HAS CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT LIMITS?
By Charles
Wa Ray
Sd EH HERE was a time when practi-
cally every civil government on earth
adopted a state religion and compelled all
citizens to support it whether they were
members of the state church or not. The
American Republic was the first govern-
ment in modern times which broke away
from this ancient order of things and di-
vorced a state religion from civil govern-
ment. Nearly every state constitution of
the various states of the United States has
a provision in it that “no religious test
shall be required as a qualification to any
office or public trust under this state,”
nor ‘shall any citizen be compelled to at-
tend any religious worship, or contribute
to the erection or support of any place of
worship, or to the maintenance of any
ministry, against his own will and consent;
and no power shall or ought to be vested
in or assumed by any magistrate that shall,
in any case, interfere with, or in any man-
ner control, the rights of conscience in the
free exercise of religious worship; nor a
preference given by law to any religious
societies, denominations, or modes of
worship.”
When the above provisions were written
into the state constitutions, the state
churches bitterly opposed them and argued
that religion in general would suffer a ter-
rible backset if the state withdrew its sup-
port and its legal sanctions. But the total
separation of church and state, and the
voluntary support and maintenance of re-
ligion as well as membership in religious
societies proved not only a great blessing
to religion in general but brought great
peace and prosperity to the state. Volun-
tary support and voluntary membership
proved to be the salvation of the church
and the state. The principle of voluntary
support and membership in any society
or organization, whether religious, social,
or economic, is fundamental not only to
good government but to society itself and
to the organizations concerned.
®
For 150 years the American Republic
through its government under its match-
less Constitution, granted the privilege to
its citizens of voluntary membership and
voluntary support not only in religious
societies but in all kinds of social, fraternal,
and economic societies. It was not until
quite recently that our government de-
parted from this principle. The American
government, through its various bureaus,
commissions, and federal boards, is enact-
ing laws and placing restrictions upon the
citizens which the Constitution prevents
Congress from doing. Recently the Na-
Page SIX
5. Longacre
tional Mediation Board approved the de-
mands of certain union officials to require
an employer to discharge from his employ
an employee who failed to keep up his
“membership maintenance.” If you are
once a member of the union, you are not
allowed to drop that membership. You
must remain a member. This is exactly
in harmony with some of the state reli-
gions in some countries. If you are once a
member of the state religion, or church,
the government does not allow you to
drop your church membership without ob-
taining the consent and approval of both
the church and the state.
The American Constitution made the
support of, and membership in, a church
a voluntary, instead of a compulsory af-
fair. But now a government bureau or
board rules that an employing concern
shall compel maintenance of membership,
and that the employer shall discharge any
worker now a member of the union who
fails to keep up his membership and his
dues. Whenever an official of the union re-
ports that a certain member has failed to
pay his dues and recommends that the
employer discharge such member from his
employ, the employer, according to the
ruling of the National Mediation Board,
is compelled to discharge this employee,
even though he may consider him as one
of his most efficient and faithful workers
and may desire to promote him. Neither
does it matter what the worker's reasons
are for not keeping up his support and
membership in the union. He may have
conscientious reasons for not keeping up
the maintenance of his membership. He
may prefer to transfer his membership and
support to another labor union, but in
such matters he cannot exercise his choice.
If he was formerly a member of a certain
union, he is bound to remain a member
or forfeit his job. That is a violation of a
fundamental principle and of an inalien-
able right vouchsafed to every citizen
under the American Constitution.
It is similar to a one-party rule, allowing
no other political parties in the field. That
is the way all tyrants have sought to per-
petuate themselves in power and make
their rule absolute. Such a ruling, if per-
mitted to stand, allows a government
bureau to exercise powers which have been
expressly denied to Congress under our
Constitution. If the American people per-
mit such a ruling to prevail in violation of
(Continued on page 18)
ALAN ZZL.
srs ANY
¥ Governor Eugene Talmadge of Georgia (left)
listens attentively as Assistant Solicitor Dan
Duke of Fulton Superior Court waves a heavy
leather lash {o emphasize his opposition to
clemency for six convicted floggers. The flog-
gers were members of an organization which he
claimed sought to take the administration of
government into their own hands. Mr. Long-
acre pleads for government by law under our
incomparable Constitution.
The WATCHMAN MAGAZINE