The herald., 1896-08-30
PROSECUTIONS REACTION

The persecution by imprisonment of
| single-tax speakers in Delaware having
! reached climax a few days ago, has
| since collapsed by the weight of its own
malignity The stupid and debased city
officials of Dover guilty of the imprison-
ment of respectable men. offensive in
nothing except the alleged crime Of eX-
ercising the right of free speech, at last
called halt and announced that there
would be no more arrests. This an
nouncement however was supplement-
ed by the further statement that the
sngle-tax speakers who attempted to
address meetings in that town would
''be turned over to the citizens. This
meant that, instead of such speakers
being jailed by Dogberrys, they would
be mobbed by hoodlums. And so. re-
Gently. the rowdy element of Dover. TAX
ing its cue from the authorities. turned
itself loose and went into the business
of breaking up single-taX meetings by
the use of tin horns, ilnprovised drums,
rotten eggs and other favorite argu-
ments not infrequently resorted to by
creatures without brains enough to
reason or honor enough to respect the
rights of men towering above them NOR
ally and intellectually, like giant oaks
among thistles and burrs.
When the Dogberry idiots let up on
their conspiracy of imprisonment there
were seventeen single-tax speakers con-
fined in the old Dover Jail. So far as
known, they are all honest, sober. law
abiding citizens of the United States.
Some of them are poor, others in good
financial circumstances. and a few quite
wealthy: but all are all conscientiously
engaged in propagating a reform system
of political economy which they believe
essential to the redemption of Della
ware from the dry rot of taxation laws
founded on ignorance and superstition.
The most conspicuous man among them
is A. H. Stephenson, a prominent mer
chant and manufacturer of Philadel
pha. who is chairman of the campaign
committee. He and another dangerous
single-tax prisoner, having served their
term of thirty days in JAIL are now at
large again, prowling around, seeking
whom they may convert, and address
ing meetings ten times as large as those
they formerly had the pleasure of talk
ing to. Another prisoner was turned
loose in consequence of a gross error in
the commitment paper made by the
DoSberry who attached his "X' to the
document. All the others have been re-
leased under bail until their cases can
be heard before a cuort that under
stands the English language. So now
they are all holding meetings and talk
ing with removed enthusiasm to larger
crowds than ever before.
The Dover officials could no longer
face the storm of indignation aroused
by their conduct, which manifested it
self in scathing editorials and denunci-
atory resolutions from press and people
throughout the land. They have learned
that 1t is neither popular nor safe to at
tempt the suppression of any reform
movement by suppressing free speech.
The best thing they can do Is to resign
the positions they disgrace and retire
forever to private life. They can prob
ably exc out an existence-should it be
necessary for them to exist at abby
managing peanut stands or catching
grasshoppers for fish bait
All things considered, the cruel perse-
cutions of single-tax reformers in Della
ware, while hard on the victims them
selves, Will, under the unfailing law Of
reaction in such cases, result most IA
vorably for the reform movement. The
Wilmington Justice, newspaper es-
Inmates that the amount of advertising
which the movement has received
through such persecution could not have
been obtained in any other way for less
sum than $4,000. Probably this is not
too high an estimate.