By David Dayton McKean
In 1925 Clinton W. Gilbert thought that Frank Hague
had possibilities of becoming a leader of the urban proletariat.
No prophecy could have gone wider of the mark.
As the years have passed, and Hague has become a wealthy
man, living in luxury, he has become more and more reactionary.
His dislike of all whom he calls Reds – which includes the members of the American Civil Liberties Union – has grown to the point where his ideas upon left-wing
movements are so extreme that he would favor the establishment
of concentration camps for citizens with radical
opinions.
It is fundamental to an understanding of his views that
he identifies all parties of the left:
Q. In your opinion would you say socialists are the same as
communists?
Q. So that unless these factors are together in a particular
person's belief you would not say that he was a communist?
Q. What if they approach it peacefully, with any flag?
Q. That's right. Now, let's assume that a man approaches
peacefully a fundamental change in the United States Constitution,
a change that you might disagree with – he would be
an undesirable?
Q. The entire Constitution.
Q. In other words –
A. (continuing) – who apparently is dissatisfied with the
American form of government.
Q. So if a man wants to have an entire new constitution
written for the United States, the whole instrument revamped,
and even though he goes at it peacefully, do you think that is
objectionable, not Americanism, and should be denied?
Q. Yes.
Q. Now, let's assume a man has a flag of any kind in his
hand and does nothing but talk and never commits what the
courts call an overt act. Does he have a right in Jersey City
under that definition of peaceful – no overt act?
Q. – to urge the complete rewriting of the Constitution
of the United States? Hasn't he got that right?
Q. Rewriting of the Constitution?
Q. You don't? All right. (Transcript, pp. 1366-1367. Some interruptions by the Mayor's counsel have been omitted.)
The problem of what should be done with persons who adhere
to political faiths different from those dominant in the
United States was brought to the Mayor's attention in the
C.I.O. trial, and he had a solution for it:
Q. Driven back?
But there are many native-born citizens who are, on occasion,
displeased with some methods used by governments
in the United States; Mayor Hague was entirely consistent
in his view of what ought to be done with them:
In spite of his compromise with the C.I.O., which he regarded
as a communistic organization, the Mayor has not
changed his views on what ought to be done with radicals;
he wants them `smashed.' In a speech at an Americanization
Day demonstration in Jersey City April 28, 1940, he said
`This is one of the real American cities of the nation. "America
first" is the byword of Jersey City. We said, "This is
America; the communists must be smashed."' He did not
say anything about smashing fascists.
This Web version, edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
This interpretation simplified matters so much that to
define all of them he had only to define a communist:
Q. In your opinion would you say that the I.W.W. is the
same as communism?
A. Yes, yes, that is communism under another name.
A. Yes, sir. (Transcript, pp. 1255 and 1257.)
Criticism of the Constitution cannot be permitted from
these people, or from others who are dissatisfied; and they
have no rights that anyone else is bound to respect:
A. Well, my interpretation, Counselor, of a communist is a
man who is subject to Russia, a radical who is opposed to the
American principles and American institutions, whose sole
purpose is to overthrow our government, whose sole purpose
is against all types of religion, all types of government, only
the Soviet government in Russia.
A. Well, I wouldn't say that. I would have to see just what
his contacts is, and who his associates are, and how he performs.
I generally – I will judge him as I find him . (Ibid., p. 1050.)
It may be inferred from this testimony that communists –
in the Mayor's broad use of the term – have no rights in
Jersey City; but it is unfortunate that he did not have an
opportunity to explain the qualifications necessary for admission
into the select group of high-class citizens who have
perfect rights, even the right to discuss the redrafting of the
Constitution. To judge from the history of his organization,
it would seem that had the Supreme Court not interfered,
no groups likely to discuss fundamental changes in the Constitution
would have been permitted to assemble in Jersey
City. It may be inferred also that the Mayor regards the
American form of government and American institutions as
virtually perfect, beyond criticism except for minor details.
His organization, indeed, is not equipped to fight for fundamental
principles; it does its best at the sham battles it
stages with the captive Republican machine.
Q. Now, Mayor, you don't mean that all people who want
to make important, fundamental changes in American life and
in the American Constitution are undesirable; you don't mean
that, do you?
A. It depends entirely what is their attitude. I don't feel
that any group of men who desires to change our forms of government
in various cities and states - it depends entirely on
how they approach that question. If they approach it with a
red flag I am opposed to it.
A. Well, you can't approach anything peacefully, Counselor,
if you are opposed to the American form of government and
to the overthrowing of it.
A. Are you referring to any particular section of the Constitution
or the entire Constitution?
A. Well, I have failed to find anyone who desires to do that
other than a radical, undesirable man, a person who is
A. Well, Counselor, I would like to have what you term
`peacefully' – I would like to have that interpreted –
A. (continuing) – I don't consider peaceful approach to a
question with a dynamite bomb in one hand and a red flag in
the other.
A. Counselor –
A. Certainly, they have a right to urge complete –
A. (continuing) – rewriting of the Constitution, but it depends,
Counselor, who these people are. If they were highclass
citizens, and they met in peaceful, orderly manner, why,
certainly they have perfect rights; but if prior to that they
were advocating the overthrow of the government, they were
dissatisfied with everything that America offered to them,
why, of course, I don't assume they have any rights.
The persons eligible for deportation because they are
`displeased with the methods' or object to the form of the
government apparently include naturalized citizens as well
as aliens; at least the Mayor never made any distinction.
His reading of history has not been extensive, and it is per-
haps too much to expect that he might have taken into account
the contributions to American life made by such displeased
immigrants as Carl Schurz. This attitude of the
Mayor's, however, is in line with his general opposition to
permitting non-residents of Hudson County to criticize
his regime; he only extended the concept to take in the entire
United States.
Q. Do you believe that persons who believe in the doctrines
of Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini should go back to those
countries?
A. I believe that anyone who comes here and is discovered
displeased with the methods of our country and our government,
and feel that it is necessary for them to set
as objectors to the form of government that we enjoy here and
find that this country is apparently not pleasing to them.
they should be driven back, not go back, driven back.
A. Yes, sir. (Transcript, p. 1089.)
No statement of the Mayor's ever revealed more completely
his ideas upon democracy. Clearly, he does not trust
his fellow citizens; he does not believe that, without danger
to themselves, they could listen to persons who wished to
change our form of government: the agitators should, in his
estimation, be put where the susceptible American public
could not hear them. In taking such a position he assumes
that some person or persons could be found who, perhaps
like himself, would have such discerning judgment of what
the American people ought to think, that they could select
for deportation those citizens whose ideas and words were
dangerous to the remainder of the population. His proposed
method for dealing with dissenters, moreover - to send
them to concentration camps - is a method that has been
used, but never by a government that regarded itself as
democratic. For a political heir of Thomas Jefferson, Frank
Hague is an extraordinary Democrat. In view of these political
ideas of his it is not surprising that he was praised in
the newspapers of Rome and Berlin.
Q. Suppose they were born in this country, should they be
driven back, then?
A. Well, I think we ought to establish a camp in Alaska
there and house them there away from the American people,
if they don't believe in our form of government and are opposed
to every move of our form of government. I think there
should be a remedy for that. (Ibid.)
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