The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-23

a. paper can be given TO lne puDilc II
must be sent to the censor, who is sup
posed to read it through and if he finds
anything he disapproves he orders 1t
taken out. Sometimes the censor is not
intelligent enough to comprehend on a
first reading what he does disapprove,
so after the paper is out and dis
tributed, carabineers hurry about the
city gathering up all copies of the pa
per that can be found at the stalls.
kilograms are sent over Italy stop
ping the paper. 1t has been seized.
Signora Papa illustrated the system
of the press censorship as 1t is carried
out in Milan, by describing the fortunes
of the Italia del Popolo, a republican
paper of which her late husband was
editor. Any absurd preteXt served for
Selling it. Once it was seized for print
ing part the constitution of the
United States, and once for printing
a part of the constitution of Italy One
of the reasonable articles seized was
an extract from "Uncle Tins Cabin, ="
which has become dear to all Italians.
They sympathize deeply with Uncle
Tom, said the Signora, and a strange
confusion has come about of the two
American uncles-Uncle Tom and Uncle
sam. Italian papers even in America,
refer wisely to the United States as
Uncle Tom" Imagine Uncle Tom S
sentiments for freedom being expressed
in a republican paper in Itslyl 1t was
treason
Then. once upon time, there was q
republican paper started by some uni
versity students under the title Of II
Ribelle The first number was seized
and the second. 1t came out for a week
and was seized every day, so the young
men brought it out with all the pages
blank, and it was seized again, seized
for it's name, the Rebel" Then the
name was left off and the columns filed
with extracts from Dante, Leopard,
Carducci and other italian poets, in
praise of the noble qualities of q rebel.
The paper was seized for it's imperti-
hence, and the students gave up rebel
| ling.
OF the treatment of journalists by
the government, Signora Papa gave a
terrible account. In the bread riots
which occurred last May. more people
were killed than on the American side
| during the whole of our war with
| Spain, and the newspaper men bore
more than their share of the general
suffering. The government accused
the socialists, republicans and priests
of having secretly fomented a revolu-
| t1onary movement and of editing
newspapers advocating their views,
and having made some hundreds of
arrests, dismissed the judges and filled
their places with military tribunes. The
| trials of the arrested editors were, con
Quoted practically behind closed doors.
No personal facts were adduced which
could prove that any one of them had
| strayed beyond the limits of the law:
but is it possible that a person of this
! mans opinions should not have taken
a most important part in the recent
disorders?" And, as the public prose-
cutor said. in winding up his speech:
IF there is no precise evidence against
these prisoners, it is only because they
are too clever to allow it to appear"
This man." referred to above, was
Signor Chiesi, the chief editor of the
Italia del Popolo and the article which
procured him his conviction was head
ed They were thirsty The fighting
was going on. Sig. Chiesi was on his
way to the Office of the Italia del Po-
polo, and heard the officers complaining
lof being thirsty. The wineshops were
closed and the officers We're calling to
the passers-by to bring them wine. In
the midst of this a man came up with
something in his hat, saying, "They
have carricd the child away and left
her brains on the ground. Here they
are" The schools had been dismissed
and the children were going home just
while the firing was at it's worst, sc
there was a, real slaughter of the limo
cents. Sig. Chiesi wrote the article
They We're thirsty and ended by
saying that they were bloodthirsty
just as an American would have done
! He got six years of solitary confine.
ment for it. A member of parliament
has a letter produced as evidence
against him from one connected with
the Italia del popolo, inviting him tc
come to a meeting at the office.
This was sufficient evidence of trea-
solitary confinement. He is said to be
going mad with horror at the
thing. Another member of parliament,
who wrote for the paper was likewise
condemned to ~ years of solitary con-
finement. yet there was no evidence
that could have convicted either of
them in a court of Justice.
The Latin race as a whole seems to
be characterized by documentary
sense of justice. The Dreyfus case in
France, the case of Spain in her rela-
ton to the Cubans and the ease of the
Milan editors are three recent proofs,
gathered from three different branches
of the Latin family, which indicate
plainly how indistinct feeble and vac
! Hating is the popular conception of JUS
tice in those three countries. All three
4 examples of injustice would have been
| impossible to an AngloSaxon nation,
because the Anglo-Saxon race found
out centuries ago that Justice, good
faith and fair dealing between man
| and man were Indispensable to the sta
bility of the state and the happiness Of
the individual citizen, and has been
slowly but surely cropping its way to a
more perfect realization of it ever
since. The road to perfection lies
| through a series of defeats, and if JUS
tice has not always been subserved by
England and America in their dealings
with other nations and with them
selves, at least each has always been
more or less sharply defined ideal
and public conscience sensitive
enough to know when it was departed
from.
But in France, in Spain and in Italy
| the common conscience of the people
seems to be so undeVeloped, or so
blunted, or else so paralyzed th9t when
confronted with a crisis it proves it.
self pitifully incapable.
| The reason why that the French con-
demned that Dreyfus the Italians i'm
prisoned their editors and the Spanish
ill-treated the Cubans, is because the
French are French, and the Italians
are italian, and the Spaniards are
! Spanish They did what they did be-
cause they are what they are, and they
are what they are because they have
all along been committing just such
crimes on the sly, only the crimes We're
less conspicuous and they did not hap
pen to be caught at them.
Race inheritance, which tells so mag
lnificently in the case of England, proves
to be a cat of another color on the other
side of the channel Theologians long
ago used to discuss predestination, and
it's effe&s upon the future life of the in
lirrid11 hut flna nnrndastinatinr, nuhinln