The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1897-12-10
a -MUZzhED PRESS.
A SPECTACLE FOR FREEMEN OF
AMERICA TO CONTEMPLATE.
Despite Our Constitution the Powers Of
Ignorance and Prejudice Still Prevail.
Summary of the Struggles For q Free
Press and Free Speech.

Summary of the Struggles For q Free
Press and Free Speech.
Especial Correspondence
To the student and lover of American
traditions and institutions no phase of
present conditions is more inspiring to
assistance than that exhibited in the
steady development of aggressive pa
t,rnalism. The constant tendency of au-
thority is to grow by the acquisition of
new power, and this tendency should al
ways be curbed by watchful resistance.
Hence it is that "the price of liberty is
eternal vigilance, for the extension Of
governmental functions beyond their
legitimate sphere means the oppression
Of the citizen, and the strengthening of
a paternal government means tyranny
to the individual.
While those who are struggling for
economic freedom are startled by new
and threatening aggression the veteran
workers for mental freedom see in it a
new outgrowth of what seemed at first
a very trifling encroachment. The fact
is that our courts have usurped powers
which were expressly forbidden them
by the constitution and, finding the
usurpation easy have gone on step by
step till the last stage is reached in
tyrannical injunction orders These re,
cent abuses of authority for the accom-
plishment Of unlawful and oppressive
purposes have awakened the country to
an understanding of one phase of pa
ternalistic growth, and from now on
much will be said and written about
government by Injunction, but l wish
to write of a still more dangerous form
of paternalism, more dangerous because
more insidious, less understood and
more readily acquiesced in, that form
which, under pretense of supervising
morals, suppresses thought, precludes
information and threatens discussion;
that form which, in violation Of the
federal constitution, abridges the right
of free speech and free press.
With the first glimmer Of intellectual
light came efforts to quench that light;
with the first efforts to spread knowl.
edge came counter efforts to repress it,
Very shortly before Columbus discovered
America our present method of printing
from type was perfected by Faust, Gu
tenberg and Schofi'er, and as it was I'M
mediately recognized as way by which
education might be spread broadcast
among the common people the forces of
darkness arrayed themselves in an effort
to prevent it's use, So that when Faust
went to Paris in 1862 with his printed
Bibles for sale the priests, who up to
that time had enjoyed a monopoly and
done thriving business in copying the
Bible by hand with pen and ink, imme-
diately raised such an cutlery, denounc-
ing printing as an invention Of the
devil, that Faust was forced to leave
hastily to save his life, and the story as
we have it today in poetry and opera of
Faust carried off by the devil has it's
origin in this effort of the priests to de-
feat the means whereby knowledge
might be spread among the people.
But the forces of destiny overcame the
Vaccinations of the priests, for after
the death Of Faust and while most of
the printing Of Europe was done by
>Schoffer at Mainz the town was sacked
by Adolphus, and the printers were dis
pC1SCu dASt AOICC.A w 1uu WOIh S1Sc-
where. By this means knowledge of
the art was disseminated throughout
Europe, and from that time the practice
Of the art became universal, SO that be-
fore the year 1900 there were over 200
printing offices in different cities of Eu-
rope. So through war and devastation
this new means of communicating
thought was established, but the hatred
which the enemies Of enlightenment
manifested in those early times toward
the printer and his art was in no whit
abated and continues to this day.
1t having become almost as difficult
to prevent the spread of printed matter
as to genuine thought by means of chains
and dungeons, the next device was to
force the printed expression of thought
into conformity by means of censor
ship, and this effort was put forth very
early in the life of the new art, for books
are still extant printed at Cologne in
1879 bearing the ilnprimatur or official
permission of the university and others
printed at Heidelberg in 1880 authorized
by the patriarch of Venice So thought
has struggled against repression, and
Notwithstanding it's utter inefficiency
the censorship was continued for the
suppression of inconvenient ideas till in
1920 we find Cardinal Wolsey, in con-
sequence of brief of Leo K, ordering
the English bishops to require that all
the books and writings of one Martin