The Saturday press., June 29, 1935, Image 3

About The Saturday press. (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1927-1936

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
June 29, 1935
A DOCTRINE OF AMERICANISM
Oong. Hamilton Fish, Spanking at Annual Meeting of Citizens' Alli
wnoe, Delivers Scatliing Denunciation of Both Communism
and Fascism. Attempt of Labor Review to Portray Fish as
b\dr Enough to Read the Congressman's Plea for Americanism
Fascist Propaganda, Repeated by Words of That Speech. Be
(Continued from last week)
First, communists seek to des
troy all religion and teach hatred
of God.
Second, they seek to destroy
private property and inheritance.
Third, to use the Communist*
International at Moscow to
spread strikes, riots, sabotage
and industrial unrest in all non
communist countries.
Fourth, to promote the bitter
est class hatred.
Fifth, to bring about a class
or civil war in order to establish
a soviet form of government,
under the red flag, with the
world capital at Moscow.
Those are the principles of
communism. None of them can
appeal to the free people of this
country. Therefore, I say, the
way to combat communism is by
education, to point out to the
American people just what these
Communists stand for, and com
munism will not go very far. The
trouble is that these Communists
are fanatics, and are well organ
ized. But another reason why
they cannot appeal to Americans
is that they are not an American
party at all. They are a section
of the Communist International,
taking their orders, glorying in
taking their orders, from Mos
cow, and when it comes to
spreading their doctrines and in
citing strikes, riots, and sabotage
it comes directly under the or
ders from Moscow. Therefore,
American citizens cannot have
very much sympathy with alien
doctrines of that kind.
There are so many women in
this audience that I think I will
say just a few words on the re
ligious aspect. There are quite a
number of Protestant ministers
who seem to like to uphold and
commend communism and try to
make out that the Communists
are merely against the old Greek
Orthodox Church. That is not
so for a minute. They are against
ah religions. They teach hatred
of God in the public schools of
Russia every day. They make it
compulsory to such an extent
that when the young people of
Russia go back home and find
their parents maintain, or have
the temerity to maintain, any
kind of religious belief, they
must hold their parents in con
tempt and disobey them.
It is not atheism—anyone has
the right not to believe; but it is
the bitterest kind of militant
teaching of the hatred of God
and the destruction of all forms
of religion, whether it is Protes
tant, Catholic, Jewish, or the old
Greek Orthodox Church. But
these Protestant ministers con
fuse the issue between the com
munism of the early Christians,
a communism of love, based up
on the Kingdom of God, and
the communism of Soviet Russia,
which is the communism of hate
and hatred of God and all reli
gions. That kind of doctrine can
not go very far, when under
stood, in the United States of
America. I do not parade my
religion. I admit that the dif
ferent articles of faith, dogmas,
and creeds do not mean a great
deal to me, but at the same time
I believe religion is the greatest
moral force in the world (ap
plause), and that if you wipe it
out, as the Communists propose,
you go back to the paganism and
barbarism of thousands of years
ago and virtually destroy civili
zation as we know it.
I took my committee up to vis
it some Communist camps a few
years ago, in my own congres
sional district, right in Dutchess
County, the county that the Pres
ident comes from himself. When
I took my committee up there I
was abused, as usual. I suppose
they thought I ought to have
gone back to Congress, looked
up some musty precedents and
written up my report from them.
I wanted to find out whether
such camps existed, what kind
of boys and girls went there, and
what they did. I found there
were three camps, turning out
about 10,000 young boys and
girls. About 97 percent of them
were aliens, who ought to make
better citizens than those of us
that happen to be bom in this
country. They came here with
their parents to enjoy the equal
opportunities under the law and
the protection of the Constitu
tion. But what did they teach
in those camps? Hatred of all
our great men Washington,
Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore
Roosevelt—hatred of all our free
institutions, hatred of our public
school system, urging the over
throw of our republican form of
government by force and vio
lence; teaching, lastly, hatred of
the American flag; and then
sending them back into the city
of New York to be good Amer
ican citizens.
That is what is going on thru
the length and breadth of this
land. There is hardly a large
State that has not got these sum
mer camps teaching these Com
munist doctrines. There are
Communist schools right in the
hearts of our cities. These doc
trines have even honeycombed
certain colleges in our country,
colleges where young boys and
girls are sent by their parents,
who have made enough money
under our industrial system and
free institutions to send them
there, and there they are told
that everything is wrong and rot
ten and corrupt in America.
I say to you that if these alien
THE SATURDAY PRESS
Communists do not like Ameri
ca and our ways of doing things
and our institutions, all they
have got to do is to go back home.
(Applause.) But if they persist
in spreading this doctrine of poi
son and hatred and urging the
overthrow of our system of gov
ernment by force aud violence,
then it is clearly the duty of the
Congress of the United States
to enact laws to deport all alien
Communists! (Applause.)
Voice : Why don’t you do it ?
Mr. Fish : Well, 1 haven’t the
majority myself.
They do not fear our police,
or our courts, or our jails. The
only thing they fear is to be de
ported back home, to the coun
try they came from, where they
would have no freedom of speech
and can enjoy the low wage scale
and oppressive laws they have
been accustomed to in the past.
(Applause.)
Now, we haven’t any right to
question what government any
other nation may have. However,
as far as Russia is concerned, it
is somewhat different, because
the Soviet Government, through
the Communist International, in
sists on spreading riots, strikes,
sabotage, and industrial unrest in
America and trying to impose
upon us their form of govern
ment. Therefore we have at least
the right to see what is going on
in Soviet Russia at the present
time. 1
Incredible as it may seem, last
year, in what was formerly the
granary of Europe, 6,000,000
Russians starved to death under
the Communist system of gov
ernment. Why, if a hundred or
a dozen Americans should starve
to death under our industrial
system, known as capitalism, it
would be headlined through every
paper in America as the doom
of capitalism. Yet, over in Sov
iet Russia, which hitherto has
been the “granary of Europe,”
6,000,000 people, not through an
“act of God,” not through any
drought or anything of that kind,
starved to death. The great mass
of the population over there, af
ter 17 years of rule under the
Communists, are undernourished
and starving.
Some of our foreign diplomats
have told me that there is a
marked difference in the seces
sionist states, such as Finland
and Latvia. There the peasants
have good houses which are in a
good state of repair; they are
properly clothed and fed, and
contented. Crossing the border
land into this “beautiful, pros
perous, and peaceful” Soviet
Russia you find the houses dilap
idated, the people underfed and
in rags, and living in a state of
terror. Why, if they would let
down the emigration barriers in
Soviet Russia, half of the terri
fied population would try to get
out in 30 days and come to the
United States of America, if we
u
would let them in. (Applause.)
I might say a few words about
the recognition of Soviet Russia,
how that was brought about.
That was one of the greatest
hoaxes that has ever been impos
ed upon the American people.
(Applause.) One must give cre
dit where credit is due. These
Communists are skilled propa
gandists and diplomats. They
built up this idea of $1,000,000,-
000 trade with Soviet Russia if
we would recognize them, and
they dangled that bait before the
big capitalists in New York and
the cotton growers of the South.
In the South all those Baptists
and Methodists were against re
cognition, but when they held out
the juicy plum of $200,000,000
worth of cotton annually, they
all surrendered and demanded
recognition the same as the big
capitalists in New York. As Le
nin said, “The capitalist will
commit suicide for a temporary
profit,” and unfortunately we
have some of those in our coun
try. So we rushed right in after
this $1,000,000,000 and recogniz
ed Soviet Russia a year and a
half ago; and we have done just
$3,000,000 worth of cotton trade
with them, and we loaned that
money to them through the Re
construction Finance Corpora
tion. (Applause and laughter.)
They gave definite pledges
that the Communist Internation
al would not interfere with our
domestic institutions and con
tinue to give orders to the Com
munists of this country. Just as
soon as the treaty was signed this
was ignored and it has been ig
nored in the last year and a half,
and will continue to be.
I am very happy to come here
this evening and speak to the
hard-headed, clear-thinking busi
ness men of the West. I am not
at all sure that you do not need
a great deal of speaking to; I
know that the business men of
the East do, and I suppose you
do, too. There have been far too
many defeatists in the ranks of
business, and the time has come
for the business men of America
to change from the defensive to
the offensive. (Applause.) These
radicals, Communists, Socialists,
and pink intellectuals go around
this country of ours telling us
everything is wrong, rotten, and
corrupt, and that labor is ex
ploited and brutalized. What is
the answer? The answer is that
for 50 years American labor has
been the best paid, the best hous
ed, the best clothed, the best fed,
the most contented and the freest
in the world.
Fifty years ago, it is true, la
bor worked 12, 14, and 15 hours
a day, with a pitiful wage scale
and standard of living, and with
out any protection in the facto
ries. Step by step, under our
form of government, at the re
quest of the sovereign people
back home, the State legislatures
and the Congress enacted short
er hours for labor, higher wages
and standards of living, protec
tion in factories, workmen’s
compensation laws, and old-age
pension laws.
There is not a single social or
economic problem that we can
not solve in America on sound
American principles without re
course to socialism and commu
nism on the left or fascism or
Hitlerism on the right, and we
propose to do it that way. (Ap
plause.) We have the same cap
acity, the same intelligence, the
same common sense, the same
patriotism, as our forefathers
when they solved their difficult
problems, and we can solve them
in our day and generation for
the best interests of all the Am
erican people but only on sound
American principles of govern
ment. (Applause.)
Our republican form of gov
ernment is denounced by all these
Communists and Socialists, and
Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini tell
you, the American people, that
democracy has failed and that
you are not competent for self
government any longer. Let me
say to you that the American
people do not propose to surren
der any of their rights or their
liberties for a government of as
sassination and bullets or for any
despotic, autocratic dictatorship
such as exist in Europe at the
present time. (Applause.) Our
republican form of government
is still the hope and aspinsion of
the struggling masses of man
kind, whether they be in Italy,
Germany, Soviet Russia, or Chi
na.
The time has come for the
business men of America to re
affirm their faith in themselves,
in our American institutions,
political, economical, and indus
trial. 1 could talk to you for an
hour on the evils and abuses of
our economic system, but at the
end of the hour I could tell you
that it is the fairest and best in
dustrial and economic system in
the world today, and that our
people are better off than any
other nation in the world.
Let us, therefore, rededicate
ourselves to the proposition that
a government of the people, by
the people, and for the people,
shall not perish from this earth.
Let us reaffirm our faith in our
republican form of government,
because it is the soundest, the
fairest, the wisest, the most hon
orable, and the best form of gov
ernment yet devised by the mind
of man Let us cherish and de
fend and uphold the Constitution
of the United States (applause),
and preserve its rights, liberties,
and blessings, not only for our
selves but for generations of
free, unborn American citizens.
Let us serve notice on all Social
ists, Communists, pink intellec
tuals, Fascists, and Hitlerites,
that there is no room in America
for their autocratic and dictato
rial forms of government or their
doctrines; that we have faith in
our free institutions and our re
publican form of government,
and that we believe that we have
the best fonn of government in
the world today. (Applause.)
Three