poleon's empire. It was an idea burning almost alone in the mind of a German corporal that helped catapult a modern nation into nazism. It was an idea in the mind of a few great men in the Colonies that made the precious thing we call America. For the protection of our lives our liberties, and our persons, America is primarily an idea and secondarily a sector of geography. If the same sector of geography were informed with the ideas of an oriental despotism, it would be just that and cease to be America. What Sophocles, writing about 450 B. C., had Antigone say to Creon did not die on Antigone's lips and only reappear on the lips of a modern jurist near the middle of the Twentieth century A. D. Before Sophocles gave the idea the imperishable beauty of his own poetic form, it had been found and refound by man; and in every intervening generation, it has persistently endured as a constant in man's legal and moral life. Such a constant, resting on the experience of over 25 centuries of recorded human history, is worthy of examination by men interested in law and human rights. Plato expressed the idea when he said that law was an expression not of God's will but of God's intellect and since our intellect is à spark of Sovereign mind, intellect should have the sole share in the making of law. In his Republic he confided to philosophers the highest function so they may govern according to the eternal principles of justice. Aristotle taught that it is of man's essence to be a free, rational, social being; that acts corresponding to man's essential nature are good, the opposite bad, not because law makes them so but because nature does; and that law is therefore essentially reason, a rule of reason for rational beings. Cicero, in his De Legibus, eloquently describes natural law as right reason: "Of all these things respecting which learned men dispute there is none more important than clearly to understand that we are born for justice, and that right is founded not in opinion but in nature. There is indeed a true law, right reason, agreeing with nature and diffused among all, unchanging, everlasting, which calls to duty by commanding deters from wrong by forbidding. * * Cicero's expression of this concept profoundly influenced law. To Justinian and thinkers throughout the Middle Ages jus naturale was a group of principles of reason and justice that men could rationally comprehend. To Augustine eternal law was divine reason governing the universe and natural law a participation therein, cognizable, however, by human reason as the order of creation for rational creatures. St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle and all the major minds of the west, taught that law is "an ordinance of reason made for the common good;" that natural law is "divine law revealed through natural reason"-participatio legis aeternae in rationali creatura; and that the need of man to conform to natural law is merely that he conform to his own nature as a rational being. The essence of his definition of law is reason. The medieval jurists and theologians, three centuries before Coke, taught that all government was subject to the principles of natural law. Gierke, in his Political Theories of the Middle Ages, says: "Men supposed that before the state existed the Lex Naturalis already prevailed as an obligatory statute and that immediately or mediately from this flowed the rules of right to which the state owed even the possibility of its own rightful origin. And men also taught that the highest power on earth was subject to the rules of natural law. They stood above the Pope and above the emperor, above the ruler and above the sovereign people, nay, above the whole community of mortals." Blackstone in his Commentaries, thus speaks of this same natural law: "Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator. * This law of nature, being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times; no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid deprive all their force, and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original." Edmund Burke, rejected the artificial theories of the eigthteeenth century and the Frenh enlightment as deforming, rather than illustrating, natural law. He accepted, however, the ethical tradition that man is determined to social and political life by his intellectual and moral nature; that government is therefore founded on the necessities of our human nature and as such expresses the mind of the authors of nature. In discussing Fox's East India bill, Burke said: "The rights of man-that is to say, the natural rights of mankind are indeed sacred things; and if any public measure is proved mischievously to affect them, the objection ought to be fatal to that measure, even if no charter at all could be * * * set up against it. If these natural rights are further affirmed and declared by express covenants, they partake not only of the sanctity of the object, so secured, but of that solemn public faith itself, which secures an object of such * The things secured by these instruments may importance. be very fitly called the chartered rights of man." * * * * * As old as man, this concept of law became the formal and factual foundation of our own American system in both its origins and in its development. In our origins the founding fathers proclaimed the source of our human rights and the basis of our law in a solemn Declaration of principles and in an organic law giving effect to those principles. This is what they said in the Declaration: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men * * are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. That to secure these Rights Governments are instituted among Men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." * * * By that solemn Declaration the men who made America rooted the ultimate defense of our human rights in a divine endowment. To them that truth was "self-evident." The reference to "just" powers of government shows acceptance of natural law limitations proscribing arbitrary power in any form. They thus accepted the thought I have outlined that law is ultimately founded not in man's mere subjective ideas but in nature, that the law of human nature is from its Author, and that, therefore, man has natural rights which he does not get from the State. Senator DONNELL. The next witness is Mr. Paulsen Spence, president of the Spence Engineering Co., Inc., Walden, N. Y. Is Mr. Spence present? Mr. Spence, just have a seat, sir. Will you state your name, your residence, your business and for whom you are appearing today? STATEMENT OF PAULSEN SPENCE, PRESIDENT, SPENCE Mr. SPENCE. My name is Paulsen Spence. I live in Baton Rouge and in Walden. N. Y. Senator DONNELL. Where do you spend the bulk of your time? Senator DONNELL. Baton Rouge, La., and Walden, N. Y. What is your business? Mr. SPENCE. In Walden, N. Y., I am a manufacturer; and in Louisiana I am a farmer and railroad man. Senator DONNELL. What type of farming do you engage in? Senator DONNELL. And what type of railroad work? Mr. SPENCE. Well, I am mixed up in a small, short-line railroad, hauling gravel. Senator DONNELL. How long is that railroad? Mr. SPENCE. Seventeen miles. Senator DONNELL. It is operating between what points? Mr. SPENCE. Between Slaughter, La., and Bluff Creek, La. Senator IVES. Where is your legal residence? Mr. SPENCE. Legal residence, Baton Rouge. Senator DONNELL. Where were you born? Mr. SPENCE. Baton Rouge. Senator DONNELL. Do you mind telling us the year? Mr. SPENCE. 1895. Senator DONNELL. And how long did you live in Louisiana before you acquired the company in New York? Mr. SPENCE. From, 1895 to 1916. Senator DONNELL. 1916? Mr. SPENCE. 1916. Senator DONNELL. Yes, sir. What was your educational background? Mr. SPENCE. Well, I was educated in the country schools of Louisiana; Chamberlain Hunt Academy at Port Gibson, Miss., and at the Louisiana State University. Senator DONNELL. Did you take a degree? Mr. SPENCE. Mechanical engineering. Senator DONNELL. Bachelor of science-mechanical engineering? Mr. SPENCE. Yes, sir. Senator DONNELL. And what did you do after you finished your work at school? Mr. SPENCE. Well, I first came North and went to work for the Chalmers Motor Co. in Detroit, Mich. Senator DONNELL. In what capacity? Mr. SPENCE. Well, I would say an apprentice. Senator DONNELL. Were you engaged in the mechanical department.? Mr. SPENCE. Well, I, as they called it in those days, served my time in the factory. Senator DONNELL. That was in Detroit? Mr. SPENCE. Yes, sir. Senator DONNELL. And how long were you in Detroit? Mr. SPENCE. I was in Detroit until 1920, except that I was out of Detroit about 2 years during the first war. Senator DONNELL. Where did you serve in the war? Mr. SPENCE. I served most of my time at Camp Custer, Mich. Mr. SPENCE. First lieutenant, Quartermaster Corps. Senator DONNELL. Then you came back to Detroit after your experience in the war? Mr. SPENCE. Yes. Senator DONNELL. How long did you stay in Detroit? Mr. SPENCE. I stayed in Detroit until about 1920; then I moved to New York City. More specifically, East Orange, N. J., is where I lived and I have had my business in New York City. Senator DONNELL. What was the business that you went into in New York City? Mr. SPENCE. I was a manufacturer's agent. Senator DONNELL. What did you handle? Mr. SPENCE. I handled pressure-reducing valves and steam traps. Senator DONNELL. You traveled over the country? Mr. SPENCE. I traveled the country more or less; yes sir. Senator DONNELL. In what part of the country did you travel? Mr. SPENCE. The whole country; the whole United States. Senator DONNELL. South of Mason and Dixon's line, and also north of Mason and Dixon's line? Mr. SPENCE. Yes, sir. Senator DONNELL. How far? Mr. SPENCE. As far west as the Rocky Mountains. Senator DONNELL. How long were you engaged in this line of business requiring travel? Mr. SPENCE. Well, in 1926 I began manufacturing on my own; and in 1927 I moved my business to Walden, N. Y., where I have been ever since as far as my business is concerned; and then I moved back south in 1941. Senator DONNELL. You say that you began manufacturing on your own in 1926. Was it this same type of equipment that you started to manufacture? Mr. SPENCE. Yes, sir. Senator DONNELL. The same type that you had been selling as manufacturer's agent? Mr. SPENCE. Yes, sir. Senator DONNELL. Did you employ white and colored labor in your plant? Mr. SPENCE. Not in Walden, because there are no colored people in Walden; but in the South and on my plantation I hire colored people. Senator DONNELL. Your labor in Walden was white, exclusively? Mr. SPENCE. Yes, sir. Senator DONNELL. How many people do you employ there? Senator DONNELL. Did you observe any discrimination there between white and colored or between Mr. SPENCE. Well, we haven't any colored people there and I didn't notice any discrimination of any kind; no, sir. Senator DONNELL. Did you notice any on the ground of religion? Mr. SPENCE. No, sir. Senator DONNELL. Or of ancestry? Mr. SPENCE. No, sir. Senator DONNELL. Or as to national origin? Mr. SPENCE. No, sir. Senator DONNELL. Mr. Spence, you say you went back down to Louisiana in 1941? Mr. SPENCE. Yes. Senator DONNELL. And had you owned property down there all this time, too? Mr. SPENCE. No; I bought property in Louisiana in 1941. Mr. SPENCE. Yes, sir. Senator DONNELL. Do you mind telling us how large a farm it is? Mr. SPENCE. About 1,100 acres, located 10 miles east of the city of Baton Rouge. Senator DONNELL. East of the city of Baton Rouge; how near is that to the Mississippi River? Mr. SPENCE. Eleven and one-fourth miles. Senator DONNELL. What is that? Bottom land? Mr. SPENCE. No, sir: that is forest land-hardwood forest land. Senator DONNELL. Have you been cutting timber there? Mr. SPENCE. NO; I have been practicing forestry and hog raising. Senator DONNELL. Forestry and hog raising; yes, sir. You say you have had some colored labor there? Mr. SPENCE. Yes, I have some colored people that worked with me ever since I started the place. Senator DONNELL. White labor also? Mr. SPENCE. Yes. Senator DONNELL, How many colored people have you employed? Mr. SPENCE. I have regularly employed four colored men and two white men. Senator DONNELL. Working along side by side? Mr. SPENCE. Well, not exactly side by side. A white man is the overseer and the other white man has charge of the stock. The colored men sort of do the work around the place of clearing, mending fences, plowing, and all the things that ordinarily have to be done around a farm. Senator DONNELL. Have you studied this bill, S. 984? Mr. SPENCE. Not specifically; no, sir. Senator DONNELL. You understand the general nature of it and the principle of the bill? Mr. SPENCE. Yes, sir. Senator DONNELL. Are you prepared to give us your views with respect to the bill? Mr. SPENCE. I am. Senator DONNELL. Now, unless there is some question that you gentlemen would like to ask Mr. Spence at this moment Senator IVES. I will have a number to ask as he proceeds. Senator DONNELL. Very well. Will you proceed. Mr. SPENCE. I have prepared a statement which you gentlemen have; and, on account of the shortness of the time, I won't read it, but I would like to just comment a little further on two things that have already been said. Senator DONNELL. In regard to the statement you have prepared, you are offering that for our record, I take it, to be filed? Mr. SPENCE. Yes, sir. Senator DONNELL. It will be received. Senator IVES. Wait a minute. If he is going to pass up his statement, I have one or two things that I should like to comment on. Senator DONNELL. Before that, I take it you have no objection to receiving the statement in the record? Senator IVES. Oh, no. Senator DONNELL. It will be received in the record and incorporated therein, to follow your testimony. Senator IVES. I would like to get myself straight with Mr. Spence. I don't think you understand me at all. Mr. SPENCE. Well, Senator, I voted for you a couple of times. Senator IVES. I don't believe I perhaps understood you. Let's get so that we do understand each other, and know what we are doing here. Do On page 2, at the bottom of the page there, you refer to a point. you want to read that? I want to comment. Don't get disturbed here; I am not going after you. Mr. SPENCE. You can go after me just as hard as you want. Senator IVES. I don't think you quite grasp what I am doing there. Just read that part beginning "Senator Ives is not fooling me." Mr. SPENCE (reading): Senator Ives is not fooling me in his great desire to help the colored people. In fact, I do not believe he is fooling very many of the colored people. If Senator Ives did not know that the Southern Senators would filibuster this bill to death, |