Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1902-03-27

the exteut 20 #ulcn the ABOVE pro-
visions may be used 10 curtaiA the
liberty OF the press. the freedom OF
speech and imperil the liberty Of
every individual citizen No crime
need be committed 20 make this Law
applicable. The allegation OF an
enemy made under oath can place In
prison for twenty years any citizen
who. in partizan speech or in private
conversation, may have arraigned
the conduct Of any OF the above
named officials. With such law
on the statute books no editor dare
charge the Executive, or any mem
Der Of bis cabinet, with malfeasance
least some misguided individual
claim that the charges instigated
him 70 kin the offending official.
Ny whispered statement to col
league, that the Secretary Of the
Treasury, for instance is improperly
administering his Office, overheard
by nv enemy, may found the basis
OF twenty years imprisonment on
the same ground. Just such in
stances occurred under the old sedi-
ton law and are liable tooccur again
under this law.
"On still another ground, among
others, opposed this law. II has
been our boast that, in this free
country. all citizens were equal be-
fore the law. Can this besaid when
we have singled out a class-the
President, the Secretary OF State
and all the other secretaries-to as
sault, whom is made q crime pun
ishable with death, while q similar
assault on the governor of o state
or on anybody else. is punishable
only by Imprisonment? And II we
are TO so make one class, why not
more? Why not have included the
judiciary, senator's and representa-
tives and so on and make Il punish
able with death to assault any OF
them, while to assault any other
people in the United States merits
only Imprisonment? Such a dis
tincfion is contrary TO every tenet
Of liberty and equality, contrary 81
every tradition OF American freedom
and, the fever which attends exist
ing circumstances having sutsided,
will be condemned by every thought
full American citizen. Aside from
the fundamental objection to the ine-
quality Of different people before
the law which this bill establishes,
a grave objection is that under this
lawlan innocent man is liable to be
convicted. IL is all right TO make i
easy to convict an anarchist, but il
is all wrong to make il easy to con-
vict an innocent man for some harm.
less or thoughtless word spoken by
him. Whether this bill becomes a
law or not, the man who kills a
President will be executed, but
that will not bring the President
back TO life, The important thing to
do is to drive the anarchist out OF
the country and prevent the killing
of Presidents, .
i Last Monday the Senate passed
the ship subsidy bill although six
prominent republicans voted against
the measure. On the same day the
House Committee on Rules voted
to report to the House the Crum-
packer resolution providing for the
appointment of q committee to inves.
tigate the question Of congressional
representation as compared with
the number of voters. On Fri
day the House passed the River and
Harbor bill carrying an appropria-
ton Of go, SIS, 267. On Friday the
Senate passed the war revenue re.
peal bill, amending the bill as pass
ed by the House only to the extent
ofleaving the tax on bucket shops.
Saturday there was no session oil
the Senate and the House devoted
its attention to the private calender.
| The promoters of the Crumpacker
movement do not deny that their in
tention is to curtail the congression-
al representation of certain Southern
States and, If they attempt any def
mite move in that direction, they
will be strenuosly resisted by the
democrats. Representative Rich
ardson, the Iemocratic leader, as
suses me that the democrats will
avail themselves of every parlimen-
tary tactic TO prevent so grave an
injustice and every democrat in
Congress viii stand by him. What
ever may be the result, in so far as
the republicans are concerned, the
attempt gives every promise OF unit
ing the democratic party and IL is
freely predicted that northern re-
publicans willrepudiate the attempt,
on the partof their representatives,
70 take step which must result in
intense animosity. II iswell known
that the former President disap-