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Back to the American Way

This meeting with the nationally famous Commonwealth Club of California is the high spot of my trip across the continent. I have driven for the purpose of getting a more intimate view of the towns and various countrysides which make up the great nation whose cases before the Supreme Court are my responsibility, I have often said that everyone in official life should be compelled to spend every third week at home -- wherever that is -- so as to get the tonic of life as it really is, to relieve the political high blood pressure that always affects Washington, and which at about this season is apt to make its victims a little hysterical.

Address at the Opening Exercises of the FBI National Police Academy

I am glad to share with the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation the privilege of welcoming you here -- glad because it seems to me a significant thing that so many men father here from so many parts of the country, denoting a continued interest in the problems of law enforcement.

Is Our Constitutional Government in Danger?

The Constitution of the United States, as written by our forefathers and ratified by the people themselves, is not beyond the understanding of the average citizen. In simple language it sets up a skeleton government, sketches its powers and limitations in a few great clauses, and in ten short amendments declares those fundamental rights which make up our freedom. It does not use technical terms, and it is all contained in about 4.500 words. Such brevity proves that it is not a mere lawyer's document. I urge you to study it.

The Party and the Nation

Government Counsel and Their Opportunity

Almost exactly six years ago I arrived in Washington to become a General Counsel for the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Promising myself and my clients that it was for a year only, a good deal bewildered at the size and complexity of the government machine, I joined the ranks of government counsel.

Our Government Is Prepared Against the Fifth Column

This nation is well equipped to combat sabotage, espionage, Fifth Column activities, and other matters related to law enforcement. Long before this country became alive to the dangers of the Fifth Column, the President, forewarned by his experience in the World War, saw emergence of national defense as the nation's first problem. As long ago as September 6, 1939, he directed that all federal agencies dealing with civil defense during peace time be coordinated under the Department of Justice.

Sesquicentennial of the Supreme Court of the United States

The Federal Judiciary Act which became a law on September 24, 1789, provided for a Supreme Court to consist of a Chief Justice and five associate justices, thirteen district courts, and three circuit courts composed of two Supreme Court justices and a district judge. The act further fixed the jurisdiction of the inferior federal courts and provided for appellate jurisdiction from the state courts in certain cases presenting federal questions.

Should The New Deal Policies Be Continued?

In establishing the Town Hall of Buffalo you are founding one of the basic institutions of democratic government, and I count it a privilege to help. The price of free government is that citizens must keep themselves informed and alert and critical of those in office. Our people need uncensored facts and undistorted information. But also they need the diversity of interpretation of events and the clash of opinion which helps to form individual judgments, the sum of which constitutes public opinion.

Francis Biddle Honorary Address

I think it is some indication of the really revolutionary character of the New Deal that the Jacksons welcome the Biddles to Washington and the Biddles welcome the Jacksons to Philadelphia. I was willing to go a long way toward effecting this reconciliation and came here asking only a fair and open field, and supposing that Francis would not take advantage of my small-town background and imagination.

FBI Police Academy Address

In extending congratulations to the graduates of the National Police Academy I will ask you to note and to take back to your respective communities three sets of facts which are very significant in view of the current generalities of praise and blame of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.