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V l   OF THE 1 O 1 , -
NATIONAL PRESS BUILDING WASHINGTON, D; C.
VOL. 1 MARCH 15,1936 · Ne. 8
 
  , A M `_ "THE;AEAI_$ENIIj_Q" y .
. within the past two weeks the American publ1c has begun to appreciate the New g
Deal's real challenge to constitutional rfghts and liberties. One of the New Deal's
most partisan agencies -— the Senate Lobby Investigating Committee, headed by Senator
Hugo L. Black of Alabama —- is responslble for this development.
Newspapers throughout the land, both Democratic and Republican, have been f1lled
wfth editorial denunciatlon of the methods followed by the Black Comm1ttee in 1ts _
‘ effort to throttle the right of citizens to express themselves concerning the affairs
of their government._ _ g _ 'f
As set forth by Jouett Shouse, President of the Amer1¤an Liberty League, in his
radio address of March 6th, it has been revealed that the Committee instigated the
Federal Communications Commission to pervert the Comm1ss1on's authorlty in order to
open the f1les of the Western Union and Postal Telegraph companies in washington to
Inspection by the Comm1ttee's agents. All messages sent to or from washington during
about ten months in 1935 were either examined or subject to examination. It made no
difference what the telegrams were about. Many of them undoubtedly were messages
between husband and wife relating to family affalrs. D0ubt1eSS many more were com-
munications between lawyers and their clients. Some probably contained medical ad-
vice given by physicians to their patients. They were all open to inspection by the
· Commltteefs agents. T _ _
No one outside of the Committee and its large corps of employees knows Just what 
messages were copied. No one knows how many copies were made or to whom the extra t
copies, if any, were delivered. _
- The revelation of this action on the part or the Committee and 1ts tool, the Q
Communications Commission, has made it clear to the American people that the New Deal
‘ has no respect for constltutlonal rlghts. If the principle established ln this case
is allowed to stand unrebuked, a citizen may no longer have any conf1dence_that his W
mall fs not tampered with} that his telephone wires are not tapped; that dictaphones
are not placed in his own home or office. Never since the days of_the infamous write `
of Assistance, which did much to bring on the American revolution, has there been in
the United States such an outrageous violation of human rights., »
1 It should be remembered that there was not even the pretense of showing that the
1 telegrams examined dealt with public questions or had anything remotely to do with
what 1s usually known as lobbying. The Committee merely engaged in one of those
"flshing exped1t1ons" such as have been declared to be lllegal by a decision of our
highest court. It is well for all citizens to reflect that 1f this is possible rm
washington 1t can be done also in every city and hamlet throughout the nation. The
great mass of citizens who must resent such_tact1cs would do well to notify their
, Senators and Representatives that they will not tolerate the continuation of such 4
abuses of authority. . V