Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1901-10-03
Clemens on Anarchy.

Breeze, in response to questions
sent out by that paper:
81 assume that your question
relates to what is called anarchy
by the press and by speakers,
against what has recently occur
red to shock US all, and not to
the philosophy taught by Emer-
son and others.
1 do not think any legislation is
necessary to prevent anything OF
the kind that is preYentable.
Under the laws we already have,
such newspaper editors as the
gentlemen who run "yellow jour
nails" and indulge in outrageous
abuse of public officials, could,
tomorrow, be put in Jail for a
thousand years or so for libel.
Unlawful assem- blies can be dis
persed under existing laws. The
man who commits murder can be
killed at least once under the
laws we have. Free speech
simply means that you may talk
without official permission and
without official interference.
That is all. You can be ever
lastingly done up for what you
have said, but no officer can keep
you from saying it. Freedom of
the press merely means that
there can be no censorship of the
press; that you cannot be requir-
ed to get a license from some Of
fetal before you can print what
you have written; but you can be
made weary after you have print,
ed it. This is all that freedom
of the press and of speech has
ever meant in our constitution,
as long ago construed. But nc
law can be valid which prevents
free speech or free publication
in the first instance.
Nor do think more law on the
subject desirable. No man car
wish to put it in the power of a
policeman to jerk him off the
platform for talking what the Pc.
liceman may consider "sedition.
In a Democratic town the Repub
lican orator would be locked up,
and in Republican town the
Democratic orator would be rur
: in. We can't afford anything
like that. Besides it does NJ
good. Look at Russia. Yor
| cannot safely express in the con
! fdence of friendship at your owl
fireside disapprobation of officia
conduct. You may be walked III
at 3 o'clock in the morning t
e show your passport as on tn
:; old time railroad train you woul
be ierked out of the arms @
Morpheus to show your ticket
Baggage is searched for "sed
tious" books, and even Tolstc
is exiled. Yet Nihilism goe
right on growing, the car tray
els in large oyster can made @
steel and with the top soldere
down, and he has to have a ca
: taste the imperial victua1s first
and watch the effect, before h
dares eat his dinner.
r President Roosevelt has tn
a correct idea, and it was Lincoln
, too, that assassination cannot b
prevented. Why should ever
man in the nation be subiecte,
IS to irksome restraint in the val
attempt to accomplish the impos
4 sible? Again, however niue
: such legislation might be approx
e ed right now while the great ma
}. tional tragedy is fresh in tn
peoples minds and when only
l. certain class are thought of a
the objects of the legislation, i
a few months, when the law be
gan to work in the hands of NAL
e ice, ignorance and stupidity, tn
Il very people who would now az
i prove it would denounce it an
probably make it a national issu
upon which the administrator
of government would be change
at the next election. We hav
an historic instance. Let us no
forget what the alien and seditio
o laws did to John Adams and tn
: Federalist party. Let us kee
our heads cool. The repub1i
will live, and its presidents, toe
q without re-enacting the yer
!, laws our fathers worked, faugh
: and died to overthrow. Let u
!, not return to the 18th centur
and compel our posterity to re
6 enact the 18th.
: To conclude, the best way
a prevent violence of speech is
leave the remedy to public opir
ion. When speaker forgets