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Items FromTopaz...0 O 0 0 o o oAN EDITORIAL . . .DEMOCRACY and EVACUATIONEarly this week, nows come from the nation's capital that the United States Supreme Court had finally begun its long-anticipated review of the test cases of Gordon K. Hirabayashi and Minoru Yasui, both American citizens of Japanese ancestry. The two young men were separately convicted by lower Federal tribunals for violating the curfew and evacuation orders that were imposed upon all Pacific Coast residents of Japanese ancestry last year by ,Lieut. Gen. John L. DeWitt, chief of the Western Army Defense Command.Contending that no military authority can abbreviate the civil rights of any group of United States citizens without a declaration of martial law or a Congressional authorization, the American Civil Liberties Union, counsel for the defense, had appealed to the intermediary courts, which certified the cases to the Supreme Court for final decision.It would be no overstatement to say that the outcome of these test cases, constituting one of the most far-reaching legal problems of the present war, will determine whether declared wartime exigencies are sufficient to empower military authorities to limit by fiat the freedom of any portion of America's citizenry and to detain it without formal charges or trial.But as important in our consideration as the immediate effects of the possible outcome upon the 70,-000 evacuated U. S. citizens of Japanese ancestry Is the significance of these events with respect to our general attitude toward an understanding of the American way of life.” Our faith in America can be greatly strengthened by a clearly defined concept of democracy and the relations essentially existing between the American people and the government. To this end, the current testing of the Constitutionality of the evacuation edicts may be considered as an exemplification of democracy in action.In a fascist society. It is assumed that the supreme power of government should be centralized in a unified executive body of the state; and accordingly, the rights of the public are subordinated to the execution of arbitrary state policies.In a democracy such as ours, the power is divided so as to minimize purposely the possibilities of unjust encroachments upon the rights of the people by the government. This division serves to check and balance the authority of the legislative, executive and judiciary bodies. In short, democracy holds the protection of the people's rights to be one of the fundamental regulative principles of government.It is because America is a democracy that such steps as those taken by Gen. DeWitt in excluding the Japanese Americans from the Coast are now being challenged on the grounds of Constitutional rights.The countless men and women throughout the world who, united, are engaged In the present international struggle would not so courageously devote their lives, asthey are doing, to crushing the Fascist aggressors If democracy were not the syTnbol of man’s unconquerable will to fight all doctrines of oppression.PronThereadGerm:Interngivenso ju Germ: so th. choco] a hlg ates. ^3 ACC SAVAlPern tion, ; have Savag sota, They Thom: kashi on Wc SeveteamCampductiomakefcr.CIVILTO JAArne ancest tion c cleare-eligibl in the the Wwas tconym Sorens Edwin tive ol missioFor fu ClerkNEstatCredvouchesignedCrafts,Countyday of4x 5/2notic:MILLA DI!Noticthe 261of 10 door ol Fillmor will of tion ar for casSec. 8C Utah V. ing de* n Mill: Numbe lard, Si by sale prelimi less th: taxes, which : estate \John GNEli
Newspaper Details
Delta Millard County Chronicle
Delta, Utah, US
Thu, May 20, 1943
Page 4
Full Page
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USA 05 Jul 2019
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