Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1901-09-30
E AKRON DEMOCRAT CO.
MONDAY, SEPT. 80, 1901.
THE PULPIT AND ANARCHY.

the condition of affairs which are
assumed to have brought it about.
1t seems to have become the fash
ion,--or perhaps the fad, to put it in
terms OF latter-day experience, for
our metropolitan congregations to re-
cruit their clergy by importations
from abroad,-just as they do their
clothing, their manners and other
commodities. Less wealthy or more
obscure churches get as near the inn
ported article as their means will ad-
NIT, either in name or habits of
thought. To such as these 1t is quite
natural that they should begin by
commenting more rigorous penal
laws, and by advising repressive
measures upon the press and other
vehicles of opinion. Brought up un-
der monarchical governments, and but
new to the influence of free institu-
tions, they neither comprehend nor
appreciate the latter, and in their ma
tural state of panic at this horrible
symptom of despotic rule, they seek
to strike down the only safeguard to
their own teachings. But 1t almost
passes comprehension to account for
some sermons of which we have
heard, upon this question, from native
pastors, whose discourses are but a
long and tiresome TRADE against car
toons and newspapers, in language
largely borrowed from newspapers
whose deliverances in political cam
paigns of the past have often been
along the verge of indecent or libellous
publications. In language thus ac-
CURED, they frantically declaim
against what they are pleased to call
''yellow Journals" and recommend
severe measures of censorship and
repression.
Let us examine this singular method
of clerical treatment of an alleged evil
q little.
In the first place it is to be remark
ed that such drastic legislation has
never yet been effcctual in comprising
its object, but rather has promoted
its opposite. Witness the long and
dark roll OF treason and libel prosecu-
tions which darken the history of
English and Irish Jurisprudence dur
ing the last quarter of the 18th cen
tury. The more rigorous the laws
placed on the statute books. and the
more frequent the trials under their
provisions, the greater the number of
pamphlets ana the more yirulent their
venom, against the very structure OF
society and the entire existing order
of things. This repressive legislation
did indeed drive the pamphleteer into
hiding, but from his obscurity he could !
direct the spawn of the press deprived
of all the respectability derived from
publicity and from an open, and thus
fairly decent, discussion of questions
In regard TO which the public are
and about which they will
read and learn. drastic and multiplied
laws to the contrary notwith-
Under the influence of these |
ll-advised and quite impotent meas !
lres the mischief aimed at by them /
throve, and license of the |
press grew up to which We people of |
II wiser age and mildcr laws are, hap |
PLY. comparative strangers.
Then again. we are to remember |
that anarchy, as we see and know /
of IT, and assassination of rulers as
one of its modes of action, is the |
peculiar offspring of the governments
In Europe which are not only the
most purely autocratic in form and
practice, but in which the govern
mental supervision of the press Is
the most rigid, all freedom of speech
most relentlessly crushed, and personal
movement most minutely watched by
police systems of espionage.
II therefore, the numerous prosecu-
tions for treason and libel n century
ago, and the swarms OF police which
infest Russia now, have been inert
to accomplish their purpose, It Is hare!
to see how placing more laws OF Il
like kind In operation or multiplying
detectives, viii he more likely to eff
feet a. like object.
Again as we pointed ont last week
the anarchist who has reached the
point of being dangerous To the per-
sons of rulers never reads the pnpers
which the clergy want suppressed.
All papers published in the open, and
which advocate amy government at
oil, are equally obnoxious to him, no
matter whether their color he yellow"
or black. That he often reads is uu.
dnuhfaIIv t,utns I,,t ,,,,,,., . ,,.........
per. When he reads II Is the obscure
ly published scrccd that Is far more
likely to come from some cellar In ST.
Petersburg, than from Printing House
Square, He Is utterly outside the
sphere Of influence which any news.
paper ever yet published could exert
As to cartoons, against which tn,
preachers invclgh, It may he worth
while To remind the latter that they
nave been with MS for many years
and that generally they have served n
good ana useful purpose and SO fal
they are entitled to our gratitude, 1
Is unquestionably true that but fo
them the Tweed ring in New Yorl
could not have been overthrown whc,
II was, and Tweed was free to sa,
that he cared not "A curse for the ser
mons OF the clergy for his kind of peo
pie never went To hear them. nor We
for the editorials Of the Tribune an,
Ilmes. because most OF his constitu
ents could not read, but that the,
ROOSEVELT MAXiMS.