xt7wwp9t2q46_136 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7wwp9t2q46/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7wwp9t2q46/data/59m61.dao.xml American Liberty League 37 linear feet archival material English University of Kentucky This digital resource may be freely searched and displayed.  Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically.  Physical rights are retained by the owning repository.  Copyright is retained in accordance with U. S. copyright laws.  For information about permissions to reproduce or publish, contact the Special Collections Research Center. Jouett Shouse Collection (American Liberty League Pamphlets), "Bulletin Of The American Liberty League", Vol. 1 No. 4, November, 1935 text "Bulletin Of The American Liberty League", Vol. 1 No. 4, November, 1935 2013 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7wwp9t2q46/data/59m61/59m61_0004/bulletin4_1/bulletin4_1.pdf 1935 1935 1935 section false xt7wwp9t2q46_136 xt7wwp9t2q46 · E C QRIQ
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NATIONAL PRESS BUILDING   · WASHINGTON, D. C.
VOL. 1 NOVEMBER,1935 D N0. 4
I THE END OF ANOTHER NEW DEAL "EXPERIMENT"
The outcome of the attempt·to curtail free speech as exercised by the National Lawyers
Committee of the American Llberty League 1s related in an Associated Press dispatch from
Columbus, Ohio, excerpts from which followi
{ "COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 17. — The American Bar Assoc1at1on's standing committee
on professional ethics and grievances held today that the American Liberty League's
national lawyer's committee violated no canon of legal ethics in offering free
legal services to citizens wfthout funds to defend their constitutional rights.
"'All that they (the Liberty League's national lawyers' committee) have offer-
ed,"sa1d the op1n1on, *1s thelr experience and skill "1f and when any American _
_ citizen, however humble, is without means to defend his constitutional rights in a _
`court of just1ce." The committee is unable to see anything unethical or lmproper° I
in such a course.* ........... ’ " ‘ · ‘
4 "The bar comm1ttee's opinion stated, in part: A . ·
""'The question divides itself 1nto two subheads, the rendering of servfces I i _
of the(league) committee or the members thereof without compensation in defense ‘ O
of American citizens who believe their constitutional rights to be 1mper1led.....
and the publication of a proffer of such service by radio broadcast, distribution
of pamphlets or otherwise. _ ` . I `
i" Iwtf-As to the first of these questlens there would seem to be no doubt. Thend TOO GW
defense of indigent citizens without compensation is carried on throughout the
country.' ........ _ V _
"The committee further held that 'thls proffer of serv1ce,' even when broad- R
_ _ cast over the radio, 'does not offend the ethical code ......... ` `
"'A nation is at its safest when its most eminent citizens are lmbued with
sufficient patriotism to interest themselves 1n the public welfare, even at great
sacrifice to their private affa1rs.'" `
it- it- -3% ~>% 4% -1% it- -1% I ‘ ` 7
When the American Liberty League made public the first report from the National Law--
yers Committee, which report expressed the opinion that the Natfonal Labor Relations Act
1s unconstitutional, the Honorable Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior and spokes-
man for the administration, declared this action to be "a gross 1mpert1nence" and "an v
evidence per se of disrespect for the Supreme Court." A

 "DANGEROUS EXPERIMENTATION"
A League pamphlet, “Dangerous Experimentation" (Doc. No. 72), analyzes ten phases of
the Roosevelt adm1nistration‘s activities and summarizes its appraisal of them as follows!
"The experimentations of various kinds pursued by the administration have
shown results vastly different from those promised. Fantastic theories have
failed to stand the test of trial. Manipulation of economic factors has pro-
duced complications leading to a new assortment of evils. Projects coated with
the sanctity of social reform have failed to bestow benefits except of a pater-
nalistic character which weaken the fiber of the people. Through many of the
experiments runs a purpose to change the institutions which have grown up under
the Constitution.
”The failure of experiments might be tolerated for a short period in an
acute emergency or for a longer time if involving no substantial drain upon
the Treasury. Not only have the adm1nistration's half-baked theories proved _
A misguided but the cost of experimentation has been tremendous. Annual expen-
ditures of the Federal Government have been double those of the period before,
the depression. The continuance of an unbalanced budget threatens difficulties
i more alarming than anything that heretofore has occurred. There is increasing
recognition of the fact, as demonstrated in the case of the NRA, that recovery
is proceeding in spite of, rather than because of, experimentation. The present
situation demands an end of experimentation and not merely a breathing spell.
Such a course will facilitate a return to sound fiscal policies and to principles
_ consistent with the Constitution, as well as assure a marked improvement in
business cond1tions."
4 The pamphlet includes a discussion ofi Rural Resettlement, Alaskan Colonization, Sub-
. sistence Homesteads, the National Youth Administration, Public Schools, Civil Service, NRA
Jobs, Unemployment, the AAA and Monetary Policies. , _ `
THEY NEVER LEARN
There are striking similarities between the New Deal and the Mercantilist system of
economics which reached its climax under George III and brought on the American Revolu-
tion. Similar parallels exist between the New Deal and present day Italian Fascism.
It is no new thing for men exercising autocratic power to believe themselves able to
dictate and control the economics of a great nation. Such delusions were common long
before the "horse and buggy" days of the founders of the United States of Americai They
persist today. * · P V d
All such experiments with the lives and fortunes of millions of men and women rest
upon one primary essential —- autocratic power exercised by one individual, or a small i
group of individuals. The origin of that power matters not. . It is its existence that
is important. It may arise out of a system of hereditary rule by divine right which
makes a mighty empire the plaything of a mad king. It may result from a march of black-
shirted legions upon Rome. It may come about through a craven congressional surrender of
legislative prerogatives to an executive grasping for extra—constitutional authority.
Those who framed the Constitution of the United States had to their sorrow lived
through one experiment in "planned economy". They ended that experiment, so far as the
United States was concerned, by risking their lives on the battle fields of the Revolu-
tion. They thought they had for all time prevented any similar experimentation in the
United States by the formulation and adoption of the Constitution.
Similarities between the New Deal and other past and present experiments in "Planned
Economy" are discussed in the League pamphlet ”Econom1c Planning -— Mistaken but Not New"
(Doc. Ne. vs.) Y

 SOUTHERN DEMOCRAT SPEAKS
Excerpts from address by the Honorable Forney Johnston of Birmingham, Alabama on
"The Economic Necessity in the Southern States for a Return to the Constitution" (Doc. `
No. 73) over the Dixie network of the Columbia Broadcasting System October 29, 1955i
"The present administration has, under the high tension of depression,
done more to create class, occupational and regional prejudice than any ad-
ministration in history, precisely as the President has done more than any
previous President, in fact alone among the Presidents of the United States,
has spoken and acted to impair popular respect for the protection of a
written Constitution, judicially interpreted and applied ........... K
"I have yet to meet any man in business, who expresses any opinion at
all, who does not now express the belief, in solemn words and with profound
conviction, that the program of this administration is ominous and disrup-
tive ............
g"It_is no mere political opposition. It is the more intense because
the cards are dealt by a Democrat, dealing from the bottom of the Socialist
pack ............. ’
"The planned economy of the New Deal in Russia also took good care of its
industrial projects, but millions died in Russia of starvation. Four thousand
families in Jefferson County are threatened with withdrawal from relief rolls
tomorrow night, not for lack of funds but because available funds are being
applied to unnecessary public works in remote areas. Cheops must have his
pyramid ...........
'I am warning the people of my section against surrendering the responsi-
bility which is both their duty and their opportunity, and selling their self-
reliance to a political group organized to centralize political power, f1nance,‘
i taxation and public improvements in the federal government, to be accomplished
first by discrediting and then nullifying the American Constitution. The South,
by reason of its relative weakness in industry, the limits on its markets, the
peculiar nature of its local problems, is of all sections most in need of the
protection of the Constitution and most certain to suffer stagnation if stand-
ardized by political control in Washington."
. NATIONAL LAWYERS COMMITTEE
Speaking over Station KMOX, St. Louis, November 6, on the subject "The National Law-
yers Committee of the American Liberty League", Ethan A. H. Shepley, Chairman of the -,» T .
League‘s Missouri Division, discussed the function of the Committee and some of the New
Deal criticisms of it.* ’ ' `
EXCERPTS1
"Our critics tell you first that we are nothing short of impertinent in
undertaking to express an opinion as to the validity of an act of Congress be-
fore it has been submitted to and passed upon by the Supreme Court... .........
If the members of the Bar are to be criticized at all, it is that they have
` failed to speak soon enough and often enough on matters of this character. To
criticize after the Court has acted might well be classified as disrespectful
and impertinent, but this is a charge that our President must answer, not the
Lawyers Committee of the American Liberty League ............
"Are we to distrust those clergymen who have made a success of their pro-
fession-—the surgeons and physicians whose ability is generally recognized-—the
I authors, artists, teachers, bankers or businessmen who have attained a standing
in their respective lines of endeavor? Is the laboring man who has worked his
way up to the position of foreman or superintendent to be distrusted because of
that fact?"

 · ‘ ? $ N { · PROCESSES OF DEMOCRACY UNDER THE NEW DEAL L
A From an=editor1al entitled "The Ghost of the Corn—Hog Vote" from THE UNIONIST AND
PUBLIC FORUM of Sioux City, Iowa, November 71
’ ."On our way to Estherville last Thursday, Oct. Bl, we stopped to see a
friend in High Lake township, Emmet county. We discovered how the Corn—Hog
. g referendum was conducted in one township-—the Corn—Hog committeemen visited
L S each farmer of the township and labored with him to vote for the Corn—Hog
program. The committeeman handed the farmer a ballot, and where possible got
him to mark it for the Corn-Hog program. If the farmer was unwilling to do so,
the committeeman visited him again. If the farmer still held out, he received
a third visit. This third visit in some cases was on Frrdey night before the
election on Saturday. One or more farmers still declined to mark the ballot
for the program, saying he would vote at the polling place on Saturday. Then
the committeeman informed the farmer that he would not have a chance to rote at
the polls, as all the farmers had been seen and the polls would not be opened A
for·voting. A few farmers visited the polling place on Saturday and found the
place closed, so had no chance to vote. The election officials merely took
out of their pockets the votes they had secured in their canvass of the town-
ship from house to house, and counted them, and announced the result without_
the trouble of going to the polling place. `
"If any person desires to question these facts, let him call on us for the
, proof and we will furnish it." `
TYPICAL COMMENT
TRENTON (N. J.) TIMES, November 2, 19351 ‘ A
` 1"'No_adm1nistrative or legislative action can give more certain promise of
rapid business recovery than the abandonment of spendthrift policies,' remarks
the American Liberty League in putting forward a demand that the Federal budget
be balanced by l9B7» A ` ·
_ _ "It is the literal truth. Long-term investments and capital outlays will
not be made in substantial measure so long as business men and financiers are
forced to gaze at the increasingly ominous clouds of exorbitant taxation. And
that is precisely the threat entailed in an unbalanced budget."
WASHINGTON, D. C. POST, November 2, 19551 . 5
_ WThere is”a somewhat political odor to the excitement stirred up over the t
orrer*or the lawyers"committee of the Liberty League to render free service _
to citizens without means to protect their constitutional rights against vic- `
lation resulting from hasty legislative measures ..... L ......
"Since the protection of constitutional rights is naturally one of the ·
highest duties of the legal profession, it is a strange spectacle for criticism
to be leveled at a committee of lawyers which has the avowed object of donating
its services to persons too poor to pay for legal defense." V
_ LEAGUE DOCUMENTS 1
Copies of League documents mentioned herein are available upon request to the League's
national headquarters. Individual copies will be supplied to non—members of the League at
a price of 5¢ per copy. _