THE ORARCH
905 Central Square Bldg., Cambridge, Mass.
No. 4
JAN 1940
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Issued by the Boston Liberty Group. This paper is issued by a group, and is not the property of any individual.
Contributions of news or articles are welcomed.
"GRANT TO OTHERS ALL RIGHTS YOU WOULD HAVE OTHERS GRANT TO YOU."
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THE FREE SPEECH FRONT
One of the latest attempts at censorship occurred when the Cambridge City Council voted unanimously, during the last week of 1939, to bar from the city limits anything whatever using the names "Lenin" or "Leningrad."
Of course, under this ordinance, no outside papers could enter the city, especially if they carry war news or war maps―and Cambridge people read mainly Boston papers.
There were other difficulties in the way of enforcing such a censorship.
Fortunately, this censorship bill met with a "pocket veto."
Such measures as this are actually revivals of the war-time hysteria of 1917-1922, under which persecution of all opposition opinion was conducted quite as systematically as in any of the so-called dictatorships. The revivals are now somewhat on the increase, largely sponsored by a certain Congressional committee whom we would rather not name. And we must not forget that such repression has its sanction on the Federal law books, in the shape of the Espionage Act, quoted in a recent issue of The Orarch.
It is utter nonsense to talk about "national defense" against a foreign enemy who is never likely to come all the way across oceans, especially when such internal enemies as heresy-hunting committees or as the city council above-mentioned are infinitely more dangerous to American liberties than any invader could ever become. To defend a government that attacks American freedom in this fashion is direct "aid and comfort" to the enemies of the people of the United States―and we can say this without giving any support to those whom the heresy-hunters choose to call "subversive," who themselves are no better than their persecutors in their attitude towards opposition opinion.
The tolerance required by freedom of speech is tolerance for one's bitterest opponent to the extent of allowing him to say his say fully. And, as for "subversiveness," what we need to combat is the subversive government. As the Declaration of Independence tells us: "That when governments become destructive of these ends (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish them."
The idea behind "national defense" is that we must institute dictatorship and repressions to prevent foreigners from giving us the same thing.
This tendency towards repression of opposition has shown itself again still more recently when a certain society, alleged to be plotting against the government, was raided in various parts of the country. It may or may not be true, as alleged, that this society was itself planning a dictatorship―we cannot
speak as to that,
and it is irrelevant to our issues for no matter what its political opinions, freedom of speech requires that it must be legitimate to discuss them freely. And wherein lies the
means of suppressing the supporters of a dictatorship by an administration which thereby sinks to their level?
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"He used to be mixed up in politics, but he's out now."
"Did his term expire, was he pardoned, or did he escape?"
―Boston Globe
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"Doctrines which set group against group, faith against faith, race against race, class against class, were used as rabble-rousing slogans
on which dictators could ride to power."―From the President's latest
message to Congress.
Roosevelt should know all about those "rabble-rousing slogans." He has been persistently trying that very method of "riding to power," and acts a bit disappointed that it has not produced the same results as his friends the dictators have succeeded in reaching.
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"BLUE RIBBON JURIES."
The New York State legislature is now considering a bill to abolish the system of so-called "blue-ribbon juries" now
in use in certain cases in the cities of New York and Buffalo.
In those cities, the custom has grown-up in certain criminal cases, especially the cases involving rackets of selecting from the jury lists the names of those who are known for their high record of convictions, and the case is entrusted to juries so composed. This means that the jury is picked for its prejudices against the accused, making it a simple matter to railroad innocent persons to the electric chair.
It cannot be repeated too often, in answer to those who claimed the importance of punishing criminals, that nobody benefits more than the real criminal when an innocent person is punished for a crime he never committed, as happens frequently, and in few places more often than in New York
City. By such a process, not only do innocent persons suffer, but the racketeers are well satisfied and encouraged when they can pin the rap on the nearest person handy, while the district attorney
can advance himself politically with acquiring a great reputation as a racket-buster.
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The Supreme Judicial court of Massachusetts having ruled that "one-armed driving" is gross negligence," the Registrar of Motor Vehicles has commented that both the driving and the girl are being neglected; both operations, to be properly handled, require the use of both arms.
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A city once hired a police chief from a distant place, as a noted expert racket-buster. After several weeks during which no further complaints were heard about
rackets, the new chief came to the city council with "I'll tell you how I got rid of the rackets. I bought them out.
Now try to get rid of me."
Those who would try a war against "the dictators might well pause to consider this story.
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As the Orarch is still without a mailing address, subscriptions will have to be handled through our agents only for a while.
The name "Orarchy" means limited government―limited in powers and jurisdiction.
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WAGNER ACT INVESTIGATED
While Congress is starting an investigation of the National Labor Relations Board and unearthing its partiality to a dictatorial organization called the
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO to most of us), the Supreme Court, now completely converted into a
New Deal blackjack, has been extending the scope of the Board's powers so as to make it
practically impossible to appeal from the Board's actions on many points. At the same time, lower Federal courts in various parts of the country have come out with interpretations of that law, which may give a warning of the fact that the Act is just as good a weapon against labor racketeers as it has been for
them―were it only enforced more impartially.
It is to be hoped that some drastic alteration of the Wagner Act will result.
Straw polls have already shown that a majority of the people, both "Democrats" and
"Republicans," are opposed to it in its present form. This
mongrel piece of legislation was part of the spawn of the deceased Blue Eagle; and, while it starts out with announcing the principle that workers have a right to organize in unions of their own choosing, it immediately contradicts that statement by permitting that most flagrant violation of this principle, the
"closed shop." It forbids any form of employees' cooperational efforts and
promotes nothing but bureaucratic regimentation; and the sooner it is gotten rid of, the better for all concerned, especially the workers who
have, by that law, been forced under the grinding heel of labor dictators.
And why are not those labor dictators ordered to "cease and desist" from dominating the organization of their own employees?
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"UNION NOW"
"Union Now" is the name of a particularly vicious propaganda designed to
involve the United states in war as an ally of Britain.
The design is for an immediate federation of fifteen so-called
"democracies" including the United States and several units of the
British Empire, with armies, navies, currencies, and post-office systems pooled. This federation would, of course, take over the "allied" side of the present European War, and its main object, like the original object of the league of Nations, would be the united effort involved in repressing other countries and in exploiting colonies in common.
There are in reality no democracies in the world as yet. All that this proposed plan would units is
imperialism made more rampant than ever; and the plan is really an attempt to bring America back into the British Empire that it revolted against successfully in 1775.
We doubt if this plan can ever come to anything anyway. The totalitarian nations
that it is designed to bring into this federation (such as Britain and
France) cannot possibly enter a federation without making it unworkable, as they did
with the League of Nations, because they are not prepared to accept or understand the idea of Orarchy, the principle that a government
must recognize limitations on its power of legislation and regulation.
America would be well advised to continue to stay away from the Eastern Hemisphere, and to confine its efforts at federation to the nations
on this side of the ocean where experience in federal organization and limited government prepare them for a next great step in that direction. Uniting with the
Western Hemisphere means peace, uniting with the Eastern means war.
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The volume of "third-term" rumors that are being circulated remind some of us of the days of 1912, when another Roosevelt presented himself as a third-term candidate. Here is a 1912 verse composed about it:
"Fight on for Him and country; the
watchword, He is It;
No on the
sovereign Peopul, all others they are nit."
The spirit of third termites seems the same in 1940 as in 1912; only they have become more virulent termites than ever.
