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Liberty At Stake, Prof. Dawson Says: Declares "Fifth Columnists" Should Be Prosecuted

Liberty At Stake, Prof. Dawson Says: Declares "Fifth Columnists" Should Be Prosecuted image
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1
Month
August
Year
1940
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Liberty At Stake, Prof. Dawson Says

Declares 'Filth Columnists' Should Be Prosecuted

Expulsion or prosecution of fifth columnists was termed "fully justified" by Prof. John P. Dawson of the University Law School last night in an American Culture lecture.

Such action, Prof. Dawson stated, is justified when "we can find and prove direct connection with and active assistance to those agencies organized by governments abroad, the advance guard of military invasion.

"I say this not only as to acts of sabotage, of which there have already been many," Prof. Dawson commented, "I say it too as to the active dissemination of views through organizations already developed here and soon to be developed further."

He added that "I say it not only as to Germany and Italy, but as to Russia too, for we delude ourselves if we deny the identity of interests and active co-operation that exist between them, whatever latent sources of future conflict there may be."

Warns of Danger

Prof. Dawson warned of the need for "realistic judgement as to the dangers that will face us if England is defeated," and he declared that "if we fail in this through timidity or indecision, we shall lose not one small segment of our liberties but all of them.

"The fate of liberty depends for many decades ahead on the military contest which is now going on in Europe, and which may very soon be transferred to the Western Hemisphere," he asserted. "Within a few days, almost certainly within a few weeks, we shall know whether England, the last defensible bulwark of freedom in Europe, will be submerged by the new tyranny."

Prof. Dawson remarked that "immunities guaranteed by the Constitution are necessarily reduced in periods of war or great national emergency.

"That war conditions justify increased restraints on freedom of discussion is recognized in our constitutional law,' 'he said.