The herald., 1896-09-28
THE NEW HAVEN OUTRAGE

1t was hardly to be expected that a
mass meeting of citizens gathered to
hear an address. by candidate for pres
ident in such high-toned place as New
Haven, Conn, would be broken up by
a gang of young hoodlums. Yet such
was the case on Thursday last when
William J. Bryan attempted to address
several thousand respectable men and
women in that city on the issues of the
campaign. The young toughs guilty of
such dastardly conduct are not repre-
sentatives of the slums, nor did they
come from the humble walks of life.
They are none other than students in
Yale college, which is one of the fore
most educational institutions in the
United States. They are also sons Of
highly respectable and In most cases,
wealthy and aristocratic, people.
And yet those five or six hundred Yale
students who pretend to be young gen.
tlemen, went to that meeting with the
evident intention of practically breaking
up the proceedings-an they succeeded.
The feeble attempts of a few policemen
to quell the collegiate mob proved un-
availing, and the aristocratic rowdies,
aided by a brass band which they had
secured for the purpose, were enabled
to drown the speakers voice, create
panic in the audience and transform
what was intended as an orderly meet
ing into a pandemonium of wild excite
ment and confusion.
Had the occasion been a Mckinley
meeting, and the mob composed of DEM
ocrats, the Republican press throughout
the country would now be teeming with
denunciations of Bryan's supporters as
"revolutionists," anarchists" and fit
subjects for penitentiary sentences.
Independent of any political coloring,
the suppression of free speech, either by
official interference or by bowling
mob, is serious matter in professedly
free country" If New Haven has
started out as rival of Dover, the capt.
tai of benighted Delaware, she has made
a successful beginning. But every right
thinking man and woman in the land
must condemn such outrages, no matter
where or by whom they are perpetrated.
1t is sad to think that the New Haven
college hoodlums will be voters, and per-
haps Office holders, in the near future.
This incident suggests the question
why is it that college students in many
places are permitted to override the
laws, disturb the public peace, and do
various acts of violence without ever
being punished therefor? The fact that
they do such things with impunity is
we'll known. The most plausible reason
assigned is that the students of college
like Yale spend a great deal of money
in the community, and thus help busi-
ness. Hence the willingness of the au-
thorities and the business men to toll
crate lawlessness in genteel rowdies
which would be promptly suppressed If
attempted by young men in the humber
strata of society. Whatever the reason
for the breaking up of respectable public
meetings of any kind by a mob, or by
tyrannical officials, the evil should be
promptly suppressed and every guilty
participant in such violation of natural
rights should be summarily dealt with
Young men who are so depraved as to
become public nuisances and trample
upon the rights of other people deserve
not SO much the privileges of a high
toned college as the rigid discipline of
a well managed penitentiary.