Thus it came about that the
front against socialism was built out from the immediate and practical
into the ultimate and spiritual; and that inferences drawn from a
reading of Jefferson's Declaration, with its emphasis on individual
liberty, were pressed into service against the seductive collectivist
forecasts of Marx.
CHAPTER 14
WHY THERE IS NOT AN AMERICAN LABOR PARTY
The question of a political labor party hinges, in the last analysis, on
the benefits which labor expects from government. If, under the
constitution, government possesses considerable power to regulate
industrial relations and improve labor conditions, political power is
worth striving for. If, on the contrary, the power of the government is
restricted by a rigid organic law, the matter is reversed. The latter is
the situation in the United States. The American constitutions, both
Federal and State, contain bills of rights which embody in fullness the
eighteenth-century philosophy of economic individualism and governmental
_laissez-faire_. The courts, Federal and State, are given the right to
override any law enacted by Congress or the State legislatures which may
be shown to conflict with constitutional rights.
Pages:
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412