Evening Star Newspaper, July 16, 1937, Page 9

THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, FRIDAY, JULY 16, 1937. OMMON SENSE Three weeks ago, the Citizens Committee of Johnstown, Pa., published ‘an advertisement en- titled WE PROTEST. In that advertisement, we denounced the violence and intimidation which marked the organizing tactics of the C. I. O. in Johnstown. We stated as our opinion that it was the duty of the Government to protect the individual citizen in his legal rights, and we appealed to Ameri- cans everywhere to help us make our views heard. The response was overwhelming. A total of $59,000 was received in over 5,000 individual con- tributions. Even more encouraging to us was the fact that representative citizens from 73 other com- munities agreed to meet with us in Johnstown, to discuss a peaceable solution to the present industrial strite. We have said before, and we repeat: This is not a question of being for or against unions. It is not a question of being for-or against employers. We believe in the right to strike and the right to picket, peaceably and within the law. We believe in the right of the individual to continue working, if he so chooses, free of all intimidation. BUT WHEN AN UNNECESSARY OR- GANIZING STRIKE CAN DISRUPT THE LIFE OF A WHOLE COMMUNITY . . . WHEN MEN ARE SLUGGED AND BEATEN BECAUSE THEY WILL NOT JOIN A PAR- TICULAR UNION ... WHEN THE GOVERN- MENT FAILS TO PROTECT THE INDIVID- UAL WORKER AGAINST THE THREATS OF A LAWLESS MINORITY . .. THEN WE THINK THE PUBLICHAS A RIGHT TO PRO- TEST. We think we have a right to protest because . the Constitution says in plain words: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” We think that means what it says. But apparently Senator Wagner does not agree with us. In a dispatch from Washington (New York World- Telegram, July 14, 1937) he is quoted as saying: “Private citizens sponsoring anti-union ‘citizens com- mittees’ and vigilante groups may be violating the Wagner act.” Please note that we are not anti-union, and that we are not vigilantes. We are a Citizens Committee. We assembled peaceably and we are petitioning the Government for a redress of grievances. For this we are to be investigated, the dispatch further says, by the National Labor Relations Board. Common sense would suggest that the man to be investigated is the man with the club in his hands, and not the innocent bystander who appeals to the Government for protection in his constitutional rights. We appeal to the common sense of the citizens of this country, confident that they will agree with us. Any one who reads the resolutions which were passed at the Johnstown meeting of July 15th, and which we reproduce elsewhere on this page, must realize that we are asking for only one thing—the impartial protection of the law, which we believe to be the very essence of democratic government. We invite you to join the Citizens National Committee, if you agree that the time has come for a reasonable and common-sense revision of a labor policy which has been proven by experience to be unsound and impractical. If it is left unchanged, if we have learned nothing from the bitter experience of the past months, YOUR community may be the next to suffer. : Write your senator and representative and - make them understand cleatly that this is the most pressing problem before the country today. Conttibutions to the funds which we need to keep this protest before the people should be sent to George C. Rutledge, Treasurer, Citizens National Committee, Box H, Johnstown, Pa. Resolutions passed at a meeting of representative citizens from 74 American communities, held at Johnstown, Pa., July 15, 1937 PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS WHEREAS certain public officials in high places as well as minor executives of the law through- out the country have failed to use the authority given them as a trust under oath to protect American citizens in their inalienable constitutional rights to work without molestation, and WHEREAS occasions have arisen where we can no longer look to certain constituted authorities to protect human constitutional rights; THEREFORE, as loyal American citizens we feel it is our patriotic duty to perfect a nation-wide organization whose function it shall be to restore and protect those constitutional rights that have been taken from American citizens by certain un- worthy officials BE IT RESOLVED, L. That this meeting condemns the lawlessness and violence which have marked the present wave of strikes throughout the country. II. That we are opposed to any group, whether on the side of labor or management, which invites or is responsible for violence in defiance of the Constitution of the United States. III. That we believe it the duty of the Government to guarantee by the impartial enforcement of lew, the right of every citizen to work or strike as he may choose, and to join or refrain from joining any labor organization, as he may desire. IV. We believe that lebor unions end employers should be equally responsible before the law. V. We will oppose and will continue to oppose activities which ere un-American, Communistic end destructive 80 the welfare of our nation. .GITIZENS NATIONAL COMMITTEE JOHNSTOWN, PA. ORMSBY McHARG, Vice-Chairman Treasurer JOHN H. STANTON, Chairman Johnstown, Pa. W. C. WOODWARD South Yasmouth, Mass. GEORGE C. RUTLEDGE, New York City REMBERT G. SMITH Afion, Okjahoma . Johnstown, Pa. DON KIRKLEY Wablagea, D, & - LAWRENCE W. CAMPBELL, Secretary Johnstown, Pa.