- The terrorist attack of September 11 has been called
an act of war; voices have been raised in Congress and across the country
to respond in kind. Given the deep transformations that wars of the past
have made in U.S. society, Americans should be aware of the likely effects
of a new round of hostilities -- no matter how necessary a response to
these crimes may be.
-
- In 1918, Eugene Debs, a perennial Socialist presidential
candidate who was something like a Ralph Nader of his time, was tried,
convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison. His "crime" was
a speech in which he criticized the conviction of several World War I-era
draft resisters and opponents of conscription. Debs didn't enjoy freedom
again until President Harding commuted his sentence on Christmas Day of
1921.
-
- In the post-Vietnam era, the idea that an American could
be jailed for opposing the draft is almost inconceivable. But in times
of panic and emergency, the inconceivable has a way of becoming real in
a myriad of unpleasant ways.
-
- The Constitution itself explicitly allows for only one
emergency power:
-
- The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not
be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public
Safety may require it.
-
- But as early as the Civil War, officials created new
"temporary" powers for themselves out of whole cloth. They acted
in the heat of the moment, with necessity as their defense and opposing
voices few and largely muzzled by wartime passions.
-
- In a 1996 speech to the Indiana University School of
Law, Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist said of that divisive
conflict:
-
- The Civil War was the first time that the United States
government mobilized for a major war effort, and a major war effort
necessarily
results in the curtailment of some civil liberties.
-
- Those curtailments were severe. They included banning
anti-war newspapers from the mails -- which was how most reached their
subscribers. When the newspapers hired private services to circumvent the
Post Office, U.S. Marshals seized all copies of the papers and even
arrested
a newsboy in Connecticut.
-
- In an apparent case of treason by inference, the Reverend
J.R. Stewart, of Alexandria, Virginia, was arrested for omitting a
customary
prayer for the president of the United States from his sermon.
-
- Civilian courts were suspended in many peaceful regions
of the country -- especially where opposition Democrats held power --
allowing
the government to parade defendants before rubber-stamp military
courts.
-
- In 1866, in Ex parte Milligan, the Supreme Court ruled
that civilians couldn't be tried by the military so long as the civil
courts
are open for business. But that was only one step back from a leaping
expansion
of war-time powers. As is so often the case in the wake of crises, the
government retained some of the "special" powers it adopted
during
the war.
-
- That incomplete return to pre-crisis conditions is
described
by Robert Higgs, author of "Crisis and Leviathan," as a
"ratchet"
effect. Says Higgs in his book:
-
- [A]fter each major crisis the size of government, though
smaller than during the crisis, remained larger than it would have been
had the pre-crisis rate of growth persisted ...
-
- The expansion of government during the civil war fits
the pattern described by Higgs and created an enormous precedent for the
government to build on during war scares to come.
-
- During the First World War, Postal bans on newspapers
became arrests of individuals for even the mildest criticism of the
government's
war efforts.
-
- These arrests came courtesy of the Sedition Act, which
banned a truly breathtaking range of speech and action. In addition to
muzzling opposition to conscription, the Act threatened fines and prison
for anybody who dared to "utter, print, write or publish" any
"disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the
government, the Constitution, or the military.
-
- Eugene Debs wasn't the only American to become an
involuntary
guest of the United States government for voicing his opinion. In an
article
for the Foundation for Economic Education, Robert Higgs wrote: "In
California the police arrested Upton Sinclair for reading the Bill of
Rights
at a rally. In New Jersey the police arrested Roger Baldwin [of the ACLU]
for publicly reading the Constitution."
-
- At the same time, the government intruded itself into
America's economic life. Says Higgs, "the federal government ...
virtually
nationalized the ocean shipping industry. It did nationalize the railroad,
telephone, domestic telegraph, and international telegraphic cable
industries."
-
- After the war, the Sedition Act was repealed and industry
largely returned to private hands. But the government was much larger than
in the past and Americans not so free as they had been just a few years
earlier. War-time roundups of dissidents paved the way for peace-time red
scares. And heavy government intervention in the economy continued along
the lines established while hostilities were under way.
-
- During World War II, "emergency" powers reached
a zenith that Americans can only hope will never be surpassed.
-
- Officially, newspaper censorship was
"voluntary,"
but significant arm-twisting kept most of the media in-line with the
official
message. Some publications were banned from the mail or even closed.
-
- The First War Powers Act granted the President broad
powers to, among other things "cause to be censored ... communications
by mail, cable, radio, or other means of transmission passing between the
United States and any foreign country."
-
- The Second War Powers Act allowed the government to
exercise
broad economic powers, including seizing private property.
-
- In an examination of the modern impact of a declaration
of war, analysts for the Independent Institute noted:
-
- FDR ... instituted the same controls Wilson did in World
War I and added to them comprehensive wage and price controls, nationwide
rent control, rationing of many consumer goods and central planning of
production.
-
- And in one of the most dramatic abuses of power ever
seen in the United States, more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans were held
in internment camps solely because their ancestors came from a country
with which the U.S. was at war. That rationale would have put the majority
of the population behind bars during the War of 1812 against Great
Britain.
-
- Just as with previous wars, the aftermath of World War
II left the government permanently expanded in size and power.
-
- As the Independent Institute paper added:
-
- Much of what presidents once did only during wartime
can be done now under existing powers and the right circumstances. . Under
the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the president need only
declare a national emergency to assume wartime control over the
economy.
-
- So, what new powers are likely to be assumed by the
government
if the recent attack on the United States results in war?
-
- Already, in response to the bloody terrorist attack on
the United States, the U.S. Senate has passed the Combating Terrorism Act
of 2001 which greatly expands the power of federal authorities to spy on
online communications. If the act becomes law, the authorities will even
be able to monitor internet use without a court order.
-
- Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire wants to impose severe
restrictions on the ability of Americans to use encryption to shield
communications
from prying eyes.
-
- Some lawmakers are talking about requiring Americans
to carry national identification cards, and to show their papers upon
demand.
-
- All this while the country is still officially at
peace.
-
- And while these counterterrorism powers sound like
impressive
tools, there's no guarantee that they'll actually make us safer. Countries
considerably more authoritarian than the United States, such as Russia,
are still plagued by terrorist attacks.
-
- If America goes to war, the power of government will
grow enormously -- probably with the blessing of the people. After the
conflict is over, history tells us that the state will not give up all
of its new powers. And it's by no means certain that the crisis will pass;
"terrorism" not being a country that can be defeated, or a single
organization that can surrender.
-
- Terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center; it remains
to be seen whether Americans will destroy the Statue of Liberty
themselves.
-
-
- Copyright 1995-2000, The Henry Hazlitt
Foundation.
- Feel free to copy and forward this message, but
please
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