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"American Liberty League: A Statement of Its Principles and Purposes" September 10, 1934.

"American Liberty League: A Statement of Its Principles and Purposes" September 10, 1934. American Liberty League. 400dpi TIFF G4 page images Digital Library Services, University of Kentucky Libraries Lexington, Kentucky Am_Lib_Leag_4 These pages may freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. "American Liberty League: A Statement of Its Principles and Purposes" September 10, 1934. American Liberty League. American Liberty League. Washington, D.C. 1934. This electronic text file was created by Optical Character Recognition (OCR). No corrections have been made to the OCR-ed text and no editing has been done to the content of the original document. Encoding has been done through an automated process using the recommendations for Level 1 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines. Digital page images are linked to the text file. American Liberty League Washington, D. C. A Statement of Its Principles and Purposes "Every American Citizen who believes in the fundamental principles which gave birth to the Constitution should become a member of the American Liberty League" American Liberty League VERY AMERICAN CITIZEN who believes in the fundamental principles which gave birth to the Constitution should become a member of the American Liberty League. The League was organized August 15, 1934, in the District of Columbia. Its charter states: "It shall be a non-partisan organization." "The particular business and objects of the Society shall be to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States and to gather and disseminate information that (1) will teach the necessity of respect for the rights of persons and property as fundamental to every successful form of government, and (2) will teach the duty of government to encourage and protect individual and group initiative and enterprise, to foster the right to work, earn, save and acquire property, and to preserve the ownership and lawful use of property when acquired." The League proposes to teach those things that will awaken in the hearts and minds of our people an appreciation of the necessity of cherishing, protecting, defending and fighting for those liberties and rights which are guaranteed by the Constitution and which must be preserved if we expect our form of government to endure. Every citizen, man or woman, in the shop, in the field, in the mill, in the counting house, in the business world, in the home or in any walk of life, who believes in the aims and purposes of the League, has an opportunity to join through one of several divisions. These divisions are the Farmers' Division, the Labor Division, the Home Owners' Division, the Life Insurance Policyholders' Division, the Savings Depositors' Division, the Stockholders' Division, the Bondholders' Division, the Shopkeepers' Division, and others. An Executive Committee of eighteen, chosen from different parts of the country, will be responsible for the conduct of the League. A Supreme Advisory Council of fifty or sixty citizens, thoroughly representative of every section, will council and advise with the Executive Committee in its important work. THE American Liberty League believes that human rights and property rights are inseparable. The League is neither for nor against the New Deal. It is not for one political party as against another. The League believes in the two party system and will take no steps to bring about a change in the form of organization of either party, reserving the right to appeal to both parties to endorse the League's principles. The League hopes to and will be happy to have the support of President Roosevelt and other elected representatives of the people. As an organization the League will be neither for nor against any elected representatives, except as they may or may not share with it a devotion to the principles for which the League stands. The League's objective is to persuade elected officers of government in whatever rank to follow the principles for which it stands and to induce a majority of the voters in every State and every Congressional district to elect candidates, regardless of party affiliation, who have pledged allegiance to, and by their acts in public office have shown that they will carry out the principles of the American Liberty League. The American Liberty League believes in the following principles: "We believe that the Congress of the United States should represent the people and should not shirk the task in any way by delegating its authority to bureaucrats under the guise of administrative 'efficiency' or through any other subterfuge." "We believe that Congress should make the laws and that bureaus or boards or commissions should not be permitted to promulgate arbitrary regulations or 'decisions* having the force of law or to apply punishments not contained in the law or to conduct trials without an adequate opportunity for review or appeal." "We believe that the courts of the nation and not government bureaus should pass upon questions of civil justice." 3 "We believe that the several states should retain the powers not granted to the Federal Government by the Constitution and that the Federal Government should not, by the use of public funds or by any other form of usurpation, trespass upon the rights of the several Btates." "We believe the Federal Government should not deprive the people of rights that have been guaranteed to them by the Constitution." "We believe that government should always be the servant and agent of the people and not the master of the people. Such rights as are reserved to the people by the Constitution should not be given up except with their formal consent and in the ways provided by the Constitution itself." "We believe that the right to authorize the spending of public funds and to raise revenue is solely the function of the legislative branch of the government, and that balanced budgets and sound fiscal policy can come only when there is a retention by Congress of its full responsibility for the nature and manner of expending public money." "To us as a group and to the League as it will be presently unfolded in our intensive campaign of education, human rights and property rights are inseparable. Take away a man's home or his business and you have robbed him of his opportunity. Take away by the caprice of bureaucracy or the tyranny of autocratic power the savings of men, women and children throughout the land and you have not merely taken their property away but you have forced them into the bread lines of our tragic discontent." IT IS NOT incumbent upon the American Liberty League or any other body of private citizens to formulate a legislative program related to the coordination of human rights and property rights in the economic structure or for the protection of one class against exploitation by another. This is the true function and responsibility of the elected officers of government and the League proposes to see to it that the people of our country know exactly what is required of every branch of government. Many of the measures taken in the last two administrations have been defended on the plea of a national emergency. It should be noted, however, that the Supreme Court of the United States this very year has declared that "emergency does not create power," but merely gives justification for the use of previously unused powers of the Constitution. The time is approaching when the American people will have to decide to what extent some of the emergency measures, taken without warrant of law or the Constitution, shall be permanently imbedded in our system of government. The League proposes to inform the people so that they may send to Congress men and women who will not, under the camouflage of "emergency," destroy the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution, Senators and Representatives who will not abdicate their functions to a concentrated bureaucracy. Our forefathers separated themselves from the mother country because they felt that taxation without representation was tyranny. Today large groups are being taxed for the benefit not of the whole people or for the support of the government alone, but for the direct benefit of other specific groups and classes. The American Liberty League thoroughly recognizes the obligation of our government to come to the relief of the men and women who are in distress because of unemployment through no fault of their own, or are suffering from affliction over which they could have no control. And this we firmly believe can be done without violation of our Constitution or of American traditions. BUSINESS which bears the responsibility for the pay-checks of private employment has little voice in government and is harassed by a sabotage of constitutional principles and by irresponsible theorists who would amend the Constitution with the hypocritical cry that the Constitution is "elastic." The only way the Constitution can be and should be amended is by the people themselves. 4 5 If some of the legislative undertakings of today are to be made acceptable as permanent reforms, then the honest thing to do is to give the people an opportunity to pass upon those reforms in constitutional conventions duly called for such purpose. Nor is the League concerned alone with the acts of the Federal Government that deviate from the accepted principles of the charter of government that has for nearly 150 years sheltered America. Conspicuous threats against constitutional government have arisen in a number of States in the last three or four years. The League will be as vigilant in seeking to inform the voters of America on the meaning of State transgressions as in explaining Federal usurpations of the rights of the people. "We are militantly determined to carry on this fight with all our resources and all our energies to keep our government within its appointed bounds and to make representative government truly representative of the interests of all people." "We are enlisted for as many years as may be necessary to enforce respect for the Constitution as the charter of principles of human liberty and property rights. It was bequeathed to us by the founders of the Republic as the living voice of the Declaration of Independence, designed to preserve, to defend and to maintain the liberties of all people." Membership To become a member of the American Liberty League merely sign and mail the attached membership blank; and if you care to make any contribution mail it also to the American Liberty League, Washington, D. C. Date. American Liberty League National Press Building Washington, D. C. I desire to subscribe to the principles and enroll as a member of the American Liberty League. Name................................................................................ Address.......................................................................... As a contributing member I desire to contribute $............................(without incurring legal liability) payable as noted below: Cash.................................... Installments as follows:......................................... Please sign here........................................................................