the persons whom I have just named 24 of this session is composed of 12 lines. are those who have most actively conferred with me about Mr. COSTIGAN. I may say to the able Senator that of the particular language in the present draft. course I am familiar with the differences in the two meas­ Mr. BLACK. May I ask the Senator whether he recalls ures. now who is responsible for or who suggested or brought Mr. BLACK. I thought the Senator desired me to place about the change between paragraph 1 in last year's bill and in the RECORD a statement of the differences. paragraph 1 in this year's bill? Mr. COSTIGAN. What I requested was specific reference Mr. COSTIGAN. At this moment I am unable to answer to the newly inserted language with which the learned Sena­ specifically, but in going over the bill from time to time dif­ tor from Alabama is most concerned. ferent questions have been raised, and the Senator from New Mr. BLACK. The chief part of it is in paragraph 1. In York [Mr. WAGNER] and I have referred them to invite ex­ the bill as originally reported last year it provided that a pressions of views to the persons named, with a view to mob should mean- getting their best judgment on them. An assemblage composed of three or more persons acting in Since this debate began, as an illustration, one question concert, without authority of law, to kill or injure any person discussed has been what, if any, definition is to be given to in the custody of any peace officer, with the purpose or conse­ lynching. That question had earlier consideration by the quence of depriving such person of due process of law or the equal protection of the laws. Senator from New York and myself. I have recently again examined the question whether there is any necessity for the The present bill is written in such a way, in my judgment, incorporation of a special definition of lynching in this par­ as completely to change the effect of that measure. ticular measure. Questions of that sort are necessarily from It is my judgment that the first bill, as written, was time to time raised and discussed among those who are limited, as appeared therein, to what might generally be interested in this type of legislation. known as a "lynching." This bill, however, goes further Mr. BLACK. I have noted that Mr. Tuttle filed a brief on and says- the old bill, and filed a brief on this bill. I am really inter­ Without authority of law, for the purpose of killing or injuring ested in obtaining information as to the evolution of sec­ any person in the custody of any peace officer or suspected of, charged with, or convicted of the commission of any crime, with tion 1, because I think a vital change has been made, though the purpose or consequence of preventing the apprehension and/ or I may be wrong. I wonder whether there is any way by which ti'ial and/ or punishment by law of such person- we could ascertain who drafted the change in paragraph 1. Now note­ Mr. COSTIGAN. My best . judgment on that subject would be that this relates to one of the questions which was or otherwise. raised in the minds of some of us, and which was answered Which, as I see it, is wholly disconnected from the appre­ by this· particular language, that I made some draft upon hension of the criminal. the subject, and that others made drafts, and that I took Mr. COSTIGAN. None the less, it is a very familiar ex­ these various drafts, and they were finally merged. pression in statutory language. Mr. BLACK. Does the Senator remember who else made Mr. BLACK. Certainly- a draft of that? Or otherwise of depriving such person of due process of law or Mr. COSTIGAN. I do not, but I do know that from time the equal protect ion of t he laws. to time I have conferred, directly or indirectly, with Mr. . I found in the brief of Mr. Tuttle that he carefully dis­ Spingarn, who was a witness at one of the hearings here, tinguished between these two features. As I tried to pre­ and with whom some weeks ago I discussed the general sub­ sent the matter a few days ·ago, it is my judgment that that ject in New York City. particular clause completely removes the scope and effect of Mr. BLACK. I understand that from time to time the 'this bill from injuries or assaults on individuals who have matter was referred to the secretary of the association, and committed a crime or who are thought to have committed a he would come back with suggestions. crime, and brings within its protection corporations, which Mr. COSTIGAN. He was aware of this general situation; are not individuals, for injuries to their property; and not also, as a matter of fact, from time to time letters have only corporations for injuries to their property, but persons been received from people particularly interested in civil lib­ who are deprived of due process of law, even though they are erties and constitutional questions offering suggestions. not accused of any crime, and have never been charged For example, the other day one suggestion which reached with any crime. me was that the title of the bill should be amended. It is It is my judgment that that change, in connection with my judgment, after close scrutiny of our Federal practice, other changes in the bill, wrought an entirely different bill, that the objection rose from a consideration of State con­ and that is the reason why I was making the inquiry as to stitutional provisions, which sometimes limit the body of a Mr. Tuttle, whom I do not know. bill to the title, a rule which does not control in our Federal Mr. COSTIGAN. Perhaps I should add, Mr. President, practice. with the courteous consent of the Senator from Alabama Mr. BLACK. The Senator recognizes, then-and that is [Mr. -BANKHEAD], that at no time have I met with any one of the points I debated a few days ago-that if our selected group of representatives of any particular interest, Constitution provided that we must give notice of all of the 1935 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE 6673 contents of a bill it wotlld be absolutely essential to change tained doubts in regard to many congressional enactments. the title of this bill? I understand that on one occasion a prominent member of Mr. COSTIGAN. For State legislative purposes, but not · the bar submitted to the Senator from Idaho an elaborate for Federal. brief in which he dealt with his views of the constitutional Mr. BLACK. The only reason why it would be necessary questions here involved. is, as I understand it, that State constitutions in the main Also, in the course of my investigation of this subject I, of provide that accurate notice must be given in the title of course, carefully examined a report of a former Judiciary all the subjects covered, and the title of this bill does not Committee of the Senate, filed in the Senate on the so-called do that. " Dyer bill " by Senator Shortridge, of California, who is no Mr. COSTIGAN. State constitutions frequently provide longer a Member of this body. In that report, as in many that a particular bill shall embrace only one subject, which briefs submitted on this question, strong arguments in behalf shall be clearly expressed in the title, and I assume the able of the constitutionality of this type of legislation were care­ Senator from Alabama, who is a skilled member of the bar, fully presented. is referring to that type of provision in State constitutions. Mr. BORAH. Mr. President-- My understanding is that that rule does not hold with The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator from respect to Federal legislation. Alabama yield to the Senator from Idaho? Mr. BLACK. I thank the Senator very much._ Mr. BANKHEAD. I yield. Mr. CONNALLY. Mr. President, will the junior Senator Mr. BORAH. Mr. President, the question has been raised from Alabama [Mr. BANKHEAD 1 yield to me to ask a question as to what took place when the Dyer antilynching bill was of the Senator from Colorado? before the Congress. In the interest of correct statement I Mr. BANKHEAD. I yield. wish to say that when the Dyer antilynching bill passed Mr. CONNALLY. I was very much interested in the state­ the House it came over to the Senate, of course, for con­ ments of the Senator from Colorado as to the conferences he sideration. At that time farmer Senator Nelson, of Minne­ had bad with various persons with reference to the constitu­ sota, was Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary. He tionality of the bill. I am wondering whether the Senator asked me to take the chairmanship of the subcommittee ascertained, in his investigation, that in 1922 a bill practi­ which was to pass upon the question of the constitutionality cally on all fours with the bill we are discussing was before of the bill. I expressed reluctance to do so for the reason the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, and that informally that I had followed the debate in the House very closely, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary came to the conclu­ and advised him that I had reached a definite conclusion, sion, unanimously with the exception of Senator Sterling, of and that my mind was not really open upon the subject. South Dakota, who reserved the right to determine the ques­ He urged, nevertheless, that I take the chairmanship of the tion later, that the bill was unconstitutional and that the subcommittee, and I did so. Congress had no power to enact it. We spent some time in going over the question, studying it with care. Former Senator Sterling was on the subcom­ My authority for making this statement is a newspaper report in the Washington Post which I read some 2 or 3 weeks mittee with me. I have forgotten who the other member ago, an article written by Mr. Elliott Thurston, a very capable of the subcommittee was. We made a report to the full and a very reliable correspondent, the Washington Post being, committee. It was an oral report. It consisted of discussion of course, a well-known Republican newspaper. and reference to opinions and decisions. There was a full consideratiOn in the committee. The opinion of the com­ Mr. Thurston in this article made the explicit statement mittee was that the bill was unconstitutional. that in 1922, when a bill similar to this one was before the Former Senator Sterling reserved the right, however, to Senate Committee on the Judiciary, that committee came to vote for the measure if it came to the floor, contending that the informal conclusion, with the exception of the vote of he thought it ought to go to the Supreme Court for a defi­ Senator Sterling, that the bill was absolutely unconstitu­ nite decision on the specific question presented by that bill; tional and without the jurisdiction of the Congress, but that that while he himself did not contend that it was consti­ subsequently, because of some political pressure from sources tutional, he thought there was sufficient doubt in regard to very close to the parties named by the Senator from Colorado it to justify the matter going to the SU'flreme Court and as those with whom he has been conferring, the committee having the question settled once and for all. But the mat­ did make some sort of a report to the Senate on the. measure, ter was submitted to the Judiciary Committee, and the actuated purely by political pressure. Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly, and as I recall, unan­ I do not make these statements of my own knowledge; I imously, with the exception of two or three who made cer­ make them on the authority of a newspaper article signed tain reservations-that is, reserving the right to express by Mr. Elliot Thurston, of the Washington Post, of this city. themselves upon the floor-was of the opinion that the bill I wonder whether the Senator discovered that fact in his was unconstitutional. investigations of the constitutionality of the proposed meas­ The Senator from Texas [Mr. CONNALLY] has referred to ure, and I am wondering whether he conferred with any of some parliamentary maneuvers thereafter. I do not know those who were members of the Judiciary Committee of the that they are greatly important, but they would seem to Senate at the time referred to in the article, and got their have some importance due to the fact that notwithstanding counsel and their advice, rather than the advice of the the committee was practically unanimously opposed to the municipal judge in Washington here-Judge Cobb. measure on the ground of the constitutional principle, that Mr. COSTIGAN. Mr. President, if the Senator from Ala­ nevertheless it was afterward reported out. It was reported bama will permit me to answer, the facts as stated by the out. Six members of the committee changed their posi­ able Senator from Texas are not known to me. They may tions, but stated that they were changing their positions to or may not be true. I do know l\:fr. Thurston; I know that enable the matter to come to the floor for full discussion, he is a correspondent of ability and character. that they had not changed their opinion, however, as to Whether those facts be true or not, they would not affect the unconstitutionality of the measure, but in view of the my judgment with respect to the constitutionality of the situation it was thought proper to bring it to the floor for measure we are discussing, because that has been formed full consideration. That is the reason why notwithstanding upon a full and prolonged consideration, whether I am right the fact that the committee thought the bill was unconstitu­ or wrong, of the authorities and the proposed statutory lan­ tional, nevertheless, the committee reported it out. guage. We all know what happened. It was before the Senate I notice that the eminent senior Senator from Idaho [Mr. for 2 or 3 days on two or three occasions, and then the leader BORAH] is standing, and I wish to say that I am aware that of the Republicans, the majority leader, withdrew the meas­ in earlier discussions of this q.uestion the Senator from Idaho ure from further consideration. The move after the first indicated that he entertained doubts about the constitution­ vote of the committee on the constitutionality of the meas­ ality of the proposed type of legis~ation, as he ~as ent~r- ure was p~ely poiitical. 6674 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE MAY 1 I do not, of course, recall with complete accuracy as to means. To my mind, if this kind Of bill can be passed and how the vote stood in the committee. I know that it was sustained by the Supreme Court we have utterly annihilated overwhelmingly of the opinion that the measure was uncon­ all State sovereignty; we.have broken down State lines com­ stitutional. My remembrance or recollection is that there pletely. I can see no escape from that conclusion. were only two or three Members, at most, who reserved I have no desire to be drawn into a discussion of the any views to be expressed upon the floor. I, myself, had no constitutional question, but let me say to the able Senator doubt the bill was not constitutional. I never have had from Colorado, in whose great human sympathies I since. thoroughly believe, that he has an absolute precedent for I believe in the objective which these able Senators have this bill in the National Recovery Administration, which in view. I believe in what they would like to to accomplish. deals with intrastate business, and he has a complete prec­ I have a profound respect for the high motives which moved edent in the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, which them. No one can believe in lynching. It is the most deals with intrastate business. If you can go into the State cowardly and brutail crime of which human beings can be of Idaho and take charge of a local business and direct that guilty. But, as to the constitutional question, I have not business man as to how it shall be run, and take the man changed my mind in regard to it. Neither am I convinced who does not run it according to the rule passed by the Fed­ that it is a sound policy to remove responsibility from the eral Government, and put him in jail, you can go into Ala­ different local governments of the communities for the en­ bama and take the sheriff by the shirt collar and make him forcement of law. In the long run that results in breaking abide by the rules which a Federal Congress has also laid down all sense of duty upon the part of the citizen. down. If you can punish me under Federal law for not · Mr. COSTIGAN. Mr. President, will the Senator from running my grocery store according to a rule or regulation Alabama yield to me so that I may answer the Senator made by some Federal department, you can punish the offi.­ from Idaho? cers and citizens of another State for not conducting them­ Mr. BANKHEAD. I yield. selves according to some Federal law in the matter of Mr. COSTIGAN. May I ask the Senator from Idaho, protecting life. whose views on constitutional questions always command I have been opposed to those propositions consistently, closest attention and impress Members of this body, because I know they strike at the very foundation of State whether it was at about that time that he received a brief sovereignty. I believe we can only have a great Federal from Mr. Herbert K. Stockton, an attorney, of New York Union by having great individual sovereign States, and that City, in which Mr. Stockton at some length, and with the when the latter are destroyed we may have a republic in substantial citation of pertinent authorities, endeavored to name, but we will no longer have a republic in fact. persuade the able Senator from Idaho that this sort of leg­ 'I'wenty years ago I declared: islation is constitutional? The brief is dated June 5, 1922. A government from Washington by commission, reduced to its Mr. BORAH. Mr. President, I could not recall the name last analysis, is no different from a government by satrapies from of the individual to whom the Senator refers. I do know Rome. God pity this Government in the hour in which we shall look to Washington for that economy in public expenditures, that we received briefs, and I am perfectly sure that there that comprehension of the common needs, that devotion to the were no authorities cited which were not examined by the general interests, the power and the willingness to correct abuses committee. We were not so crowded for time in those days and distribute justice, all so essential to a democratic form of government, rather than to enlightened public opinion gathered as we are now, and we took ample time to study the question. up and crystallized. into law through those agencies of govern­ As I said a moment ago, I entered upon the investigation ment which reach back and down to the great body of the people­ really with the view that the measure was unconstitutional, the sole sovereignty of the Republic. but that fact rather imposed upon me the necessity of a I! there is anything now well settled, worked out through centuries of test and trial, it is that each member of the Federal closer reexamination. We had on the Committee on the Government must have complete and independent control of all Judiciary at that time such men as ex-Senator Walsh, of matters domestic and internal and which relate alone to the Montana, and I remember very distinctly the views which · individual members. he expressed in the full committee. The matter was thor­ I have already said I sympathize with that which the oughly canvassed and thoroughly discussed. Senator from Colorado would accomplish, and neither do I So far as the yer antilynching bill was concerned there regard this bill as a sectional bill. I do not think the South was practically no difference of opinion in regard to it. I ought to take it as such. We all know that the crime of cannot recall the particular name which the Senator from lynching is committed all over the country in the different Colorado mentioned. I would not want to be regarded as States. So I do not regard it as a sectional bill at all, but speaking as to all details. I do regard it as in conflict with the most fundamental Mr. COSTIGAN. Mr. President, no one in this body re­ principles upon which this Republic rests and in violation spects more consistently and highly than I do the eloquence of the spirit and purpose of our dual system of government. and authority of the Senator from Idaho, but I do venture It strikes deep and it strikes hard at the whole . theory of to· suggest that at times it has been the experience of the State sovereignty. And, after all, there is nothing in all the Senator from Idaho to find the constitutionality of meas­ realm of government more essential to the happiness and ures he has challenged before they were passed by the Con­ well-being of the American people than the right of local gress subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court of the self-government. United States. In making this remark I have particularly Mr. COSTIGAN. Mr. President, does the able Senator in mind at the instant the views expressed by him with from Idaho know and is he prepared to suggest any other great ability some years ago with respect to the so-called legislative program or procedure by which the lynching of " flexible provisions " of the tariff law of 1922. human beings by mobs can be prevented in the United I know that at different times in the past those who are States? interested in putting an end, nationally, to the disgraceful Mr. BORAH. It is my belief that this type of bill would evil of lynching have voiced the hope, which I am sure not prevent lynching. The class of crimes to which lynching millions of Americans echo now, that the Senator from belongs can only be prevented by the education of the Idaho will be among those who will consent to the submis­ people, by building up public opinion against it, and by sion for constitutional determination of this great legislative bringing the people to realize that it is to their detriment · issue to the highest court in the land. and to their everlasting shame to have such crimes com­ Mr. BORAH. Mr. President-- mitted in their respective communities. Without the moral The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator from support and the intellectual backing of the communities 'in Alabama yield to the Senator· from Idaho? which such occurrences happen, the power of the Federal Mr. BANKHEAD. I yield. Government will be perfectly futile in undertaking to eradi­ Mr. BORAH. I should be very glad to have the Supreme cate this kind of crime. Court pass upon the question if I knew of any way to do it Therefore, I do not look at this measure as constituting without stultifying my own conVictions as to what the law a remedy for lynching; I do not believe it will accomplish 1935 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE 6675 that objective; I do not think it can be accomplished in that mind that it was unconstitutional. Others of like ability way. Any scheme which removes responsibility from the had no doubt of its being unconstitutional; but when a simi­ citizen cannot be in the interest of good citizenship. lar measure reached this body again under the present ad­ Mr. President, before I sit down, let me say that the ministration there was a complete swing around in the Senate American Negro has always been noted for his fidelity to as to those who believed it constitutional and those who American institutions. It is one of the distinguishing char­ believed it to be unconstitutional. I have never changed my acteristics of the Negro. Whatever his faults may be, and 'mind for a moment that such legislation is thoroughly in all races have them, his fidelity to American institutions, violation of the most fundamental principles of our Consti­ his loyalty to his country, and his devotion to the great tion. The Supreme Court may write opinions in which they underlying principles of our Government, as he understands incorporate the views of an ex-President as to a tariff com­ them, are crowning virtues of the American Negro. We hear mission until the crack of doom, but they will never derogate little talk of communism and other " isms " f rem the lips from the fact that the fathers of this country intended that of the colored people. the power to raise and control taxes should exist in the Con­ When the Dyer antilynching bill was before the Senate, gress of the United States alone, and that the House of Rep­ owing to the tact that I was chairman of the subcommittee, resentatives alone should be the place where such bills should I received much censure from leaders of the colored race for originate. That is true now in spite of anything the Supreme my position, and, naturally, from colored people generally. Court has said or can say. It is perfectly plain that the real It finally led to my addressing a mass meeting of colored question before the Court was not decided. people in this city to explain my position upon this question, 'Mr. GLASS. Mr. President-- which I did one Sunday afternoon. The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator from I undertook to discuss it from the viewPoint of preserving Alabama yield to the Senator from Virginia? the integrity of our Government as we had built it and of Mr. BANKHEAD. I do. appealing to the colored race to respect our Government as Mr. GLASS. The Senator from Idaho awhile ago re­ it had been constructed by the Fathers. It is my belief that ferred to John Marshall. When John Marshall was Chief there were not a dozen individuals in that vast audience that Justice of the Supreme Court, Thomas Jefferson denounced afternoon who were not in full sympathy with my position the Court as the "sappers and miners of the Federal Con­ when it was explained to them. I do not think that they stitution." What does the Senator think Thomas Jefferson want to infringe upon the fundamental principles of the Con­ would say of the present Supreme Court after the decision stitution; I do not believe they entertain any desire to do in the Minnesota case, the New York Milk case, and the that; but, in my opinion, if they should succeed in passing tariff case to which the Senator has referred? Thomas Jef­ a measure of this kind they would be instrumental in deal­ ferson had the best vocabulary of any man who ever lived ing a blow at the American Government, constitutionally theretofore or since, but he could not have found in his speaking, the importance of which could hardly be over­ vocabulary terms which would have adequately character­ stated. I have no doubt the Negro feels strongly about the ized the opinions of the Supreme Court in those cases. problem with which the authors of this bill would deal, but Mr. BORAH. Mr. President, I do not think the criticism I would not be afraid to present the question of maintaining of Thomas Jefferson would be any more severe than would the integrity of our institutions to any group of Negroes, the criticism of John Marshall. North or South. Mr. GLASS. Oh, John Marshall compared with these Mr. COSTIGAN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield? people here! Mr. BORAH. I yield, if I have the floor. Mr. BORAH. Mr. President, Chief Justice Marshall said: Mr. COSTIGAN. The Senator, of course, subscribes to No political dreamer was ever wild enough to think of breaking the view, attributed to the present Chief Justice of the .down the lines which separate the States and of compounding the United States, that legislation is constitutional whenever !Unerican people into one common mass. the Supreme Court of the United States finally determines Now we have done that. We did it under the N. R. A.; we . it so to be? did it under the A. A. A.; and, as I said a few moments ago, Mr. BORAH. The Chief Justice did not quite say that, this bill is in perfect harmony with those two measures. I but if he said something like it I feel he ought to apologize. venture to believe, however, that when the sky shall have Mr. President, the Constitution of the United States is cleared, when the troublous days shall be over, and we shall what is expressed in the terms of the document itself. The come to realize the value of this Union and the institutions Court may, for reasons which affect courts the same as they under which we live, we will do as our forbears· did after the affect other individuals, come to conclusions which at a par­ Civil War-we will swing back to the great principles and ticular time seem to construe fairly the Constitution of the abide by them. I am not disturbed because of things which United States. I remember after the Civil War, when the happen in troublous times. While I do not always " go reconstruction measures were on their way to the Supreme along", I nourish the belief that in the end the sound com­ Court of the United States, m-easures which, in my opinion, mon sense, both among the masses and among the leaders, did more to engender ill will in the South than did the war will prevail. itself. Those measures were never fully passed on by the Abraham Lincoln said: Supreme Court, but some proceedings were had which have To maintain inviolate the rights of the States to order and con­ never since been approved by the Supreme Court of the trol under the Constitution their own affairs by their own judg­ United States. Courts are human, and we must expect such ment exclusively 1s essential for the preservation of the balance of things, and I have no criticism to make. I do not ask for power on which our institutions rest. anything more than a sincere devotion to the cause of There is the cornerstone of this Federal Republic. Mr. justice as the court sees it. Lincoln did not enjoy the reputation of being a great consti­ However, the Senator referred a few moments ago to the tutional lawYer, but no mortal man ever had a firmer grasp fact-and there was a very subtle criticism in his reference, of the aims and purposes and principles of the Government to which I do not object-that I opposed the delegation of for the preservation of which he yielded up his li!e. power to the President of the United States to make tariff There can be no such thing as a great Federal Union with­ treaties and to fix tariff duties. I did take that position, but out great States. There can be no such thing as a Federal the Supreme Court afterwards sustained the law. I claim Republic unless the States at home preserve their rights as no infallibility. But whatever my opinion is, I am wUling at sovereign States to the extent to which the Constitution has all times to defend it. Mr. President, when that measure defined them. came before this body, in the first instance under Mr. Hoover's If this bill does not wipe out State lines, if the A. A. A. administration, able lawyers on the other side of the Cham­ does not wipe out State lines when it deals with a farmer in ber, including the able lawyer from New York [Mr. WAGNER], my State, if the N. R. A. does not wipe out State lines when who is one of the coauthors respcnsible for this bill, in a it runs a grocery store in my State, I do not know by what most pcwerful argum~:r:it demo~trated to. a certainty to n:1Y means we could wipe out State lines. 6676 ~ONGRESSIONAL J1ECORD-SENATE MAY 1 It is not alone because I am opposed to this bill, but it is Mr. LOGAN. In view of that fact, and in view of the because I believe in the principle which it seems to me the further fact that important legislation is awaiting consid­ bill violates. This principle is so plain, so vital to our Federal eration by this body, I for one do not believe the Senate Republic, that it would be shameless moral cowardice in one ought to continue this discussion, knowing that no good who sees it, as I do, not to maintain it. can result. So far as I am concerned, I am perfectly willing Mr. COSTIGAN. Mr. President-- to lay aside the motion of the Senator from Colorado until The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator from· we dispose of important legislation, and then, if the Senator Alabama yield to the Senator from Colorado? from Colorado shall see fit to make the motion again, we Mr. BANKHEAD. I yield. will enter into an endurance test with those who are oppos­ Mr. COSTIGAN. Without, of course, reflecting in any ing the motion and see who can last the longest during the way upon the ability or judgment of the Senator from Idaho hot days of July and August. or upon the sincerity which has so evidently moved him in Mr. WAGNER. Mr. President, will the Senator from Ala­ what he has said, I believe this is a suitable moment in bama yield? which to read to the Senate a statement attributed to Mr. The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator from Chief Justice White, himself a jurist of southern birth, who Alabama yield to the Senator from New York? is well remembered by many Members of this body as the Mr. BANKHEAD. I yield. Presiding Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. WAGNER. Unfortunately, I was temporarily absent Speaking to the American Bar Association in 1914, Mr. from the Senate and did not listen to the discussion which Justice White used these words, which are distinctly appli­ has taken place. I arrived today just in time to hear the cable to the present issue: end of a constitutional argument made by the Senator from There is great danger, it seems to me, to arise from the con­ Idaho [Mr. BORAH]. stant habit which prevails where anything is opposed or objected The Senator from Idaho referred to an argument which to, or resorting without rhyme or reason to the Constitut~on as a means of preventing its accomplishment, thus creating the gen­ I made on the floor of the Senate holding that an act which eral impression that the Constitution is but a barrier to progress delegated certain powers to the President with reference to instead of being the broad highway through which alone true the raising or lowering of tariff duties was unconstitutional. progress may be enjoyed. As I gathered, the Senator's theory was that the question Mr. BYRNES. Mr. President, will the Senator yield? involved here is a constitutional question similar to that The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator from involved in the tariff act. Alabama yield to the Senator from South Carolina? Mr. BORAH. Oh, no. Mr. BANKHEAD. I yield. Mr. WAGNER. That act involved a question of the dele­ Mr. BYRNES. I only desire to say with reference to the gation of power to an executive officer. The question was statement of the Senator from Idaho as to the attitude of as to whether the legislation provided for such standards the Negro race upon this legislation that in recalling the as would make the function of the executive merely admin­ history of the Dyer bill and what took place while that bill istrative. It has been the position of the court that, if we was pending, it is also interesting to note what took place are to delegate powers, at least we must fix certain stand­ after the adjournment of Congress. ards and not delegate legislative powers. Representative Dyer returned to his State, was a candi­ As I understand the bill which is under discussion, I am date for renomination, was opposed by a representative of the persuaded absolutely not only that it is constitutional but Negro race who defeated him in the primaries for the renomi­ also that there is a constitutional mandate, in view of the nation; so that the Negro race evidently was not of the history of lynching in this country over a period of years, opinion that the efforts of Representative Dyer were so vital to preserve equal protection of the law for all citizens and to their happiness, welfare, and life. prevent deprivation of life, liberty, or property without due I only hope that no such fate shall befall the two distin­ process of law, by such Federal action as has been granted guished Members of this body who are the authors of the to us by the states themselves. bill, because they are rendering splendid service here. I It is on that theory that this bill was introduced. We hope that in the coming election they may not meet such a have enacted such legislation in the past. We have en­ fate. acted legislation requiring, in the selection of jurors, that Mr. COSTIGAN. Mr. President, will the Senator from there should be no discrimination because of race, color, or Alabama pardon me further? creed.· When in the State of Virginia, a judge violated that Mr. BANKHEAD. I yield to the Senator from Colorado. law by discriminating against a certain race in denying to Mr. COSTIGAN. The generous references to the co­ it the right to sit upon a jury as the peers of their fellow sponsors of the bill are fully appreciated. In view of many citizens, that judge was fined by virtue of the Federal stat­ expressions of concern over the attitude of the electors in ute. This was on the theory that, since he was an official various States, and supplementing what was said with such of the State, the State itself was acting-for States act only eloquence yesterday by the able Senator from Nevada [Mr. through men. The imposition of that fine was sustained by McCARRANJ, I feel that I ought to say that I was advised yes­ the Supreme Court of the United States. terday, and I think authoritatively, that there are no Negro As the Senator, who is a lawyer, so well knows, the Court voters in 53 of the 63 counties of my State; that in one of has intervened, in the absence of a Federal statute, when a the most populous counties of my State and in one of the mob had so infiuenced or terrorized a State jury that it did most prosperous of northern Colorado cities in one of the not dare bring in a verdict of innocent in spite of the con­ richest agricultural regions in the country there is said to be clusiveness of the evidence. In that case the United States only one colored voter, and that neither during the progress Supreme Court found the fourteenth amendment a justifi­ of this discussion nor at any other time have I received any cation for the intervention of the Federal Government expression of his views on the pending problem. through its courts in order that the citizen of the particular Mr. LOGAN. Mr. President, will the Senator from Ala­ State might receive the equal protection of the law. And bama yield? that is the theory of this proposed legislation. The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator from I did not intend to say this much, but I should like to make Alabama yield to the Senator from Kentucky? one further statement. The Senator from South Carolina Mr. BANKHEAD. I yield. [Mr. SMITHJ seems to be very much concerned over the pos­ Mr. LOGAN. Whether the bill be constitutional or not, sibility that if I should continue the prosecution of this whether it be a good bill or not, it seems perfectly obvious to measure, which I think is proper and the result of a con­ everyone that there is not the slightest opportunity of bring­ stitutional mandate, I might imperil my reelection. I appre­ ing the motion to a vote. Is that the opinion of the Senator ciate the Senator's consideration for my future welfare, but from Alabama? that is a matter of little concern to me so long as I am satis­ Mr. BANKHEAD. There is no doubt in the world about fied that what I am doing is in accordance with the dictates it. I think every intelligent Member of the Senate knows it. of my conscience, and is in the interest of the people whom 1935 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE 6677. I, in part, represent, and of the people of the United States. adjournment. I had no objection to a full discussion of the The question of reelection should not give anyone any con­ measure. I am not going to vote against adjournment in­ cern. Certainly it does not concern me. definitely; but I had no objection whatever to the bill being Mr. BORAH. Mr. President, I may say to the Senator considered upon its merits upon the floor of the Senate. I from New York that I did not raise the question of tariff am satisfied now, however, that it does not make any dif­ treaties or the delegation to the President of power to estab­ ference whether the bill is brought up or not brought up; lish tariff duties. That matter was brought up by the able it is not going to be brought to a final vote, so we shall have Senator from Colorado [Mr. CosTIGAN], and I was replying to consider other matters. to it. Of course, I understood perfectly that that was a Mr. BANKHEAD. Mr. President-- question of delegation of power and that this is not a ques­ The PRESIDENT pro tempare. The Senator from Ala- tion of delegation of power. T_his is what I regard as a bama. question of usurpation of power, and I understand perfectly Mr. BLACK. Mr. President, will my colleague yield? the difference between the two matters. Mr. BANKHEAD. I yield. The case which the Senator cited, as to the judge being ' fined, is well taken care of by fundamental principles of Mr. BLACK. In view of the fact that so few of the old guard Republicans, who seemingly favor this bill, are in the the Constitution, which are provided for explicitly, and in my judgment it has little relevancy to the present situation. Chamber-I do not see one of them here-and since this is a most interesting discussion, and they need enlighten­ Mr. President, let me say just a word fm·ther, and then I shall conclude what I have to say. I had no intention of ment, I suggest the absence of a quorum. taking any part in this debate; but a matter was brought up The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the which involved my personal action here in the Senate, and roll. I felt constrained to refer briefly to it. The Chief Clerk called the roll, and the following Sena­ I have no doubt both the Senator from New York [Mr. tors answered to their names: WAGNER] and the Senator from Colorado [1\-ir. COSTIGAN] Adams Connally Keyes Pope Ashurst Coolldge King Radclllfe have convinced themselves that this bill iS constitutional. Austin Copeland La Follette Robinson We are all in agreement with them that it is humane and Bachman Costigan Lewis Russell humanitarian in its pm-poses. The only matter about which Balley Couzens Logan Schall Bank.head Dickinson Lonergan Schwellenbach there is any controversy is the constitutional question. The Barbour Dieterich Long Sheppard Senator from New York may be right in regard to it, and Barkley Donahey McAdoo Shlpstead Bilbo Duffy McCarran Smith the Senator from Colorado may be correct in his position; Black Fletcher McGill Steiwer but I have no doubt that the bill is unconstitutional. Bone Frazier McKellar Thomas, Okla. When it is said that the lynching of a man by 3 persons Borah Gerry McNary Thomas, Utah Brown Gibson Minton Townsend gives Federal jurisdiction, but the lynching of a man by 1 Bulkley Glass Moore Trammell person does not give Federal jurisdiction, the Constitution is Bulow Gore Murphy Truman being made subject to construction in accordance with the Burke Guffey Murray Tydings Byrd Hale Neely Vandenberg number of persons present when the crime takes place. It Byrnes Harrison Norris Van Nuys seems to me that if we can do what it is proposed we shall Capper Hastings Nye Wagner Caraway Hatch O'Mahoney Walsh do here· we can and we ought to go into New York City Carey Hayden Overton Wheeler and see that the criminal laws are enforced in that great Clark Johnson Pittman White city. If the Federal Government is concerned to protect The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. McGILL in the chair). life within the State, is it not obligated to protect against Eighty-eight Senators having answered to their names, a machine guns and the attacks of the racketeer as well as the quorum is present. rope and the attacks of the mob? Where are you going to Mr. COSTIGAN. Mi. President, will the Senator from Ala­ stop, and why, once started, should you stop at all? bama yield to me? Mr. WAGNER. Possibly, Mr. President. If the Senator Mr. BANKHEAD. I yield. from Alabama will yield, I may say that this bill, if enacted, will apply to New York City as it will to every other city Mr. COSTIGAN. Supplementing what has been said this and State in the Union. The sectional question was not morning, I. count this an appropriate time to ask to have raised by me, and I was hoping that it would not be in­ placed in the RECORD, or to have read, if that course be jected into this discussion at all. This measure should be preferred, a list of the names of special endorsers of the viewed from the national standpoint and as a national proposed legislation, together with a statement of the esti­ obligation. mated number of members of endorsing organizations. Ref­ This, however, is what I was about to suggest: As to erences have been made at different times to the large details, it may very well be, since none of us are perfect, number of endorsements by American citizens, both men and women. that this measure is not so well drafted as it should be, is -- - not so comprehensive as it should be, or perhaps is not Mr. CONNALLY. Mr._President, does the Senator want so limited as it should be. That is the reason why some the .names read? of us are anxious to have the bill taken up for considera­ Mr. COSTIGAN. No; I was merely asking that they be tion by the Senate, so that amendments may be proposed. incorporated in the RECORD, though I shall be glad to read That has not been done, thus far, because of · the refusal them, if that course be desired. of some of my colleagues to permit the motion of the Sen­ Mr. CONNALLY. I should like to have them read, and ator from Colorado to come to a vote. I am perfectly willing to have the clerk read them if the Personally, I never have indulged in a :filibuster. I hope Senator desires. I should like to have read by the clerk I never shall do so as long as Ia.ma Member of the Senate, also, and I ask unanimous consent that I may have read by because I am always willing to abide by what a majority of the clerk a statement made in the House of Representatives the Senators say should be done as to any particular pro­ some years ago by Representative Hersey, of Maine, with posal which is before us fer consideration. I hope, there­ reference to a bill then pending on the same subject. fore, that the bill will be considered; and if, ultimately, the The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. HATCH in the chair). Senators should feel that the proposed legislation either Is there objection to the request of the Senator from Colo­ was not justified or was so clearly unconstitutional that they rado [Mr. COSTIGAN]? The. Chair hears none. could not support it, they could so decide. Then we shall The Senator from Texas [Mr. CoNNALL Y] has also sub· have discharged our obligation; but it seems to me that the mitted a request. Is there objection? The Chair hears bill ought to be brought up for the consideration of this none. body, like other legislation. I do not know why we should Mr. CONNALLY. Mr. President, I will not have the make an exception of this particular proposal. statement read at this time unless the Senator from Ala­ Mr. BORAH. Mr. President, so far as bringing up the bama agrees that it may be done. bill for consideration is concerned, I voted recently against Mr. BANKHEAD. I have no objection. .667~ .CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE MAY 1 Mr. COSTIGAN. By way. of introductio;o to what· the Father Frederick, 0. S. B., St. Emma Industrial and Agricul- tural Institute, Rock Castle, Va. clerk will now read, permi~ me to say that the names to be James E. Freeman, Episcopal bishop of Washington, D. O. first read are those of endorsers of the prQposed .legislation, William Hiram Foulkes; Old First Church, Newark, N. J. who also joined in a request that the proposed legisfation be Francis J. Furey, secretary to His Eminence, D. Cardinal Dough- erty, archbishop of Philadelphia. made part of the " must " program of the administration. James J. Gerrard, Fall River, Mass. The clerk, following that list of names, is requested next to Charles C. Gilbert, Episcopal bishop, Diocese of New York, New read the names of the organizations, . together with esti­ York City. mated membership, endorsing the proposed legislation. Joshua L. Goldberg, national secretary American Jewish Con­ gress, New York, N. Y. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Wi~hout . objection, the. clerk John Haynes Holmes, Community Church, New York City. will read. Ivan Lee Holt, St. John's Methodist Episcopal Church, St. The Chief Clerk read as follows: Louis, Mo. , Thomas Jenkins, Episcopal bishop o! Nevada, Reno, Nev. [Hearing before the subcommittee of the Committee on the Judi­ Robert Carter Jett, Episcopal bishop o! Southwestern Virginia. ciary, United States Senate, Feb. 14, 1935, p. 33) Joseph J. Kelly, St. Joseph's Church, Alexandria, Va. THE SIGNERS Hugh L. Lamb, chancellor o! the Archdiocese of Philadelphia., , GOVERNORS OF STATES AND FORMER GOVERNORS Philadelphia, Pa. Hon. C. Douglass Buck, Delaware. Moris S. Lazaron, rabbi, Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, Balti­ Hon. Alf M. Langdon, Kansas. more, Md. Hon. William A. Comstock, Michigan. David Lefkowitz, rabbi, Temple Ema.nu-El, Dallas, Tex. Hon. Frank D. Fitzgerald, Michigan. Adnah Wright Leonard, resident bishop; Pittsburgh area, Meth­ Hon. A. Harry Moore, New Jersey. odist Episcopal Church. Hon. Harold G. Hoffman, New Jersey. J. J. Mccort, bishop, Altoona, Pa. F. A. McElwain, Episcopal bishop of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Hon. Herbert H. Lehman, New York. Minn. · · · ,. Hon. Tom Moodie, North Dakota. Hon. Gifford Pinchot, Pennsylvania. Ralph W. McKenzie, district superintendent, BlairsvUle DistriHarry Emerson Fosdick, Riverside Church, New York City. Albert E. Barnett, professor Scarritt College, Nashville, Tenn. 1935 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE 6679 Robbins W. Barstow, president Hartford Seminary Foundation, James Marshall, New York City. Hartford, Conn. L. Ho_llingsworth Wood, New York City. Murray Bartlett, president Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y. EDITORS AND WRITERS Edwin M. Borch~d. professor Yale University, New Haven, Conn. Arla Ayres Brown, president Drew University, Madison, N. J. Louis Adamic, New York City. 0. W. Carrell, president Nebraska Central College, Central City, Gertrude Atherton, San Francisco, Calif. A. T. Atwater, editor the Rome Enterprise, Rome, Ga. Nebr. Faith Baldwin, New York City. - Paul Cloke, dean University of Maine, Orono, Maine. Mary R. Beard, New Milford, Conn. Robert C. Clothier, president Rutgers University, New Bruns­ Robert Benchley, New York City. - wick, N. J. Eugene A. Colligan, president Hunter College, New York City. Stephen-Vincent Benet, New York City. Ada Louis Comstock, president Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Bruce Bliven, editor New Republic. New York City. Herschel Brickell, New York City. Mass. - Spencer Brodney, editor Current History, New York City. C. E. Crossland, alumni secretary, University of Maine, Orono, Van Wyck Brooks, Westport, Conn. Maine. Dan B. Brummitt, editor the Christian Advocate, Kansas City, John W. Davis, president West Virginia State College, Institute, Mo. W. Va. A. E. Deering, dean University of Maine, Orono, Maine. Struthers Burt, Southern Pines, N. C. Hoyt M. Dobbs, Centenary College of Louisiana, Shreveport, La. Erskine Caldwell, Mount Vernon, Maine. Paul H. Douglas, professor University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. Henry S. Canby, New York City. Ralph Earle, president Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Wor- Marc Connelly, New York City. cester, Mass. Countee Cullen, New York City. Mother Mary Evarista, president Notre Dame College, Cleveland, Babette Deutsch, New York City. Ohio. Alfred Dashiell, managing editor Scribner's Magazine, .New York Charles A. Ellwood, professor Duke University, Durham, N. C. City. Frederick C .. Ferry, president Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y. W. H. Davenport, editor Star of Zion, Charlotte, N. C. Charles W. Flint, chancellor Syracuse University, Syracuse, N. Y. James H. Dlllard, Charlottesville, Va. Sheldon Glueck, professor Harvard University Law School, Cam- Edward Donahoe, Ponca City, Okla. bridge, Mass. Theodore Dreiser, New York City. _ Joseph M. M. Gray, chancellor American University, Washington, Abraham Epstein, New York City. D. C. Edward A. Evans, editor Columbus Citizen, Columbus, Ohio. John A. W. Haas, president Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa. Edna Ferber, New York City. Arthur A. Hauck, president University of Maine, Orono, Maine. Arthur Davison Ficke, Hillsdale, N. Y. Arthur Howe, president Hampton Institute, Hampton, Va. Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Arlington, Vt. Hatcher Hughes, president Columbia University, New York. E. Franklin Frazier, Washington, D. C. Howard Jensen, professor Duke University, Durham, N. C. Lewis S. Gannett, New York City. ' Thomas Elsa Jones, president Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn. C. Hartley Grattan, New York City. P. R. Kolbe, president Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, Pa. Harold K. Guinzburg, New. York City. Robert Morse Lovett, professor University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. Louis M. Hacker, New York -City. G. S. Luter, dean University of Maine, Orono, Maine. Harry Hansen, New York -City. . H. M. McCracken, president Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Jessie Fauset Harris, New York City. W. J. McConnell, president North Texas Teachers' College, Denton, · Robert Herrick, Winter Park, Fla. Tex. Sheila Hibben, New York City. H. W. McPherson, president Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloom- Quincy Howe, editor the Living Age, New York City. ington, Ill. B. W. Huebsch, New York City. Rupert Hughes, Los Angeles, Calif. Daniel L. Mash, president Boston University, Boston, Mass. Inez Haynes Irwin, New York City. Broadus Mitchell, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. Georgia Douglas Johnson, Washington, D. C. Henry T. Moore, president Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, James Weldon Johnson, New York City. N. Y. Freda Kirchwey, New York City. James Muilenburg, dean University of Maine, Orono, Maine. Alfred A. Knopf, New York City. Philip C. Nash, president University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio. Joseph Wood Krutch, New York City. William A. Neilson, president Smith College, Northampton, Mass. Suzanne La Follette, New York City. W. Stuart Nelson, Shaw University, Raleigh, N. C. William Ellery Leonard, Madison, Wis. John S. Nollen, president Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa. Sinclair Lewis, New York City. Arthur W. Palmer, president Chicago Theological Seminary, Chi- Alain Locke, Washington, D. C. cago, Ill. Leonore Marshall, New York City. Ellen F. Pendleton, president Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass. Annie Nathan Meyer, New York City. Roscoe Pound, dean Harvard University Law School, Cambridge, George Milburn, Wilton, Conn. Mass. Edna St. Vincent Millay, Austerlitz, N. Y. Rush Rhees, president University of Rochester, Rochester, N. Y. Ruth Comfort Mitchell, Los Gatos, Calif. Frederick B. Robinson, president College of the City of New York. Clifford Morehouse, editor the Living Church, Milwaukee, Wis. Edward A. Ross, professor University of W!sconsin, Madison, Wis. Lewis Mumford, New York City. G. H. Schlauck, president Spokane Valley Junior College, Spokane, George Jean Nathan, New York City. wash. Robert Nathan, New York City. Vida D. Scudder, professor emeritus Wellesley College, Wellesley, W.W. Norton, New York City. Mass. Mary White Ovington, New York City. Guy R. Snavely, president Birmingham-Southern College, Bir­ William Pickens, New York City. mingham, Ala. Ruth Pickering, New York City. Edmund D. Soper, president Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, A. S. Platt, Redburn, N. J. Ohio. Lorine Pruette, New York City. Edward V. Stanford, president Villanova College, Villanova, Pa. Elmer Rice, New York City. John J. Sullivan, professor of law, University of Pennsylvania. Lola Ridge, New York City. Charles F. Thwing, president Western Reserve University, Cleve- Edwin Arlington Robinson, New York City. land, Ohio. Geroid Tanquary Robinson, New York City. John J. Tigert, president University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla. John William Rogers, Dallas, Tex. Edward H. Todd, president College of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Charles Edward Russell, Washington, D. C. Wash. The Saturday Review of Literature, New York City. H. Orton Wiley, president Pasadena College, Pasadena, Calif. George S. Schuyler, New York City. Walter Willia.ms, president University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. Evelyn Scott, Saratoga Springs, N. Y. Charles F. Wishart, president The College of Wooster, Wooster, Upton Sinclair, Los Angeles, Calif. Ohio. George Soule, editor the New Republic, New York City. Mary E. Woolley, president Mount Holyoke College, South Had­ Benjamin Stolberg, New York City. ley, Mass. Phil Stong, New York City. Ruth Suckow, New York City. James F. Zimmerman, president University of New Mexico, Dorothy Van Doren, New York City. Albuquerque, N. Mex. Carl Van Doren, New York City. LAWYERS Mark Van Doren, New York City. Zachariah Chafee, Jr., Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass. Carl Van Vechten, New York City. Hubert T. Delaney, New York City. Oswald Garrison Villard, the Nation, New York City. Harry E. Davis, Cleveland, Ohio. Edward Wasserman, New York City. Jesse S. Hesslip, Toledo, Ohio. Walter White, New York City. Morris L. Ernst, New York City. Roy Wilkins, New York City. Arthur Garfield Hays, New York City. James Waterman, editor Opinion, New York City. Charles H. Houston, Howard Law School, Washington, D. C. Helen Woodward, New York City. Arthur B. Spingarn, New York City. W. E. Woodward, president Writers' League Against Lynching, Herbert K. !3tockton, New York City. New York City. LXXIX--421 6680 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE MAY~ GE?-.TEP.AL ORGANIZATIONS ENDORSING ANTIL YNCHING BILit-Continued Jane Addams, Hull House, Chicago, Ill. Nashville (Tenn.) Pastors' Association______48, 000 Jacob Billikopf, Philadelphia Regional Labor Board. Annual Ohio Pastors' Convention______2, 000 Helen R. Bryan. secretary Committee on Race Relations, Society New Orleans Ministers' Union ______------of Friends, Philadelphia, Pa. Chica.go Congregational Ministers' Union ( communi- Bernard S. Deu.tsch, president board of aldermen, New York City. cants)------35,00() Ethel E. Dreier, Brooklyn, N. Y. · Union Ministers' Meeting of Chicago (communicants)_ 300,00(} Hannah Clothier Hull, national president Women's International Jacksonv1lle (Fla.) Ministerial Alliance ______------League for Peace and Freedom. North Philadelphia (Pa.) Civic Club ______------Alfred Baker Lewis, secretary New England District Socialist People's Employment League of Maryland ______------Party, Boston, Mass. Springfield (Ohio) Colored Men's Council ______------Lucy Randolph Mason, secretary National Consumers' League, Atlanta (Ga.) Chautauqua Circle ______------New York City. Winter Capital Lodge of Elks, New Orleans, La ______10,00() Louis Drexel Morrell, Philadelphia. City-Wide Forum, Baltimore, Md ______2, 50() Mary M. Simkhovitch, Greenwich House, New York City. El Paso (Tex.) Woman's City Government Club ______------J. E. Spingarn, president National Association for the Advance­ Federation of Women's Clubs of Greater Cleveland ___ _ 25,000 ment of Colored People, New York City. Kappa Alpha PsL_ ------7,00() Elizabeth Cecil Scott, member national board and chairman Scarritt College for Christian Workers ______------Richmond (Va.) Young Women's Christian Association. Christian Youth Council______10, 000, 00() Mary Van Kleeck, Russell Sage Foundation, New York City. Nashville (Tenn.) Committee on Interracial Coopera- Lillian D. Wald, Henry Street Settlement, New Yor!: City. tion ______------ORGANIZATIONS WHICH BY RESOLUTION HAVE ENDORSED AND WHICH ARE Camden (N. J.) Brotherhood Day Committee ______------ACTIVELY WORKING IN SUPPORT OF THE COSTIG.AN-WAGNER ANTI­ St. Mark's Civic Forum for Adult Education, Kingston, LYNCHING BILL N. Y------California State Legislature------­ Liberian Research Society, Los Angeles, Calif ______------Colorado State Legislature ------­ Twenty-second District Republican Club of New York_ 700 :Kansas State Legislature______------Minnesota State Legislature______------Total------53,720,593 New Jersey State Legislature ______------Pennsylvania State Legislature ______------Mr. COSTIGAN. Mr. President-- . Massachusetts State Senate ______------Mr. CONNALLY. Mr. President, the Senator from Ala­ Illinois House of Representatives ______------bama has yielded to me to have a paper read at the desk. Indiana State AssemblY------­ Mr. COSTIGAN. Mr. President, I have no objection; I New York State AssemblY------General Court of Massachusetts______------think it was understood the Senator from Texas should have City Council of Cleveland, Ohio ______------that paper read; but if the Senator from Texas will permit City Council of Duluth, Minn ______------me, I think it proper to request at this time, if he has no American Federation of Labor______5, 000, 000 The Federal Council of Churches ______26, 000, 000 objection, that, following other endorsements which have National Baptist Convention______3, 196, 623 been read, a telegram just received from Dr. Moton, to whom Young Women's Christian Association______404, 632 the Senator from Alabama [Mr. BA..."'iKHEAD] made reference National Student Council of the Young Women's Christian .Association ______30,000 yesterday, be read. Young Men's Christian Association ______857,241 The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. ScHWELLENBACH in the Women's International League ·for Peace and Freedom. chair). Without objection, the clerk will read, as requested. International Youth Movement. National Association for the Advancement of Colored The Chief Clerk read as follows: People ______~-~------100,000 TuSKEGEE, ALA., May 1, 1935. National Association of Colored Women ___. ______250,000 Senator EDWARD P. COSTIGAN, American Federation of Teachers ______------United States Senate Chamber: National Council of Women______------In the absence of adequate measures by State action to protect National Council of Jewish Women ______50,000 prisoners threatened with mob violence, to put an end to lynching, Young People's Socialist League of America ______3,500 and to identify, to arrest, to indict, and to convict the leaders and Writers' League Against Lynching ______186 participants in lynching parties, I am heartily in favor of such Maryland Anti-Lynching Federation______------legislation as will register the Nation's disapproval of this crime Congregational Commission on.Lynching ______------against humanity and insure the prompt investigation of every Chicago Committee on Anti-Lynching Legislation _____ ------lynching and the conviction of those who thus take the law 1n Committee on Race Relations of the Society of Friends_ ------their own hands, and the impeachment and penalizing of officers American Civil Liberties Union ______3,000 National Urban League ______of the law who fail 1n their duty to protect prisoners committed to 12,000 their charge. When State officers and State courts persistently and The League for Industrial Democracy ______5,600 repeatedly fail in their duty to guarantee the security of every The Fellowship of Reconciliation______,.. ______8,000 citizen by the certain functioning of the orderly processes of the The Protestant Episcopal Church ______2,000,000 law, we are justified in looking to the Federal Government for the The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church ______325,000 protection which the Constitution declares must be given to every Board of National Missions of-the Presbyterian Church citizen. It must be remembered that lynchings are not confined of the United States of America______1, 969, 788 to those charged with crimes against women, as the records will Congregational and Christian Churches______1, 000, 000 show, but are resorted to on indiscriminate provocation, and as yet The Society of Congregational Church Women of the there 1s no guaranty anywhere by mandate of the law against State of New York ______------their occurrence. And when the Governor of one of our great New York City Congregational Church Association ____ _ 33,853 States goes so far as to publicly announce the pardon of lynchers The Church League for Industrial Democracy ______1,800 in advance of their conviction, it is high time that something be Philadelphia (Pa.) Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church ______done by higher authority to put an end to this evil. If Governors, 110, 000 Senators, Congressmen, and State legislators will pledge themselves The Methodist Federation of Social Service ______2,400 publicly to see that the necessary legislation against lynching is Women's Missionary Council of the Methodist Episcopal enacted in each State, the occasion for national legislation will be Church South------225,000 removed. Till that ls done we must look to the Federal Govern­ Natlonal Council of Methodist Youth ______500,000 ment for that protection which the States still fail to give and the Philadelphia Methodist Youth Conference ______------Federal Constitution guarantees. And I would be disloyal to my Hartford (Conn.) Federation of Churches ______600 own people, who have suffered most from the neglect, and to the Toledo (Ohio) Council of Churches------:---- 30,000 best white people of the South, in whom I have the utmost confi­ The Josephite Order of Baltimore, Md ______68,000 dence, if I did not add my voice in support of this Federal enact­ Social JuStice Commission of the Central Conference of ment. As matters now stand, every section and every race is American Rabbis------~------­ 370 exposed to this danger, and the application of this law wm bear as Committeebly of A.Inerica on Social ______Justice of the Rabbinical Assem- _ heavily. on one State as another. I am satisfied that outside the 300 field of politics the sober conscience of all classes in the South will American Jewish Committee ______100,000 support this view. Federal legislation will strengthen those ele­ American Jewish Congress ______------ments in the South who want to see this blot removed from our Synagogue Council of America______1, 000, 000 country. Holy Name Society of Our Lady Queen of the Angels R.R. MOTON, Church, Newark, N. J ______400 President Tuskegee Institute. Unity Circle of the First Unitarian Church, Des Moines, Iowa ______------Mr. CONNALLY. ~I.Ir. President, the Senator from Ala­ Oakland (Calif.) Council of Church Women ______2,100 bama yielded to me in order to hav·e the clerk read an Interracial Commission of Judson Church, New York extract from the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. I feel that I should CitY------Interdenominational Preachers' Meeting of Greater say that the Honorable Ira G. Hersey, of Maine, was a dis­ New York and VicinitY------tinguished Republican Member of Congress in 1922, and 1935 PONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENAT~. 6681 made the remarks in the House which I have asked that the and enlightened consideration of lt, a. study of its many aspects, and an effort to formulate, if not a. policy, a.t least a national clerk may read. attitude of mind calculated to bring about the most satisfactory Mr. NEELY. Mr. President, I object to the reading at possible adjustment of relations between the races, and of each this time of a speech made in some other place. I move to race to the national life. One proposal is the creation of a. com­ reconsider the action by which consent was granted to have mission embracing representatives of both races, to study and report on the entire subject. The proposal has real merit. I am the speech read. convinced that in mutual tolerance, understanding, charity, rec­ Mr. CONNALLY. The order was made by unanimous con­ ognition of the interdependence of the races, and the maintenance sent, and it would take unanimous consent to reverse it. of the rights of citizenship lies the road to righteous adjustment." The gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Dyer] says the Republicans The PRESIDING OFFICER. The understanding of the in this Congress should make his bill a party question and vote Chair is that the order was entered by unanimous consent, for it, because he says the President in his first message to Con­ and it therefore requires unanimous consent to undo the gress advocated it, and that we as Republicans should stand by action taken. The clerk will read, as requested. the President. I want my Republican associates in this House to bear in mind The CHIEF CLERK. Reading from the CONGRESSIONAL that the President in his message did not advise or recommend RECORD-- that the Congress should pass any Federal antilynching bill. He Mr. NEELY. Mr. President, a parliamentary inquiry. had given the race question, as he does all matters that affect the The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator will state it. peace and welfare of the Nation, his careful consideration, and the only suggestion or recommendation to Congress he made was this: Mr. NEELY. What is the length of the speech about to be " * • • The creation of a commission embracing representa­ read? tives of both races, to study and report on the entire subject. The Mr. CONNALLY. That is not a parliamentary inquiry. proposal has real merit." What proposal? Not an antllynching bill; that never was in The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair holds that is not his mind. Here is the proposal that in addition to the commis­ a parliamentary inquiry. The clerk will read, as requested. sion which he says" has real merit", he said further: Mr. BANKHEAD. Mr. President, without displacing the " I am convinced that in mutual tolerance, understanding, charity, recognition of the interdependence of the races, and the unanimous-consent order entered on request of the Sena­ maintenance of the rights of citizenship, lies the road to righteous tor from Texas to have certain matter read, I ask unanimous adjustment." consent that the Senator from West Virginia [Mr. NEELY] The gentleman from Missouri [Mr. DYER], who represents a large may be allowed to make his presentation, then to be followed Negro voting population in the city of St. Louis, immediately at the opening of this Congress introduced, not a resolution author­ by the reading of the extract requested by the Senator from izing the creation of a commission representing both races to study Texas. and report on the entire subject, as recommended by the President, Mr. SMITH. I object. I call for the regular order. but he introduced the bill under consideration, with this mislead­ ing title, "A bill to assure to persons within the jurisdiction of Mr. CONNALLY. I do not want to deprive the Senator every State the equal protection of the laws and to punish the from West Virg:iilja of an opportunity to speak on the bill. crime of lynching." The PRESIDING OFFICER. The regular order has been I want my Republican colaborers in this House further to re­ demanded. The clerk will read, as requested. member that never in the party conferences or party caucuses have we as Republicans voted or pledged ourselves to stand by or advo­ The CHIEF CLERK. Reading from the CONGRESSIONAL cate this antilynching bill as a party measure or otherwise, and RECORD of January 10, 1922, at page 1019, proceedings of the when, in the course of this debate, we hear the party whip crack House of Representatives: and are told by the advocates of this measure that our national platform, President, and party have pledged us as Republicans to Mr. HERSEY. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the Committee, l favor or vote for this Federal antilynching bill, I repudiate that as am suffering from a cold, and my voice is not in good condition. a misleading and unfair statement. If you will give me your attention for a little while, I shall try The Southwestern Christian Advocate, tpe organ of certain so­ to hold it after that. cieties formed to stir up race hatred and race prejudice, under date The late Republican national convention at Chicago desired of December 29, advocates the passage of the Dyer bill by the above all things to break up what is called the "solid South" Republicans of this House, as a bill to pay the debts of the and to win and secure, if possible, for the Republicans the vote of Republican Party. It says: the colored people. Accordingly the makers of the platform in- "Let it be said that if the party's debt to the Negro can be can­ serted the following: · · celed by consummating this vast moral reform, which means so " We urge Congress to consider the most effective means to end much for the future perpetuity of the Nation, the bargain would lynching in this country, which continues to be a terrible blot be legitimate and the Negro welcomes the deal.'' on our American civilization." What Congress could do "to end lynching " never troubled the Of course the Negro welcomes the "deal." Under the false politicians at Chicago. It was enough for them, for the time statements of certain agitators, who are working to bring about being, to persuade the colored voters of the South to believe that race riots, the Negro will welcome the "deal.'' This bill will give a Republican Congress and a Republican President, if elected, him the opportunity in large cities to hide up dark alleys and in would "consider the most effective means to end lynching in this crowded buildings and shoot up innocent men, women, and chil­ country." tlren on the streets witb United States courts and marshals hun­ The author of this bill, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. dreds of miles away. Dyer], in his speech in this House January 4, attempted to make I want to say as a Republlcan that there is no deal or bargain this bill a party issue and a Republican measure. He said: made by the Republican Party to pay off any alleged debts to the Negro by the passage of this antilynch1ng bill. We as a party owe " In the last general election the people expressed their wishes the colored people nothing, and for one I refuse to be politically in this regard also. They endorsed the action of the Republican blackmailed. [Applause.] Party at its last national convention, when in its platform it Do not, I beg of you, allow partisan appeals and party prejudice said: to blind you to disturb the peace and harmony of our national "'We urge Congress to consider the most effective means to end household and do a terrible injustice and wrong to our own people lynching in this country, which continues to be a terrible blot in any section of this great and united Nation. on our American civilization.'" This bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee, of which I am At the outset I want my Republican colleagues in the House a member. We held extended hearings, principally upon the ques­ to remember that the National Republican platform nowhere tion of the constitutionality of such a law as was contemplated in advocated a Federal antilynching bill. The platform never con­ this blll. templated that a Republican Congress would attempt to pass It is admitted by everyone that the only authority for this legis- · such legislation as is found in this bill. The politicians at Chi­ Iation is found in the last clause of the first section of the four­ cago had more political tact than to adyocate legislation ln vio­ teenth amendment to the National Constitution; and that if that lation of the Constitution or an antllynching bill like this that amendment does not authorize this legislation, then it would be would endanger the success of the Republican Party in the unconstitutional and void. The last clause of the amendment Presidential campaign. reads as follows: · After his election, to which several Southern States contributed, " No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the President Harding found himself confronted by this declaration in privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States • • • his party platform, and therefore in his first message to Congress, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection April 12 last, he said: of the laws." "Somewhat related to the foregoing human problems is the race The Constitution very plainly and distinctly gives exclusive question. Congress ought to wipe the stain of barbaric lynching powers to each State to pass and enact its own police and crimi­ from the banners of a free and orderly, representative democracy. nal laws, to establish and conduct its own courts, to execute and We face the fact· that many mUlions of people of African. descent enforce its own laws; but it does not in any way allow, suffer, or . are numbered among our population, and that in a number of permit Congress, by legislation, to interfere with these powers States they constitute a very large proportion of the total popu­ exclusively given to the States. The tenth article of the Con­ lation. It is unnecessary to recount the difficulties incident to stitution of the United States reads as follows: this condition, nor to emphasize the fact that it is a condition "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Con­ which cannot be removed. There has been suggestion, however, stitution nor prohibited by it to the States are reserved to the th'l.t some of the difficulties might be ameliorated by a humane States respectively or to the people." 6682 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE MAY 1 To a. committee of lawyers the legislatlon suggested by this ot ·mind calculated to bring about the most satisfactory possible bill gave rise at once to grave doubts as to its constitutionality adjustment of relations between the races and of each race to the and to the right of Congress to make a criminal code for the national life." States or to deny to the States the enjoyment and discharge of I also favor, as a sensible and practicable step in the right their constitutional rights and powers. direction, the further suggestion of the President, that there To assist the committee on the question of the constitution­ should be created a commission of both races to study and report ality of the provisions of this bill, we called before us the Attorney on the entire subject. General of the United States. He sent his assistant, Mr. Goff, an One of the most unfortunate features of this debate ls the able lawyer and one well qualified to advise the c:ommlttee. In idea put forth by the advocates of this bill that its passage will the course of his testimony, as set forth in the hearmgs, it seemed forever stop all lynchings. The newspaper from which I last to me that the Attorney General's .office considered itself in duty quoted in the same issue said: bound to support and recommend this bill as a party measure "Passage of H. R. 13, commonly known as the "Dyer antllynch­ and advise its passage, because it was claimed by its author that it ing bill", now pending in Congress, will mark this the epochal was so pledged by the Republican platform and recommended to Congress in the life of the Nation since the days of the great Congress by the President. Lincoln, because it will settle in security the otherwise insecure Mr. GooDYKOONTZ. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield? lives and liberties of 12,000,000 colored American citizens and ren­ Mr. liERsEY. I regret I cannot yield. I borrowed my time. der stable the now shaking foundations of our American In other words, the Assistant Attorney General argued his case Government." for the proponents of the bill with all the skill and ingenuity of a The advocates of this antilynchlng bill totally disregard the paid attorney representing a certain client's interests. Every de­ recommendations of the President and in its place they attempt cision and authority cited was so arranged, colored, and quoted as by Federal statutes to invade the States with a horde of high­ to make out a prima facie case for the bill and to advise the com­ salaried United States marshals, attorneys, and carpetbaggers, mittee, in substance, that even if its constitutionality was in and set aside the criminal laws of all the States and proceed doubt, it ought to be put up to the Supreme Court. In other to punish the innocent for the acts of the guilty. words, that Congress should pass its responsibility on to the The only evidence, if it may be called evidence, before the United St ates Supreme Court. In the hearings there is a letter House that any State has legalized lynching or has denied to from the Honorable Moorfield Storey, of Massachusetts, who is at­ any person the equal protection of the laws comes to us from torney for an organization of agitators known as the "National two interested and prejudiced sources. First, propaganda fur­ Association for Advancement of Colored People", which has its nished through the mails to each Member of Congress from an headquarters in New York City, an.organization whose work is to organization in Alabama called the Tuskegee Institute for the stir up the race -question in the South and to induce the ignorant Training of Colored Men and Women. Their matter consists of Negroes to believe that they are the victims of imaginary wrongs statistics prepared by someone unknown. purporting to show the at the hands of the whites and that Congress can stop all lynch­ total number of lynchings in the United States for the la.st 36 ings. Mr. Storey, in recommending this legislation, said: years. The average ls 112 a year, and for the last year, that of " It has seemed to me a very doubtful question whether legisla­ 1921 complete, 62, or about one-half the average. They do not tion by Congress against lY'nching in the States is constitutional, furnish one bit of evidence as to· what any State has done or but I am very clearly of opinion that it ought to be tried. I think neglected to do to stop or punish these lynchings. They do not the South expects it, and many of our southern citizens who are furnish the history of a single case as to what was done in the opposed to lynching will welcome it. At the most, the country will courts of the State to prevent the lynching or to punish the be no worse off if the experiment fails than it is now." lynchers. They do not give a single fact as a basis for Congress Mr. Storey seems to voice the sentiment of the proponents of to say that any State has denied to any person the equal protec­ this bill, first. that they are very doubtful of its constitutionality; tion of its laws. . second, it is therefore the duty of Congress to enact it and pass it 2. The only other evidence before us is a. mass of propaganda on to the courts. I can understand the zeal of those who view sent also through the mails to the Members of this House from this bill from the standpoint of political expediency. They say in a New York City organization called and ·known as the "National so many words " This Republican Congress can satisfy the colored Association for the Advancement of Colored People." They fur­ people of the South by the enactment of this legislation. If the nish Congressmen with a lot of copies of sensational newspaper Supreme Court declares it unconstitutional, which it doubtless headings and highly colored "write-ups" about the lynching of will, if enacted, then the colored voters will have nobody to blame one Lowrey for the k1lling of a. farmer and his daughter in but the Supreme Court and as the judges of that court are ap­ Arkansas a year ago. These newspaper clippings fall to state in pointed for life and do not, like Representatives, come up every 2 what way the State denied the equal protection of its laws to the years to be elected, they can suffer no harm, and the party wm Negro who was lynched, not a word as to what was done to pre­ discharge its responsibility and in another way have taken care of vent the lynchers, but only the fact of the killing with its sen­ the recommendation of the President." [Applause.} sational "write-up" from the pen of a "cub" reporter and that During the past 10 years there has been a large exodus of is all, except the strained and senseless inference that if we had Negroes from the South to the big cities of the border States. during this time a Federal antllynching law like the one before Today many Congressmen outside of the Southern States find us, no lynching would have taken place. This New York organi­ in their districts strong organizations of colored voters who call zation also furnished to Members of Congress a clipping from the themselves Republicans and who hold the balance of power and New York Evening Post, which said of the present bill: can elect or defeat many of the present Members of this House. ••Even if the lynching law should be declared invalid by the They have only one political policy or interest, and that ls to Supreme Court, its mere enactment will have gone far to serve its defeat for reelection any Member of Congress that votes against purpose. Notice will have been served on States which have been the Dyer bill. I know the awful pressure that is brought to bear derelict tn their duty that the conscience of the Nation will not upon certain of my party colleagues to vote for this bill with the tolerate the perpetuation of an abuse and a crime that make us a hope and expectation that the Supreme Court will finally save the byword in the public opinion of mankind. It is argued by the Nation from the folly of the Republican leaders, who by a party World this morning that no proof exists that the St ates as such rule attempt to force this bill through the House. have legalized or tolerated lynching. Yet we have the fact that I am what is known as a " regular Republican." Whenever I in 1920 the mobs took 61 lives and in the present year 63 lives. possibly can do so I work, act, and vote with my party. I sup­ There is no escape from the alternative that the States are either port, if possible, the reports of the committees who have measures unable or unwilling to suppress mob murder." in charge and follow the party and the President at all times whenever I can do so conscientiously and without--in my opin­ The absurd logic of the Post is the position of the friends of ion-violating my oath to support the Constitution. I have no this btll, to wit: If there has been committed in any State a. criticism to make of those members of my committee who by a murder, the fact is proof positive that the Stat e ts either unable small margin voted out this bill. They have a right to their or unwilling to suppress murder, and has therefore denied to the opinion the same as I. I am not the keeper of their conscience, person killed the equal protection of the laws. [Applause.] even of their political conscience. I have carefully, seriously, and Someone in the course of this debate said, in substance, that thoroughly investigated this legislation, and without any doubts the fact that more Negroes are lynched than whites is proof I have arrived at the conclusion that this bill, if enacted, would positive that the Negroes do not receive the equal protection of violate the Constitution of the United States; and if it should the laws. [Applause.] By that same logic, if in a certain State possibly be held legal and constitutional by the Supreme Court of last year 4 persons were lynched, 2 Negroes and 2 whites, then the land, then its effect upon the Nation as a whole would be in that case there would. be equal protection of the laws. Such most unfortunate and disastrous to peace and good order in the nonsense is not worthy the serious consideration of this national Nation, and as a law it would be necessarily vicious legislation, lawmakin ody. unwise, unenforceable, and unworkable. I am, therefore, driven As one Member of this Congress, I refuse to pass my responsi­ by my investigation to oppose this bill by every proper means. I biilty on to the courts. (Applause.] I decline to take the sta­ believe with Abraham Lincoln that-- tistics of murder in the several States as proof that these States "No man who has sworn to support the Constitution can con­ are denying to any person the equal protection of its laws. I do scientiously vote for what he understands to be an unconstitu­ not believe that Congress, by doubtful Federal statutes, can con­ tional measure, however expedient he may think it.-Abraham duct the alfairs of the States of the Union better and more Lincoln (Cooper Union, Feb. 27, 1860) ." efficiently than the States themselves. [Applause.] For the crime of lynching there is no excuse or apology; the I hold, with our President, that this lynching problem presents whole soiil and being of every true citizen, every lover of law and conditions that cannot be removed. I endorse the solution of this order, cries out in condemnation of what has been called "the problem when he said in his message: most cowardly cf crimes"; and if I could see my way clear to favor "Some of the difficulties might be ameliorated by a humane and any lawful measure that would in any way prevent or lessen this enlightened consideration of it, a study of its many aspects, and an crfme, no one would be more enthusiastic in its support than I. effort to formulate, if not a policy, at least a national attitude [Applause.] 1935 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE 6683 What does this bill propose to do to lessen or prevent the crime Congress would have the right, in the exercise of the correlative of lynching? The first section attempts to define the phrase "mob duty of protection, to do so.'' or riotous assemblage", as it is used in this act, and provides My colleague from Nebraska on the committee [Mr. Reavis} asks that to give the Federal courts jurisdiction five or more persons Mr. Goff (p. 43): must participate in a lynching. If but four persons do the lyncll­ "Would you carry that further, to burglary, larceny, and assault ing, then this bill gives no authority to the Federal courts and and battery? officers to interfere. This makes this bill impossible of enforce­ "Mr. GoFF. Of course, the principle would carry us there." ment at the very start. Yes; of course" the principle would carry us there." Reason and Section 2 is an attempt to make the Congress, acting in a leg­ logic carry us there. Our own common sense tells us that there is islative capacity, construe judicially the first section of the four­ no escape from the absurd position in which the Congress would be teenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and placed if we should pass this bill. If we can enact a code of Federal to put this legislative body in the absurd position of saying what law to punish the crime of lynching, we can pass a code of Federal the fourteenth amendment means, and what, under that amend­ criminal law for all the States to punish every offense now within ment, is a denial by a State of the equal protection of the laws, the jurisdiction of State courts. We could send a host of new Fed­ attempting thereby to usurp the functions of the Supreme Court, eral judges into every State to replace the State courts. We could which functions are not a part of the prerogatives of Congress. infest every State with a swarm of Federal officers to punish every It seems an almost absurd position for the Congress to say that crime known to the law, and the States of the Union would have whenever there is a lynching in a State it is proof positive that left no rights that politicians in Congress would be bound to the State has denied to the person so lynched the equal protec­ respect. [Applause.] • tion of the laws under the Constitution. The Assistant Attorney In Barbier v. Connolly (113 U. S., p. 13) the Supreme Court, in General, to recommend this bill, was driven to the necessity of speaking of the fourteenth amendment, said: taking the position that Congress by this enactment could fore­ "Neither the amendment, broad and comprehensive as it is, close the Supreme Court from declaring the law unconstitutional nor any other amendment was designed to interfere with the by the mere force of section 2. powers of the State, sometimes termed its "police power", to pre­ Mr. Goff, in his testimony before the committee, on page 38 of scribe regulations to promote the health, peace, morals, education, the hearings on House bill 13, says: and good order of the people." "Mr. GOFF. I contend this: If the State, in the mind of Con­ During the debate on the rule the gentleman from Kansas gress, denies this right because all legislation assumes the exist­ [Mr. Campbell] attempted, as chairman, to justify the action ence of an evil to be corrected, then Congress, having legislatively of the Committee on Rules in making this bill in order. The determined that fact, the courts will not consider whether Con­ gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Kelley] interrupted to put to gress was or was not justified, but will assume, because of Con­ the gentleman from Kansas the following question: gress having passed appropriate legislation, that the States have "Mr. KELLEY of Michigan. The gentleman has undoubtedly denied the rights in question." given the constitutional phase of this question a good deal of If the Supreme Court is to say that the passage of this bill is attention. I should like to ask directly for his opinion in refer­ conclusive proof that the Congress has found, as a matter of fact, ence to section 2. It provides that when any State or govern­ that the States have denied to any person the equal protection mental subdivision fails to protect life that State or subdivision of the laws, then quit your responsibility as men and first obtain shall be guilty of a violation of the provision of the Constitution the evidence. How shall we obtain the evidence? Answer: By the which says that equal protection of the law shall be afforded. creation of such a commission as was recommended to us by the Does the gentleman think that a State, acting in perfect good President in his message; and then base our legislation, if any, on faith and doing everything in its power to enforce the laws, when the·report, findings, and recommendation of that commission. it fails to protect life transfers its jurisdiction over those crimes Mr. Goff holds that we have no right to enact this bill unless to the Federal Government? Congress finds as a matter of fact th.at the States have denied to "Mr. CAMPBELL of Kansas. That is the large question in this persons the equal protection of the laws. In this matter there is case." no evidence before Congress that any State in the Union has denied Yes, it is indeed "the large question in this case "; but that to any person the equal protection of the laws. question, however large, has been definitely settled by the highest Mr. Goff is driven by this position to say, on page 39: court in the land. That court by a mass of decisions has held "If Congress saw fit to pass a law which came within the mean­ that the jurisdiction of the State to enact and enforce its own ing, as the courts have defined that meaning, of the fourteenth criminal laws cannot by Congress be transferred to the Federal amendment, that then the courts could not conduct an inquiry as Government. to whether Congress was justified in deciding what is generally In Virginia v. Rives (100 U. S. 313) the Supreme Court of the termed ' a legislative fact.' " United States, in speaking of the limitations of the fourteenth The Attorney General thus shifts the responsibility to Congress amendment, said: for the enactment of this most unwise legislation, and we have not "These provisions of the fourteenth amendment have reference one bit of evidence on which to base this b1ll according to the to State action exclusively, and not to any action of private Attorney General. individuals.'' There was not a word of evidence before our committee that any Lynching is the action of private individuals. State of the Union had denied to any person the equal protection Section 3 of this bill provides that if any State or municipal of the laws. There was no evidence that a.nJ State in the Union officer fails, neglects, or refuses to make all reasonable efforts had enacted laws or had now upon its statute books any laws dis­ to prevent a mob or riotous assemblage from putting to death criminating against any person or had denied by its provisions to a person, or fails, neglects, or refuses to make all reasonable any person or class of persons the equal protection of the laws. efforts to apprehend or prosecute to final judgment under the The only evidence whatever-if it might be called evidence--was laws of his State all persons so participating in such mob or some tables submitted by the proponents of the bill showing the riotous assemblage, shall be guilty of a felony, and if convicted number of lynchings in the Nation over a period of 30 years. The may be punished by imprisonment for 5 years and a fine of report on the bill of the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Dyer] shows $5,000, or both fine and imprisonment. that in the year 1919, 83 persons were lynched in the United States, Under this section Congress denies the right of the State to 4 whites, 2 Mexicans, and 77 Negroes; that in 1920, 65 persons were make and enforce its own criminal laws or to punish the neglects lynched in the Union, 6 whites and 59 Negroes; that in 1921, 4 and delinquencies of its own officials. whites and 48 Negroes were lynched in the Nation. If these figures Under this act a town constable, before his town has time to act, a.re correct, they go to show that the crime of lynching is growing can be haled before a Federal court in some distant State, and if a less in the United States every year and have been reduced 25 per­ Federal jury find that the constable did not, in their opinion, make cent the past year. What was done by the States in these several all reasonable efforts to prevent the lynching or to apprehend the cases to deny equal protection of the laws to the persons lynched lynchers, then they may fine him $5,000 and imprison him for 5 was not shown. What efforts were made, if any, to stop the lynch­ yea.rs. ings by the State, or its officers, were not shown. What proceedings If such a law as is contemplated in this blll is enacted and de­ were taken in the State courts, what trials were had in the State clared constitutional, then there wlll be no police, no officers of courts of the lynchers, was not shown. the law provided by any State 1n the Union, because no sane person In other words, the only evidence before the committee was the would accept the position of a peace officer with this terrible risk statement from these tables that certain persons from time to time and penalty and punishment awaiting him in case a lynching a.re lynched in the United States, and there was no evidence what­ should happen in his State. (Applause.] ever to show that any State had in any way through its laws or by This section further provides that any person who participates its acts denied to any person so lynched the equal protection of the in a mob that takes from the custody or possession of any State or laws. It seems to me no lawyer in this House can deny for a municipal officer any person held by such officer to answer some moment that the mere fact that a murder had been committed offense, or participates in putting such person to death, or obstructs would be any evidence that the State had denied the equal protec­ or prevents any State or municipal officer in the discharge of his tion of its laws to the person killed, and yet this bill proceeds upon duty in the punishment of persons charged with the crime of that assumption, and the Attorney General's office holds, if it holds lynching, shall be guilty of a felony and upon conviction may be anything, that notice of the fact of the murder is all that is neces­ imprisoned for life. sary to enact a law to make a State liable in· the Federal courts On ·Monday, December 19, the gentleman from South Carolina under this bill for the unlawful killing of a citizen by a mob. On [Mr. McSwAIN] extended his remarks in the RECORD on this meas­ page 43 of the hearings Assistant Attorney General Goff states: ure. His argument was a fine presentation of the unconstitution­ " If the Congress of the United States, in view of the fact that a ality of this bill. I wish you all could read it before you vote upon State has a law punishing murder, says there should be a Federal this measure. On page 644 of the RECORD he says: law punishing murder in order that there may be conceded to the " It must be admitted that the laws of all States require arrest­ people of that State an equal, vigorous, and speedy enforcement of ing officers to protect their prisoners. In like manner, under the the law and the protection of their lives and their property, then laws of all States, every participant in a lynching is a murderer. 6684 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE MAY l Can it be fairly said that because an officer occasionally falls in his not difficult to give a meaning to this clause (equal protection of duty to protect his prisoner from lawless mobs that such excep- the laws). The existence of laws in the States where the newly tional act amounts to the action of the State as a subdivision of emancipated Negroes resided, which discriminated with gross in­ orga.nired society in denying due process of law and in denying justice and hardship against them as a class, was the evil to be equal protection of law? remedied by this clause, and by such laws are forbidden." "If Congress can by law provide punishment in a Federal court In the case of Strauder v. West Virginia (100 U. S. 303), a law for a State sheriff for his acts or neglect of action as sheriff, then which denied colored persons the right to sit on juries was de­ Congress could provide punishment for the Governor of a State for clared void. The Court said: his acts or failure to act as the State's chief executive. And if the "It {the fourteenth amendment) was designed to assure to the State's executive officers may be punished by fine or imprisonment colored race the enjoyment of all the civil rights that under the under congressional laws, so may the chief justice and all judges of law are enjoyed by white persons and to give to that race the the State. And by the same token the members of the State legis- protection of the General Government in that enjoyment whenever latures may be punished for enacting laws found to be violative of it should be denied by the States." the fourteenth amendment." The particular action of the State prohibited by the fourteenth I wish here in this connection to again call your attention amendment is fully set forth in the Civil Rights cases, United States to the fact that every State in the Union has laws making it a against Stanley, Ryan, and others, found in the United 'States Re­ crime to interfere with or obstruct an officer in the performance ports, volume 109, page 11, in which the Court said: of his duty, and can it be constitutional that whenever that "It is State action of a particular character that is prohibited. crime is committed in any State the United States marshals Individual invasion of individual rights is not the subject matter may arrest the offender and take him before a Federal court in of the amendment. It has a deeper and broader scope. It nullifies another State and, if in the opinion of a Federal jury, he did and makes void all State legislation and State action of every kind so obstruct the officer he may be convicted and imprisoned for which impairs the privileges and immunities of cit izens of the life? Such an act would not be a denial by the State of the United States, or which injures them in life, liberty, or property equal protection of the laws under the Constitution, but it without due process of law, or which denies to any of them the would be a denial of the rights of the States and the rights of equal protection of the laws. • • • The last section of the all persons under the National Constitution. amendment invests Congress with power to enforce it by appropriate Section 4 removes the last vestige of the rights of the citizens legislation. To enforce what? To enforce the prohibition. To adopt of the several States. It provides that any person who partici- legislation for correcting the effects of such prohibited State laws pates in any mob or riotous assemblage by which a person is and State acts, and thus to render them effectually null, void, and put to death shall be guilty of a felony, and on conviction innocuous. This is the legislative power conferred upon Congress, thereof may be imprisoned for life. · and this is the whole of it. It does not invest Congress with power Lynching is nothing but murder. All who engage in it are to legislate upon subjects which are within the domain of State murderers. Every State in the Union has laws against murder, legislation, but to provide modes of relief against State legislation and until it is shown by proper evidence that a State has en- or State action of the kind referred to. It does not authorize acted laws denying to persons the equal protection of the laws Congress to create a code of municipal law for the regulation of the Federal power cannot interfere. This b111 is an attempt to private rights, but to provide modes of redress against the operation enact a Federal statute to punish in Federal courts the crime of State laws and the action of State officers, executive or judicial, of murder in the several States. If enacted and held constitu- when these are subversive of the fundamental rights specified in tional it could be used to sweep away all the laws of the States. the amendment. Positive rights and privileges are undoubtedly Not a single State criminal law would remain superior to the secured by the fourteenth amendment, but they are secured by way Federal statutes, for, in the language of the Assistant Attorney of prohibition against State laws and St ate proceedings affecting General, "the same principle would apply to larceny, burglary, those rights and privileges, and by power given to Congress to legis­ assault and battery." [Applause.] ' late for the purpose of carrying such prohibition into effect, and Section 5 provides that any county in which a person is put such legislation must necessarily be predicated upon such supposed to death by a mob shall forfeit $10,000 for the use of the family State laws or State proceedings and be directed to the con·ection of of the person so put to death. If he had no family then it goes their operatio:::i and·etrect." · to his parents, and if he had no parents then it is given to the Mr. Justice Field, in the One Hundred and Thirteenth United United States. States Reports, page 27, in the case of Barbier against Connolly, A county is but a subdivision of a State. Under this blll it made plain the purpose of the fourteenth amendment and its is not necessary that the county itself should have failed in any limitations. He said: particular to do its utmost to prevent the lynching. It is not "The fourteenth amendment, in declaring that no State 'shall · necessary that the county should have any· knowledge of the deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process lynching or have failed in any particular to prevent it. It is of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal sufficient to punish the county in a Federal court that a lynch- protection of the laws', undoubtedly intended not only that there ing has taken place within its borders. The sheriff of the should be no arbitrary deprivation of life or liberty or arbitrary county may have tried his utmost to prevent the lynching. He spoliation of property, but that equal protection and security may have been shot to death by the lynchers, but under this should be given to all under like circumstances in the en joyment bill his family would receive nothing, while the family of the of their personal and civil rights; that all persons should be equally person so lynched would receive $10,000 from the innocent tax- entitled to pursue their happiness and acquire and enjoy property; payers of the county. that they should have like access to the courts of the country for If such a Federal law is constitutional, then the inhabitants of the protection of their persons and property, the prevention and. · a county, however innocent of wrong, have no rights whatever and redress of wrongs, and the enforcement of contracts; that no lm­ may be deprived of property, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness pediment should be interposed to the pursuits of anyone except by a Federal law every time a murder is committed within its as applied to the same pursuits by others under like circumstances; borders. [Applause.] that no greater burdens should be laid upon one than are laid upon Section 6 is the worst of all. It provides that if any person so others in the same call1ng and condition; and that in the adminis­ put to death has been transferred by a mob from one county to tration of criminal justice no different or higher punishment should another between capture and death each county through which be imposed upon one than such as is prescribed to all for like he was so transported shall forfeit $10,000. It is not necessary to offenses. But neither the amendment, broad and comprehensive show that the murder was committed in that county or that the as it is, nor any other amendment was designed to interfere with county had anything to do with the lynching or had neglected to the power of the State, sometimes termed its police power, to pre­ do anything to stop it or even bad any knowledge that it was scribe regulations to promote the health, peace, morals, education, being committed. It is sufficient under this bill to penalize the and good order of the people. county, that in the darkness of night a mob crossed your county This was followed by the decision of the Pembina Mining Co. or mine or entered upon its soil, even ~ya few rods, while engaged against the state of Pennsylvania, One Hundred and Twenty-fifth in its work of lynching. United States Reports, page 181, in which the Court said: Mr. HARDY of Texas. Will the gentleman yield? "The inhibition of the amendment that no State shall deprive Mr. HERsEY. I cannot yield to anyone, because I have borrowed any person within its jurisdiction of the equal protection of the my time, and the gentleman says he will not give m~ any more laws was designed to prevent any person or class of persons from time if I yield. being singled out as a special subject for discriminatory and hostile I now turn from the very unsatisfactory light given by the legislation." Attorney General's Office and the proponents of this bill to some A later decision is found in James against Bowman, One Hundred of the decisions of the highest court in the land, which decisions and Ninetieth United States Reports, pages 127 to 137. There the have construed the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution, late Justice Brewer construed the fourteenth amendment as an amendment under which the friends of this bill claim that this follows: legislation has a legal right to live or it must die. "The equality of the rights of citizens is a principle of repub- The fourteenth amendment was born in the stormy days of llcanism; every republican government is in duty bound to protect reconstruction. Many of the Southern States, after slavery was all its citizens in the enjoyment of this principle if within its abolished, passed laws discriminating against the Negro in his power. That duty was originally assumed by the States, and it civil rights; and to give him equal protection in his civil rights, still remains there. The only obligation resting upon the United in his voting, as a citizen, in his business, in the courts, in the states is to see that the States do not deny the right. This the selectioh of jurors, and in all other civil rights, the fourteenth amendment guarantees, but no more. The power of the Govern- amendment was enacted. ment is limited to the enforcement of this guaranty." In the Slaughterhouse cases (16 Wallace, U. S., p. 81), Justice The late James G. Blaine, of my State, was a Member of Congress Miller told us the object and purpose of the fourteenth amend- when the fourteenth amendment was passed. In his great work ment. He said: Twenty Years of Congress, volume 2, page 313, he makes pla.in "In the light of the history of this amendment and the per- what Congress intended to be the purpose_and limitations of tha~ vading purpose of them, which we have already discussed, it is 111.meni:lment. He says: - 1935 .CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE .6685 " Under it the citizen of foreign birth cannot be persecuted by When the Supreme Court asks Mr. Volstead for his authority discriminatory statutes, nor can any citizen of dark complexion for the enactment of this legislation by Congress witho~t an be deprived of a single privilege or immunity which belongs to the amendment to the Constitution making lynching a Federal o:!Iense, white man. Nor can the Catholic or the Protestant or the Jew Mr. Volstead will stammer and say that his friend Mr. Dyer will be placed under the ban or subjected to any deprivation of personal present that side of the case, because he, Mr. Volstead, is more or religious right. It curtails the power of the States to shelter familiar with the eighteenth amendment than he would be with the wrongdoer or to authorize crime by a statute." Mr. Dyer's bill, and the court would call upon Mr. Dyer to answer The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman from Maine has the person convicted how the court could hold this antllynching expired. enforcement law constitutional Without a constitutional amend­ Mr. SUMNERS of Texas. I yield to the gentleman 5 minutes ment authorizing it, and Mr. Dyer would say in substance, as he more. said the other day to us: Mr. UPSHAW. Give him 5 minutes of my time. "I have here, your honor, clippings from many newspapers all Mr. HERSEY. I would li.ke to have 10 minutes. over the land recommending this legislation. I want to tell your Mr. SUMNERS of Texas. All right. honors about the awful riot out in St. Louis, my old State, some Mr. HERSEY. It was contended in our committee and by friends 4 years ago, known as the • race riots ', where 100 persons were shot of this bill in the debate in the House that this Federal anti­ and burned. I do not know who did the shooting, but it was done lynching legislation was justified and constitutional because it is in a riot and by a mob, and it was caused by race feeling and claimed that there is a precedent in the late Volstead enforcement prejudice, and for that reason we want this legislation to be held code making the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors a constitutional." · Federal o:!Iense. I can see the kindly Chief Justice, with that well-known broad This contention of the proponents of this bill is very unfortu­ smile spreading over his face, saying to Mr. Dyer: "The Court is nate for the constitutional side of this bill. A moment's thought not interested in the St. Louis riot or any newspaper clippings must satisfy us that the eighteenth amendment, instead of being about the advisability of preventing lynching. We want you to in favor of this legislation, is directly opposed to it. point out to us the constitutional amendment that justifies mak­ Many years ago some of the States of the Union, like Maine and ing lynching a Federal o:!Iense." And Mr. Dyer would say, "We Kansas, enacted prohibitory laws outlawing the manufacture and rely upon the fourteenth amendment, your honor." And the Court sale of intoxicating liquor within the borders of their States. would say to Mr. Dyer, "The fourteenth amendment is to prevent They passed also amendments to their State constitutions making discriminatory legislation on behalf of the States; it aims at State it unlawful to manufacture or sell liquors. On appeal to th& enactments and not the acts of individuals, and our Court has held United States Supreme Court that Court held these statutes and that by repeated decisions by Justice Miller, Justice Field, and very amendments to their State constitutions were lawful under the lately by the late Justice Brewer that, under the fourteenth amend­ police power given to the States by the Federal Constitution. ment, Congress has no right to enact a Federal code of criminal The Supreme Court said in substance the States have a right to law for the States, and that the fourteenth amendment is limited enact their own criminal laws. They have the police power, and to discriminatory legislation by State laws that do not give to all it is not only their duty, but it is their exclusive duty to enforce persons the equal protection of the laws." And then the Court the police powers under the Constitution. will say, "That the appeal is sustained and the law declared un­ Afterward the friends of prohibition appealed to the Congress constitutional, indictment dismissed, and prisoner discharged." to enact Federal statutes making it a crime to manufacture and If the court should render any further opinion, it would hold, sell intoxicating liquors in every State in the Nation. In other as it has held so many times, that Congress cannot make indi­ words, they demanded of Congress Federal prohibition. Congress vidual acts a Federal offense without a constitutional amend­ rightfully replied that they had no authority to enact such laws ment. The court might, however, refresh the recollection of the Without an amendment to the Constitution. This position was gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Dyer, by citing the following case: admitted by all lawyers, and afterward Congress did submit to the The Supreme Court of the United States in United. States v. people, and there was duly passed and made a permanent part of Harris (106 U. S. Repts., p. 638) construed the purpose and limi­ the Federal Constitution, the eighteenth amendment, making it a tations of the two sections of the fourteenth amendment. The Federal crime to manufacture or sell intoxicating liquors, giving Court said: the States concurrent power With the Federal Government in the " It is a guaranty against the acts of the State government itself. enforcement of laws to carry out the amendment and giving Con­ It is a guaranty against the exertion of arbitrary and tyrannical gress authority to enact an enforcement code to carry out the power on the part of the government and legislature of the State, purpose of th~ eighteenth amendment. not a guaranty against the commission of individual offenses; and The gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Volstead], Chairman of the power of Congress, whether express or implied, to legislate for the Judiciary Committee, immortalized himself as author of the enforcement of such a guaranty does not extend to the pas­ what is known as the "Volstead Enforcement ·Act", which pro­ sage of laws for the suppression of crime within the States. The vides for the enforcement of the eighteenth amendment by Fed­ enforcement of the guaranty does not require to authorize Con­ eral authority in conjunction with and in concurrence with the gress to perform the duty that the guaranty itself supposes it to States. be the duty of the State to perform, and which it requires the On appeal to the Supreme Court by the breweries, distillers, State to perform." and liquor sellers that Congress had no right to enact this en­ I want to say a word as to the effect of this legislation, should forcement code, the Supreme Court has recently held that Con­ it be passed by Congress and be held constitutional by the courts. gress had that right because of the eighteenth amendment, which The law will be most unwise and absolutely unworkable. It could made the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor a Federal never be enforced by all the Federal courts of the Union and all o:!Iense, and that Congress received from the eighteenth amend­ the United States marshals in the Nation. The States must be ment authority to enact a Federal enforcement code, and so held left to work out their own destiny, to enact and enforce their the act of Congress constitutional. own laws in accordance with the Constitution. The Federal power What do we find in the bill before us? Not a resolution of ought not to enter the domain of the State and take possession Congress submitting the twentieth amendment to the people of of the p~rog~tives, duties, and responsibilities of the States and the Nation, making lynching a Federal offense in every State in attempt to perform their work. The fourteenth amendment con­ the Union, and authorizing Congress to enact a Federal code templates that where States enact laws that discriminate between for the enforcement of the amendment. Nothing of the kind, persons, and deny to any person the equal protection of the laws, but in its place we find this strange situation, not altogether Vol­ that such enactments of any State are null and void. The stead enforcement code but the Dyer enforcement bill to enforce fourteenth amendment goes no further. an amendment not now in existence. It is generally claimed by the advocates of this bill that if Neither in the fourteenth amendment nor in any other amend­ enacted into law it is for the purpose of preventing lynching ment is lynching made a Federal o:!Iense, and until it is made a in certain Southern States, and particularly the lynching of the Federal offense by a constitutional amendment to the Federal Negro. Constitution and authQrity given to Congress to enact an enforce­ ment code to carry out the purposes of such an amendment If there are more Negroes lynched than whites, it is because Congress has no power whatever to enact this bill. of certain monstrous crimes committed by the Negro that arouse the blood of the white race. The terrible crime of rape was a If this bill should pass and become a law, and after that a per­ son should be arrested for participating in a lynching and taken legacy left to the South after the destruction of slavery. The before the Federal court and convicted, and he should appeal to South must deal with this awful problem. They are dealing with the Supreme Court on the ground that the law under which he it. Every Southern State has laws punishing the crime of lynch­ was convicted was unconstitutional, I can imagine the scene in ing. It is said that the State of Georgia is the greatest offender, the Supreme Court of the United States when the constitutional­ and yet I find in a late edition of the Concord (N. H.) Monitor, ity of that law should come up for argument. the following: When the code to enforce the eighteenth amendment was before [From the Concord (N. H.) Monitor] the Supreme Court my chairman, Mr. Volstead, was for the law "On a Friday morning recently two Negroes committed a heinous and its constitutionality, because, as he claimed, he was backed crime in Wayne County, Ga.. By the following Wednesday morning by the eighteenth amendment. , the criminals had been caught, indicted by jury in open court at On the other side. then was my friend from Missouri [Mr Dyer], the county seat, found guilty, and sentenced to death. That sen­ author of this bill, who was opposed to the national prohibitory tence is soon to be executed. law on the ground that it was not constitutional and that Con­ "The whole proceedings, says an Atlanta newspaper, with par­ gress had no right to enact it. Now, when this bill comes before donable pride," passed off with dignity, order, and precision." The the Supreme Court, there is a wonderful change. On the day community in which the crime was perpetrated is satisfied, and all that the Constitution is to be crucified by the antilynching bill the more so because fundamental justice has been done without Pilate and Herod become friends. The gentleman from Missouri any sacrifice of self-respect. and the gentleman from Minnesota are now claiming that this " The only excuse for lynching has been its effectiveness. The law, this antilynching bill, is constitutional without any consti­ legal procedure in this case was just as effective as a lynching bee. , tutional amendment whatever. This is the way, and the only way, to stop lynching in crimin~ l 6686 _CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE MAY 1 cases that involve race prejudice or invite the moral hatred of a blO