Constitution of the United States : a study in contrast--fascism, nazism and communism ( • IIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIillllilllllllMilllll llllllliilllllllll** CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 33 A Study in Contrasts— Fascism, Nazism and Communism Constitution Based on Catholic Principles Constitution and Pri- vate Property Youth and Ameri- canism God in the Constitution Constitution of The United States A Study in Contrasts— Fascism, Nazism and Communism Rev. Joseph A. Vaughan, S. J., Ph. D.r Loyola University, Los Angeles, Calif. No. 95 Our Sunday Visitor Press Huntington, Indiana Nihil Obstat: REV. T. E, DILLON Censor Librorum Imprimatur: *£ JOHN FRANCIS NOLL, D. D., Bishop of Fort Wayne DaaeWffied A Study in Contrasts— Fascism, Nazism and Communism THIS article, has been entitled“The Constitution of the Uni- ted States.” In reality it is a study of Fascism, Nazism, Communism as opposed to Constitutional Dem- ocracy such as we have known and enjoyed in this country for a cen- tury and a half. You are surprised perhaps that a Catholic priest dis cusses such a subject. You ask, is he not going beyond his sphere of activity ? Well, first, I would as an individ ual Catholic priest give public tes- timony to the gratitude individual Catholics would express towards the Constitution under which we live. And secondly, I will try to emphasize—through contrast with other governments—that the gov- ernment under which we live is highly in keeping with the princi- ples of the natural law or the law of God. Such principles are like- wise the principles of Jesus Christ, for Christ was God. One is struck immediately with the one man domination under Fascism. ^Mussolini is the Duce, the leader, and on all sides it is Viva Mussolini. The parliamentary sys- tem has been abolished. True, re presentatives are elected in Italy just as in the United States. They 4 Constitution of the United States meet once, and vote themselves out of existence, leaving all to II Duce. There are thirteen cabinet posi- tions in Italy; Mussolini holds sev- en of them, or a majority. Hitler, Stalin Supreme Pass over to Germany, and under Nazism again one man domination Hitler is supreme, with the very doubtful advice of a coterie of five or six chosen by himself. Jump to Russia, and again one man domination in the person of Stalin. And here I pause to remark that the young radicals of America and other countries who are rav- ing and ranting about the dangers of war and Fascism blithely forget that Russia is the greatest Fascist nation in the world. Ostensibly the proletariat—which means the com- mon people—rule. In reality it is the iron fist of Stalin. In Russia you think, speak and act as Stalin dictates or take the consequences. And as to war, Russia is the most warlike nation in the world today, with 1,000,000 men under arms, ten million more men and women train- ed for action, and with the great- est fleets of aeroplanes and tanks in the history of the world. These young radicals are simply throw- ing a smoke screen, behind which the active Communists will march to attack. And I cannot help re- marking that the Y. M. C. A. of Columbus, Ohio, which several Constitution of the United States 5 weeks ago threw open its halls for a radical convention of these youths, deserves governmental re- prehension. Is Different Here One man domination therefore — with neither a national supreme Court nor a national congress to hold that one man in check, such is the system of government in Italy, Germany and Russia. In the United States it is a case of check and re-check, with a President as executive to act—nor arbitrarily according to his own whims or the limitations or prejudices of his own individual mind, but according to the dictates of a congress elected by you and me; and with a Sup- reme Court— the most highly re- spected court in the world, a court that is above all politics—sitting in judgment on the dictates of our Congress. Public servants—we are want to call all these officials, from the President, right down through the Supreme Court to the latest elected Congressman; for they have been elected, not as masters to lord it over us, but as servants to serve. The framers of our Constitution were wise men, many of then) widely read in the history of the nations, and all of them having ex- perienced domination without re- presentation. They recognized the principle of the natural law that man comes before the State—“that 6 Constitution of the United States the individual is not a creature of the State”—to quote the United States Supreme Court, and that the only reason for a governments ex- istence is to protect the pre-exist ing rights of the individuals. As opposed to such principles of government, we have what today is known as the Totalitarian State — the State is everything, supreme; the individual is its servant; and this Totalitarian State is exempli- fied in varying degrees in Italy, Germany and Russia. Listen to Mussolini: Individual All Important “The Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coin- cide with those of the State and the universal will of man as an historic entity.” In America the State or government must coincide with the will of the individuals. Says Mussolini further: “Fascism reasserts the rights of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual. The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; out- side of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood Fascism is totalitarian.” What does he mean by saying that the rights of the State ex- press the real essence of the indi- vidual? Essence generally means nature, and as I interpret it, the Constitution of the United States 7 very human nature of each individ- ual Italian demands absolutely that he subject himself abjectly to the rights and dictates of government as conceived by the Fascists, that is by Mussolini. And when he de- clares that outside that respect for state rights there are no human or spiritual values, I ask: What about the rights of God ? Those are spiritual values. What about the the human rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ? What Mussolini says of Italy, you will find in a still more ex- aggerated degree in Germany, and in the highest degree in Russia, where all rights seem to have been abrogated, even the right to life. As Yaroslowsky, head of the De- partment of Education, has stated it: “Whatever helps the communis- tic cause is good; whatever hinders it is bad.” Hence they had no hesitancy whatever in starving to death 2,000,000 kulaks in the Volga in 1932, or 3,000,000 more in 1933. The kulaks clung to their private farms, hindered the communistic cause and therefore had to go. What are some other character- istics of these various systems of government? In Italy there is neither freedom of speech nor free- dom of the press, all being under rigid Fascist censorship. All news- paper editors, all reporters are sub- ject to Fascist examination; criti- cism of the Fascist government is 8 Constitution of the United States automatically ruled out. In Ger- many and Russia, the censorship is still more rigid. Contrast this with U. S. A. Governmental Regimentation Governmental regimentation of men, women and children is univer- sal in all three countries, whicn means that not only education, but all social and club life is state regulated. Hence the difficulties in both Italy and Germany with church groups that sought to pre- serve their organizations for boys and girls. There was no Church in Russia strong enough to resist; and the children have become the absolute playthings of the State No such regimentation exists in America, though the Child Labor Bill and some parts of the Security Act tended in that direction. And I might add right here that the thirteen colonies that sent repre- sentatives to the Constitutional Congress were all jealous of their local rights and took every pre- caution to avert precisely this sort of regimentation or paternalism on the part of the Federal Govern- ment. Note the number of negatives in the first ten Amendments or the Bill of Rights, added to the Con- stitution to protect the rights of the separate colonies. They were written not to give positive powers to the colonies—these they felt they had of their own right—but Constitution of the United States 9 as a check on the Federal Govern- ment to guarantee that those rights would not be violated. Now, my Friends, I could go on to discuss other characteristics of these governments, pointing out their variance with or opposition to Constitutional Democracy such as we have known and enjoyed it in this country. Suffice it to say that the whole tendency in Fascism, Nazism and Communism is to de- stroy liberty. For the true patri- otic American, indeed for the ordi- nary man of common sense, this is enough. We need know no more. Natural Rights Ignored Study nature. Nature is the voice of God and reveals to us the plan of God. God created man, man existed before the State. Man is by nature social, that is has an inborn longing to live in the com- pany of his fellow men. God, the author of man, implanted that longing. God therefore wants so- ciety. Yielding to that longing men formed societies which we now call States, they formed these States for their mutual protection, development and happiness. Prompted by the same inborn in- stinct, our forefathers gathered at Philadelphia to form a State for their mutual protection, develop- ment and happiness. Or as they said in the Preamble to the Con- stitution: 10 Constitution of the United States “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, in- sure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.” Why therefore do I, a Catholic priest, love and defend the Constitution? Precisely because I feel that in its motives and ideals and dictates it is highly in accord with the natural law or the law . of God. No, it is not a perfect document—for no human document can be perfect—and it undoubtedly needs amend- ment from time to time. But I deliberately choose it out from amongst the existing forms of gov- ernment as that most nearly ap- proaching the plan of God—a free people voluntarily joining themsel- ves together into a State for their mutual welfare, and voluntarily surrendering their own God given social authority into the hands of their own government repre- sentatives for the happiness of all concerned. A word in conclusion. I have written of Italy on previous occa- sions and have been chided with the remark: The Pope approves of Fascism. Frankly, I don’t believe the Pope approves of Fascism; he merely tolerates it. It is thus I Constitution of the United States 11 would evade the criticism. If the Italians want Fascism, and they seem to like it; if the Germans want Nazism, and this is not clear; and if the Russians want Commu- nism, which for the rank and file is not true,—let them all have them. But no true American, no true lover of peace and personal liberty and the welfare of his neighbor and the rights of man should remain supinely silent while a group of shallow minded radicals strives to foit off on us foreign doc- trines and devices that have noth- ing in common with American prin- ciples, the law of God or even com- mon sense. As Washington said: “We ought to deprecate the hazard attending ardent and susceptible minds from being too strongly and too early prepossessed in favor of other political systems before they are capable of appreciating their own.” Constitution Based on Catholic Principles DOUBTLESS some of my friendsare still wondering why a Catholic priest is so solicitous for the conservation of the United States Constitution. I gave a par- tial answer when I discussed with condemnation the two alternative systems of Fascism and Com- munism. But a still readier answer would have been discovered recently by alert newspaper readers. The headline read: “Mexican Catholics defy the Government/* The article quoted pertinent ex- cerpts from an edict of the Mexi- can Bishops, in which they abso- lutely condemned the socialistic education doled out at present in Mexican schools by government command, an education which de mands socialization of all industry, the abolition of private property and of many of the natural and inalienable rights of man. The Bishops declared such doctrines un- natural, opposed therefore to the law of God, to the plan of God ir the universe, and added that any parents that subject their children to such teachings are guilty of sin. It must be noted that Mexico has legally approved of the word social- istic—which with them means com- Constitution of the United States 13 munistic—and has formally writ- ten the word into the Federal Con- stitution in the Article on educa- tion. That newspaper article there- fore reveals just what communism stands for and just what the Cath- olic Church does not stand for. And indirectly it tells us why the Cath- olic Church stands 100 per cent be- hind the Constitution of the United States, and why a Catholic priest speaks out in defense of our Con- stitution. Mexico’s Laws Before bidding adieu to the Mex- ican situation, lest there be any doubt as to what is tolerated or sanctioned below our southern bor- der, I refer to two other recent news dispatches. In the one, there was described a parade of twelve thousand school teachers who marched to the Federal Capitol de- manding of Cardenas two things, first that they be protected from violence as they taught socialistic doctrines; secondly, that their sal- aries be raised. And the dispatch significantly remarks: “There were many red flags in that parade, but not one Mexican flag.” If I might be allowed to add my own comments, I very much doubt that all the twelve thousand were school teachers, more likely a very small percentage, the bulk of that parade being made up of the usual communist vagrants watching for such opportunities. The second 14 Constitution of the United States newspaper dispatch declared that the Red Capital of Latin America had been moved recently from Uru- guay in South America to Mexico City. From that point henceforth will be issued all directions to com- munist agents. For a long time America has been playing ball with Calles, who might be classified as a fascist dic- tator. Calles has been blasted from his throne, much to the embarrass- ment of high American officials and wealthy American business men. Now America must play ball with the communistic government. And in the event of a Callista revolution, will America once again forget her oft-repeated neutrality, and bacx the rebel horse? Opportunism seems to have replaced principles these past thirty years in America We need again men of the states- man-like character of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe. Back to Constitution But back to our Constitution. This document we praise, for it re- spects all that Communism ana part of what Fascism deny. II condemns socialization of industry, it protects private property, and above all it recognizes the inher- ent, inalienable, natural rights of man, the rights to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and freedom of conscience. I discuss the last one first. Free- dom of conscience! Analyze that Constitution of the United States 15 expression. We are free, we de- clare, to believe what we want. Yes, we are free; that is, no man has a right to impose his beliefs on his fellow man. But has God the right? If I thought the Catholic Church were a man made religion trying to impose its belief on man- kind, I would reject it instantly. It would be unnatural; it would be op- posed to the Constitution of the United States. It is only because I am intellectually convinced after studying the matter philosophically for years that God and God alone in the person of Jesus Christ es- tablished the Catholic Church, it is for that reason alone that I humbly bow my head and accept it; and it is for that reason and that reason alone that I labor to spread the teachings of that Church. Communism Rejects Religion Under Communism, one must think, speak and act as the com- munist dictators decree. God has no part in the plan. The very philo- sophy of communism rejects and must reject any such thing as free- dom of conscience. The world has not been shaped by any mythical God—they declare—but by certain inexorable economic laws, which to- day at this stage in history demand the abolition of all private property and the communization of the world. Religion and communism are ir- reconcilable. They must be so. 16 Constitution of the United States Hoglund, once an active Russian communist, tried to reconcile the two, and was run out of the party. And just as communism bluntly and unconditionally rejects all freedom of conscience and religion, so the United States Constitution just as bluntly and unconditionally demands or ordains freedom of con science and respect for all religion. Religion is derived from the Latin word “religare” which means to bind. No man has the right to bind us, only God. Freedom of con - science means the natural right (and indeed obligation) to submit to this binding by God. Commun- ists destroy this tie that binds us to God, and indirectly binds us to our fellow men. The great philoso- phic and principled minds that framed our Constitution reasoned all this out and wrote it into that sacred document. And here I pause to give an added reason why a Catholic priest defends the Constitution. The great classical Catholic writer on civil government is Robert Cardinal Bellarmine, who wrote in the six- teenth century. He was the most powerful antagonist of the doctrine —then popular in England—of the divine right of kings, a doctrine that taught the king of England was chosen by God Himself, and had his power directly from God; the people had nought to say, and rebellion against the king, no mat- Constitution of the United States 17 ter how tyrannical, would be rebel- lion against God Himself. Against this doctrine Bellarmine wrote that all men were created free and equal, that authority came from God to the people, that the people chose their ruler and gave him his authority, and that they could withdraw that authority when tyr- ranny or other conditions demanded it. Or briefly, he laid down with all the philosophical reasons the basis of constitutional government such as we know it today, and that the ruler rules only with the con- sent of those governed. Bellarmine was evidently a bold writer, in days when kings were at the height of power and practically every nation was an autocracy. Influenced Jefferson Well, what has all that to do with the United States Constitu- tion, which came into existence some two hundred years later? In answer to which I state that with- out Cardinal Bellarmine there might have been no United States Constitution. Bellarmine wrote in Latin. Today in the Library of Congress at Washington is a book taken from Jefferson’s private lib- rary. Anyone visiting the Library may see it on request. This book is a translation in part of Bellar- mine. The margins of the pages are freely annotated in ink by the hand as is supposed of Jefferson, for the book was Jefferson’s per- 18 Constitution of the United States sonal private property. We are all familiar with the Declaration of Independence, written by Jeffer- son, and should be familiar with the Constitution, framed chiefly by Jefferson and Madison. One can run through these documents with Bellarmine open at his side, and note constantly the ideas and even occasionally entire phrases taken from Bellarmine. Jefferson was educated in Eng- land. Bellarmine’s works in par tial translations were put into Jef- ferson’s hands by his English pro- fessors, not to praise Bellarmine but to condemn. Autocracy was still strong in England. The teacn- ing acted like a boomerang. Little did those English professors real- ize that they were putting into the hands of the youthful Jefferson the very instrument that was to smash Britisn rule in America, and lay the foundations for a document described by Gladstone as “the most remarkable ever struck off at a given time by the brain and pur- pose of man.” The Constitution of the United States is based, therefore, on Cath- olic principles, or rather I should say, on principles frankly enun- ciated by Catholics, for these prin- ciples should be—though they were not always—the principles of all truly Christian churches. You will not be surprised therefore that a Catholic priest feels himself bound Constitution of the United States 19 to defend, and takes pride in de- fending, the Constitution against all radical devices that would be foisted off on us by jealous or dis- contented or malicious foreign agi- tators. Fundamental Principles Allow me to conclude by quoting a summary of the fundamental American principles of Govern- ment, as given by Thomas F. Woodlock, Contributing Editor of the Wall Street Journal: First, that all men are created equal (equal that is before the law). Second, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain in- alienable rights, that is rights which belong to them as men, which are not a grant from the State or even from their fellow citizens, and rights which are good as against their fellow citizens and against the State itself. Third, that the main business of the State is to protect its citizens in those rights, and that it rests with the citizens to determine in whose hands the governmenta' powers shall rest. F’ourth, that it is for the people themselves to deter- mine the form of government, and when it fails in the above purpose, to change that form. Thus far Mr. Woodlock. Under that last clause it is quite clear that the Italians of Italy have a right to choose a fascist form of 20 Constitution of the United States government if they so desire, and it seems as if they desire it, for in the last election Mussolini’s govern- ment received a vote of 10.000,000 with 15,000 opposed. And under that last clause all Russia might voluntarily accept a communistic form of government, even as reli- gious orders in the Catholic Church today have a voluntary communistic form of government; but the inhabitants of Russia would not be free to accept the commun- istic form of government that pre- vails in Russia today, for it is a denial of practically all the natural rights of man, and of all the rights of God. And the people of America have the right to accept fascism o ' a proper form of communism h they so desire. But no true Ameri can, or rather no man of common sense who has studied the philo- sophy of our Constitution and the prosperous history of our country will hanker for a change. No true Catholic desires such a change. Constitution and Private Property C hurches the world over — whether Catholic or Protestant churches or Jewish synagogues — have been built not by the State or the governments, but by the gener- ous contributions of the pious faith- ful, often at tremendous sacrifice. In Paris today on the little hill to the south of the River Seine stands the famous basilica of St. Gene- vieve, built between the seventh and eleventh centuries. St. Gene- vieve, an early Christian martyr, is the patroness of Paris. Today her church has become a temple of the dead, a mausoleum, a burial place for the famous or infamous men of France. Where once stood the altar of God, there stands to- day—built at the end of the War — a statue of liberty, with soldiers of various allied nations kneeling in adoration. From that little hill top, wend your way a short distance over to the Invalides or soldiers’ home. The beautiful central chapel, with its majestic dome rising heavenward, has been turned into a tomb of Napoleon. Step across the south- ern border into Italy, and in every city churches are found profaned and consecrated to unworthy causes. To quote but one example, 22 Constitution of the United States the basilica of St. Sebastian in Verona—with the name of the saint stretching across the door- way in huge letters of gold—has been converted into a movie palace, with one of the side entrances on the corner changed to a saloon. Churches Desecrated In Rome I went straight from the train to the Collegio Romano, a massive building in the heart of the city, and built in the sixteenth century with the private funds of St. Francis Borgia. It had long been the home of my Jesuit ances- tors, and the dwelling place of St. Aloysius, St. John Berchmans, St. Robert Bellarmine and hundreds of others of a saintly line. One of the entrances was walled up with cement, the other was chained. A sign over the doorway announced that it was a public lyceum or school and closed for the summer. I felt like a wanderer from afar returning to the ancestral home and finding the doors barred. I proceeded then to the Jesuit Church, the Gesu, where in the connecting residence my Jesuit Superiors from the time of St. Ig- natius had had their abode. I en- tered the Church, but on trying to enter the residence, for a second time that morning bumped against a cement wall. The residence is now government property, con- verted into a museum. In Spain I found churches with the windows Constitution of the United States 23 bulging with hay; they had been converted into stables with horses quartered in the niches where once had stood the altars of God. In Germany I sought out various mu- seums and libraries, and more of- ten than not my Baedecker told me that the buildings had formerly been Catholic Colleges. But One Example Coming closer to home and down to our own times, only recently I met a friend from Mexico, an elder- ly priest. In his early forties he fell heir to a large inheritance. He was a pious man and wished to de- vote his money to the welfare of the poor. He constructed at his own expense a magnificent hospi- tal and installed a community of nursing Sisters, guaranteeing the support of the hospital and the care of the indigent sick from his own funds. He was unmarried; so he studied for the priesthood, was ordained and appointed chaplain of the hospital. The autocratic, com- munistic, atheistic government that holds sway in Mexico has seen fit to banish the Sisters and the chaplain, has confiscated the property—though it was entirely private property—and has robbed the indigent sick of their one re- fuge in time of physical suffering. This is but one outstanding ex- ample of which I have personal knowledge. Judging by articles in the newspapers, nursing Sisters are 24 Constitution of the United States taboo in Mexico, and the poor and suffering will be thrown on the un- tender mercies of public charity* Who will replace those Sisters, all unsalaried nurses, working purely out of love for the poor? Could such things take place in America? Not under our Constitu- tion. It is inconceivable that the State should suddenly swoop down and take possession, let us say, of a magnificent Jewish Temple or a Cathedral, or a Hospital or all the buildings of a secular college. All such institutions have been built by private subscription, all are looked on as private property held by private corporations, and our Constitution guarantees their in- tegrity and inviolability. If the State can confiscate pri- vate property that is devoted to public use, there is nothing to stop it from confiscating private pro- perty devoted to private use. In Russia not only the churches and schools and orphan asylums and old peoples’ homes have been de- clared government property, but even the very homes and farms and factories of private individuals. Can we imagine here in America, government troops marching with guns on shoulders, driving farmers and their families from their com- fortable homes, and their beautiful green orchards, and converting all into government property? Away with the thought. Yet that is a Constitution of the United States 25 scene that the radicals long to wit- ness. Thank God for the protection of our Constitution. Fought for Freedom Centuries ago our first forefath- ers abandoned Europe with its tur- moil and hatreds and persecutions and tyranny to find freedom and brighter prospects on the shores of America. When tyranny still stretched its cruel gripping hand across the ocean, they broke for- ever with Europe and wrote a Con- stitution of their own. Under the protection of that Constitution, our hardy forebears gathered their families into rough wagons, push- ed up over the Alleghanies and down into the fertile valleys of the Ohio. Here and there a group dropped out of line, cleared away the primeval forests, planted wheat and corn, set up saw mills and flour mills, and established new communities. Some of the more hardy pushed on westward, forded the mighty Mississippi, staked out the plains and transformed that vast silent expanse into gardens and orchards and corn fields. Or with indomitable energy, they dug deep # into the earth, dragging forth its treasures of iron and copper and converting them into instruments of use and comfort. And finally the hardiest of all drove their oxen over the piled up sands of the deserts, climbed the Rockies and the Sierras and dropped down ex- 26 Constitution of the United States hausted into the untilled valleys of California. And soon those val- leys were transformed into smiling orchards surrounding happy homes, with orange and lemon, olive and date palms, prunes and plums and cherries and apricots exultingly waving their rich green branches in the gentle breezes from the Pacific. Fruits of Labor It took labor, it took courage, it took indomitable energy, but above all it demanded unlimited confid- ence in the Constitution written by themselves or their fathers. They knew that under the protection of that Constitution the products of their labor and sacrifices would be theirs. They knew that the com- forts of the homes they built would be enjoyed by their wives and their little ones. They knew that the hard won wealth would be trans- mitted to their children and to their children’s children, unto un- told generations. That is the way this mighty country of ours has grown, wheth- er we consider the great teeming metropolitan centers such as New York and Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, or the far-flung reaches of our agriculture areas — all of it grew from the inspiration and protection of the Constitution framed by our forefathers. Under that Constitution, man was guar- anteed the fruits of his labors, a Constitution of the United States 27 guarantee that never failed. Under that Constitution man has lived happy as never before. Under that Constitution and its guarantees, man in America has attained a dig- nity and comfort and wealth known in previous history only to kings and queens. And under that Con- stitution and its guarantees men in America will continue to enjoy peace, comfort and wealth. What Christ Taught Now, My Friends, I have de- clared that the Constitution is highly in keeping with the teach- ings of Christianity. Christ at no time condemned private property; on the contrary I could quote in- numerable texts from Sacred Scrip- ture showing divine approval of private property. When the rich man in the Gospel asked Christ: What shall I do to enter life? Our Lord answered, “Keep the com- mandments.” When the young man asked still further what he must do to be perfect, Christ advised him: “Go sell what thou hast and give it to the poor, and come, follow Me.’ He did not command him to sell it, but advised him to sell it and give his riches to the poor, only if he wished to be perfect. And again: Christ dwelt in the house of the rich man, Zacheus. When the latter said that he had given half his goods to the poor, Christ did not command him to give away the other half. Again, 28 Constitution of the United States it is quite evident that God gives a husband the right, and indeed im- poses on him the obligation, of tak- ing care of his wife and children. He does this in life through his labors and the fruits of his labors. But his obligation does not cease with life. He does so after his death through inheritance. Away therefore with all the rav- ings and rantings of foreign dema- gogues or sophisticated natives who would destroy all the blessings brought us by our Constitution, and who would fly in the face of God by destroying our natural God-given rights. Youth and Americanism I DEVOTE this chapter to the youth of our country. And I speak, not so much as a Catholic priest, rather as an American who traces his ancestry right back to colonial Virginia. Frankly this subject is close to my heart. My whole life is given to the education of American youth, but latterly I—in common with the great body of patriotic American teachers—have been wondering if all my labors are to be frustrated by a few that lack American ideals. Mental Poison America is too strong mentally and physically to be conquered from without unless she allows her- self to be conquered. Physically — let the nations to the East or the West know that we have no coast defenses,—they already know that we have no Army—and we will be- come their easy prey. Mentally — if all the foreign devices that for- eign agitators are cleverly drag- ging into this counry be allowed to inoculate our body politic and our American youth, the entire nation- al organism will soon be poisoned and rot. Pagan Rome was the mightiest empire of her time. She was not conquered from without. Politically corrupt as well as im- moral, she rotted from within, and 30 Constitution of the United States the barbarians from the North trampled without resistance upon her inert quivering carcass. Is America—poisoned from without — gradually rotting from within ? The signs are all too ominous, particu- larly in our American student body today. Let us frankly acknowledge the evil, no matter what our pre- judices or sentiments. The hidden disease will kill; the discovered disease can be cured. Americanism means love of America, love of country. But that word country—it may sound vague. Let us clear up the vagueness. Country, it means the ground we walk on, it means our fellow citi- zens, it means the government, its institutions and its laws. The ground we walk on—the Creator has made it the richest ground in the world, amply supplied with ail the materials for life, leisure and luxury, as seen in no other nation in the world. Love is conditional, conditioned on the thing loved con- tinuing worthy of our love. The ground we walk on will always continue lovable. Our country—it signifies our fellow citizens. These —aside from the relatively few racketeers and kidnappers now fast disappearing and the 500,000 crim- inals who are seldom contacted by the most of us and who are but a tiny particle when compared to the huge mass of 120,000,000 citizens —these our fellow citizens are still Constitution of the United States 31 the lovable things they have been in the past. Our government with its institutions and the basic law, the Constitution that stands behind them—it has given us for a cen- tury and a half a peace unmarred by the strife and bloody wars and turmoil of other republics, and 2 prosperity unknown in the history of the world. Such is the lovable country we have loved in the past. Keep it lovable and we shall con- tinue to love it in the future. Men, Not Brutes We are not subjects of a king but citizens of a commonwealth. Ours is not a Czarist government nor a Fascist government, nor a Nazi government, nor a Soviet with the social and economic and political chaos that have made Russia, China and Mexico fields of carnage. Our men are not brutes; our women are not playthings of men. Our manhood takes to the factory, fields or office; our wo- manhood—where she desires it — rules in her kingdom, the home. In America there is equality before the law, and a blacksmith’s helper or a woodchopper may aspire to Senator or President. We have no castes, no earls, nor dukes, nor lords; each father is a king, each mother a queen, and the sons and daughters princes. And in America—as perhaps in no other country in the world—the natural rights to life, liberty and the pur- 32 Constitution of the United States suit of happiness are guaranteed. Yes, and where the natural right, the right bestowed by nature to give or receive an inheritance—is guaranteed. These are the thoughts that must be instilled into young America to- day. Americanism! Love of the United States of America. Love of all that I have feebly pointed out above. Americanism, love of coun- try! We must dedicate ourselves to the task of keeping our country the lovable thing it has been in the past. Against all the foreign devices that foreign agitators would foist off on us, we need a Monroe doctrine. And we need a new and universal pledge of allegiance to our Consti- tution; we need to instil into our youth and demand of their teachers —and that day after day—love of this country of ours and all that it stands for. If the Constitution needs adaptation to present day conditions, let us make the adapt- ation through the one means guar- anteed by that very Constitution, constitutional amendment through the ballot box. But we must not — God forbid—put a keg of dynamite under that sacred document as these foreign agitators and some of our sophisticated youth would do, and scrap it. Let us demand that those entrusted with the edu- cation of American youth pledge anew and frequently their allegi- Constitution of the United States 33 ance to the State and Federal gov- ernments that employ them. If some there be—and apparently there are a few—not in sympathy with their employers, let them seek another job. Is there treason? Let us root it out. Poor Logic One irate spokesman for the 700 New York school teachers that re- fused to take the oath of allegiance declared: “It is no more reasonable to ask a teacher his or her views about the State or Federal Consti- tution, than it is to query a bank clerk, news reporter or hod-car- rier.” Mad logic! The hod carrier or bank clerk have no direct influ- ence on the minds of youth. If they had an oath of allegiance would be demanded. The oath of teachers is demanded precisely be- cause they are teachers and not hod carriers. And as one news- paper remarked: “They have a pretty low estimate of themselves when they compare themselves with hod carriers. Why not com- pare themselves with the Presi- dent, or the Supreme Court Judges and other public officials, all of whom take the oath of allegiance ? ” Against their comparison to hod carriers, I as a teacher protest. The United States is a civil society. A society is a group of individuals organized and cooperating for the good of the whole. Authority and order are essential for society. Men 34 Constitution of the United States are never fully emancipated from authority. In childhood and youth respect for authority must be forced on the unschooled and un- trained individual. This is educa- tion. In manhood the individual properly schooled will respect au- thority spontaneously. If there be trainers of youth in this country who refuse their allegiance to au- thority, let us root them out. If there be communists teaching our children treachery, bid them seek another job. The will of the people is still sovereign. Alas, that a rel- atively few radicals can stigmatize the great body of patriotic Ameri- can school teachers. Preserve Traditions The sacred traditions established by our American forebears with their life blood and preserved in- tact through six generations of labor and sweat and sacrifice, must not be allowed to be shattered by the foreign agitators who have crept craftily into our midst. Poi- son the children and you will in- evitably poison the race. Our chil- dren must not be poisoned. Too young themselves to distinguish the good from the harmful, too yielding to radical tendencies, too easily enthralled by the plausible ingenuities of radical speakers, they cannot recognize the poison. It is our duty to remove the poison. The youth of all eras seems born with a natural tendency to self- Constitution of the United States 35 sufficiency and self-assertion. This is highly noticeable in early child* hood, less so in later youth. By the time manhood has arrived it should disappear, if the child has been properly educated. Youth has already a natural tendency to re- sist authority, without being en- couraged by recalcitrant teachers. We ourselves, we elders who now do so much talking, had the same self-assertive tendency in youth, but we were checked by wise teach- ers. Young people are impatient of their more conservative and ex- perienced elders. They chafe and fret, they grow nervous under re- straint, whether restraint of God or man, particularly in this post- war era when the world has been talking so much and so futilelv about the rights of smaller nations. Youth cries out for self-determina- tion, especially since the sins of their parents has made them vic- tims of the present depression. That depression must be blamed, not on the Constitution but on the sins against the Constitution. Here in the United States some of these young people would clean up the mess by blowing up every- thing and starting from scratch, or rather they would import from Russia a system which is the anti- thesis of all the blessings America has meant in the past. War—that most terrible of wars, class war — famine, pestilence, abandoned chil- 36 Constitution of the United States dren, economical slavery under the point of a bayonet, universal es pionage, stifled ambition and utter despair, with the natural rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- piness, to home family, children and inheritance annihilated! These are the foreign devices they would import. “A Passing Phase” 0, say the Russian optimists, —admitting the evils—this is but a passing phase. Be patient; all will soon be serene in Russia. Well, we have been waiting twenty years. A prudent man will not exchange our own present reality, no matter what its accidental defects, for a visionary future. Finally I repeat what I have said elsewhere—it cannot be repeated too often—bring home to your children a belief in God and volun- tary subjection to the laws of God. Our forefathers wrote the name of God into the very first line of the Declaration of Independence, refer- red to Divine Providence three times within the limits of that short document, and quoted the laws of nature and of nature’s God to justify our separate national ex- istence. Western civilization has been built on a belief in God and the laws of God. Stab God, and civilization reels, totters and falls. Frankly, I believe there is noth- ing wrong with the youth of today, all of them too young to have had Constitution of the United States 37 experience of normal times. If there is failure it is we that have failed. American youth is still the same tender plastic material await- ing* an impression. American youth has still the same imagination and same latent emotions and enthus- iasms awaiting to be aroused by the sight of the Stars and Stripes, by the rhythm of the National Anthem, or the harangue of a Pat rick Henry. Let not the blue and white of our banner blend to a solid red; let not their childish voices or youthful feet keep time to the Internationale; let not pat- riotism or inspiration come from foreign demagogues. God in the Constitution WELL informed readers will ob-ject that the name of God ap- pears nowhere in the Constitution of the United States. They are correct. It doesn’t. It was not necessary to write the name of God into the Constitution. Intel- lectual snobbery had not yet snubbed God and the fatalistic un- belief of the materialist and the self-sufficiency of the atheist had not as yet made life a meaningless riddle. Our Founding Fathers took for granted that no place is so godless as a godless world. Governeur Morris reputedly wrote the words of the Constitu- tion, while Madison suggested the thoughts, borrowed as seems most likely from Jefferson, the latter ab- sent at the time in France. Jeffer- son was the author of the Declara- tion of Independence. The Declara- tion contains the ideals of American liberty, and the basis, origin and ideals of .human government. The Constitution sets up the machinery by which those ideals are to be at- tained. To find God in the Consti- tution, therefore, we must go back to the Declaration of Independence. The foundation of the ideals as well as the ideals themselves are found in the second paragraph. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, Constitution of the United States 39 that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that amongst these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriv- ing their just powers from the con- sent of the governed.” That men have such rights, that such rights come from God our Creator, that governments are instituted to pro- tect those pre-existing rights of man, these are truths—as stated -—so self-evident that any added arguments would weaken the cause. Character of Framers What was the character of these men to whom such truths were so self-evident, and how do those men compare with their materialistic and atheistic critics of today, crit- ics to whom those truths appar- ently are not self-evident, to some even absurd? Who were the men that gave a government that has commanded the admiration and emulation of mankind? De Toc- queville said of that early Conven- tion: “It contained the choicest talents and noblest hearts which ever appeared in the New World.” Jefferson called them “the greatest characters of America” and “an assembly of demi-gods.” Fiske says: “They contained among themselves a greater amount of 40 Constitution of the United States political sagacity (please note the word, not sentiment, but sagacity) than had ever been brought within the walls of a single room.” Hamilton, at the time, was 30; Madison, 36; Dayton, the young- est, was but 25; while Franklin, the venerated sage, was 81. The average age was 40. These were the men that subscribed to such ideals—that man is endowed by God, his Creator, with certain un- alienable rights, and that the pro- tection of such rights is the sole aim of government. Contrast this with the intellectual pride, the un- limited confidence in the twentieth century ego, the materialism and atheism of this age which snub God, ridicule our Founding Fathers, destroy our American traditions and do violence to common sense. As someone has remarked: “Man like Pilate, must either worship God or crucify Him.” To which Chesterton would add. “The news of the death of God is always pre- mature; the Jews learned this early on Calvary.” Result of Godlessness Banish God and we quickly revert to the paganism from which a be- lief in God rescued us. The Soviets have abolished God in Russia; they would do so in the entire world. Al- low me to quote from instructions sent out by Moscow to the Com- munist Party in the United States: Constitution of the United States 41 “In the United States, as in all capitalist countries, the churches, by developing law-abiding citizens through their appeal to an aveng- ing God, become part of the op- pressive apparatus equally with the police, the army and the prisons for the purpose of attempting to suppress rebellion.” Make Good Citizens So the Soviets frankly admit that religion and belief in God develops law-abiding citizens. But this, in their eyes, is an evil. Why, my friends, even if God were a myth, the fact that belief in God can de- velop law-abiding citizens is in it- self sufficient encomium and war- rant. Law means order. Religion and belief in God develop spon- taneous respect for law and spon- taneous effort to achieve order. Evidently the Communists here in America frankly admit that their ideal is disorder, and as a step towards such disorder would an- nihilate God and the churches. I am sometimes inclined to believe that the savage paganism mani- fested here in recent years in both economical and social circles must be attributed to the partial annihil- ation of God. Destroy God and what motive is is left to observe the laws of the land or respect the rights of man? I give the answer in two odious words: Human respect, that is re- 42 Constitution of the United States spect for purely human elements. Either respect for own physical well-being or respect for political authority as represented by our police force or the army, or respect for social authority as represented by polite society. Our own physi- cal well-being can only be affected by the grosser private personal sins; the corner drug store or the professional abortionist takes care of that. As for the police force and its vast corps of detectives, the ramifications of the social and bus- iness world have become so com- plex and legal procedure so doubt- ful and discouraging, and shady manipulations so clever that rights are violated with impunity. And as for social authority, today there is little or none. People often- times openly flaunt their vices, promiscuity is given legal sanc- tion in the form of successive marriages and divorces, nudity is openly tolerated, has even become a business in expositions or on the stage, society has ceased to be polite. What Washington Said Washington once said that re- ligion and morality cannot be di- vorced. Were Washington alive to- day he would be more specific. He would say: Religion and the bank cannot be divorced: religion and the factory cannot be divorced; re- ligion and the family cannot be Constitution of the United States 43 divorced; religion and education cannot be divorced; religion and play cannot be divorced. Russia has given the reason. Religion teaches order and subjec- tion to authority. Well did our forefathers realize, on practical grounds alone, the limitations of human respect or respect for hu- man elements, to achieve order. A higher sanction was necessary. They appealed to the laws of na- ture and of nature’s God to justify their actions, and based their ideals and laws on a belief in Divine Providence and a Creator. Without God—Chaos Inspiration and direction in those doubtful days has often been trac- ed to the influence of the English philosopher, John Locke, who had put up such an intelligent fight for the rights of man against the di- vine rights of kings or the arbi- trary presumptions of autocrats. A century before Locke, Cardinal Bellarmine had put up the same fight. Jefferson, who was educated in England, was thoroughly famil- iar with both Bellarmine and Locke, the latter of whom borrow- ed much from the former. I have spoken elsewhere of the influence of Bellarmine on early American thought. I now prefer to extract a passage from Locke, the Protes- tant, who had little sympathy with 44 Constitution of the United States Kome, rather than from Bellar- mine, the Catholic. Why Observe Laws Wrote Locke, speaking of the atheist; “Social obligation can have no hold over him, for the taking away of God dissolves all.” What he meant, in plain words, was that without God there is no sufficient motive for observing laws or re- specting the rights of our fellow men. Locke, thoroughly religious minded, called for rebellion against the control which had been placed over man by autocratic rulers, jus- tifying his teachings on the doctrine of God-given natural rights. Our Founding Fathers were guided by the same teachings. But the non- religious minded, that is the atheist, calls for rebellion against God Him- self, Who alone rules by Divine right. The atheist justifies man’s rights by an appeal to reason alone. The doctrine of free competition and rugged individualism grew out of this appeal to reason—“eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you must die;” and again—“every man for himself and let the devil take the hindmost.” Why observe the law,” says the atheist, “if I can get away with violation? There is no future life, this life is all; I must get out of it all that I can.” The utility or hap- piness of the human race might be Constitution of the United States 45 held up to him as a motive for ob- serving the laws. “But,” he will answer, and be logical, “what is the human race to me? Two cents for the human race. It will mean nothing to me when I am dead.” Russian, agitators today are try- ing to arouse the people by appeal- ing to the future happiness of the human race, and they are failing. In the midst of all the hunger and. starvation and poverty and compul- sory labor and forced separation of loved ones the Soviets preach that this is only a passing phase. “Sac- rifice, make sacrifice, even death* if necessary, die a hero to com- munize the worfd.” They even ap- peal to the heroism of the early Christian martyrs who died to Christianize the world. “But,” re- plies the logical Russian, “I’m liv- ing only in the present; what care I as to the state of the world a few years hence?” Faith Plus Intelligence No, my friends, our Founding Fathers were men not only of faith but of practical intelligence. They based their ideals and their lives on belief in the Creator. And those ideals will prevail, law be observed and order achieved only as long as we believe practically in a God. Without God, our Consti- tution and order must fail. Allow me to conclude by prayer- fully repeating the prayer of 46 Constitution of the United States George Washington at Valley Forge. “Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy pro- tection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obed- ience to government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for each other and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large; and finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dis- pose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with charity, humility and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Au- thor of our religion, and without a humble imitation of whose ex- ample, in these things we can never hope to be a happy natiton. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 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