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ay — Mrs. Roosevelt i Voices Fears on oe when freedom of the press was attacked. I have s Lad i ® ——“I have argued this question repeatedly in the Smith Act Ruling | ” Mrs, Roosevelt warned yesterday against the threat to | asic American liberties involved in the Supreme Court approva) of the Smith Act and the arrests under that law, in her nationally-syndicated column in the New York World-Telegram-Sun. “Outiawing a party,” she said, “wili, I think, givea feeling to the oe ney te Ma peoples of the. world that al _ we are afraid ‘to.stand by the things on which we say ve hase built our nation and in which we believe. Jor that reason I feel we ought t+ move carefully.” ~Mrs_ Roosevelt added: have beeh_ thinking over caicfully the dissenting opinions of Justices Doug- las and Black in connection with the arrest under the Smith Act of the latest group of Communists. “Justice Frankfurter's statement—that he thought this bill (the Smith Act Act MRS. ROOSEVELT might be harmful, but that it was the duty of Congress to yass the Jaw and not the duty of the Supreme Court to uppose the country’s sentiment — scems to leave some topics open for discussion. ae “Such an attitude has not always been taken by the Supreme Court. It may wel) be the correct attitude. But in this particular case I am not sure our forefathers—so careful {o guard our rights of freedom of speech, freedom of thought and freedom of assembly—would not feel that the Supreme Court had perhaps a higher obligation to point out whether a law endangered these freedoms.” ” In view of the fact that John Gates, editor of Worker: is one of the 11 Communist leaders, Mrs¢“Hioo. selt wiote: se- ; EG SEP fa 15; a. oe tpees that, although I frequently disagreed with the opi expressed by certain groups of papers in this connt would hesitate to curtail their freedom of evpression cause you may shortly find that you curtail the e+pr- of opinion which you like.” Mrs. Roosevelt included numerous anti-Comuiint pressions in her column, echoing the charge of a dexi ‘overthrow our government by force. She also observed: “The Communist Party was outlawed in Franc fore World War I]. Yet by the end of the wai they a pee up because they had stood side by sid-- 0 r Frenchmen in the defense of liberty.” |/20 NOT RECORD: M9 x Fa —< | wwe wee [Dis is a clipping from Page LF>re— of the Daily Worker Da te Geewee. of Pero’ Clipfed at the Séatjof Government, ‘oa fru piv? / -_— . -5 > d; SCD Oo” / we