New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-05-17
TURNER AND HIS ADVOCATES.

Let Freedom shrek as she has not shrieked
before since Kosciusko fell! Free speech is no
longer sacred in this land Of the free and home
Of the brave. John Turner, the gentlemanly,
philosophical anarchist who says he does not
advocate assassination because lie thinks that
1.-THE man who sits back safely and urges upon
another TO do something he thinks ought to
'be done is a coward is finally excluded from
the United States, in spite Of the efforts of the
true friends of liberty and the protests Of Mr.
John DE Witt Warner. Of Mr.. Edward VI. Shep-
ard and Congressman Baker. of Brooklyn; of
Mr.. Hugh o. PentecOSt Mr. Ernest ii. Cros-
by and The New-York Evening Post" The
United States Supreme Court yesterday not
only upheld the consttutionality of the law
excluding a person who disbelieyes in or who
is opposed TO all organized government but
decided that Mr.. Turner fell under the proh-
billions Of the law and properly arrested
and ordered TO be deported by Secretary Cor
telyOu. The opinion in the ease was written
by Chief Justice Fuller. an anti-imperialist and
the leading exponent in the court of true JEFF
fersonian Democratic doctrine.
In view Of this finding. it is rather amusing
TO recall the mass meeting held in Cooper
Union last December which resolved that the
law contrary TO the spirit of the Consti-
tuition 1t is also amusing TO recall some of the
opinions expressed there which were so soul
stirring when they were hot off the bat. Under
the cold light of the Chief Justices logic they
may not now seem magnificent but il is
worth while, nevertheless, TO examine in that
light some of the stuff which passes for special
ly high toned and austere patriotism among
those who mistake a capacity for shrill fault
finding for superior understanding Of the true
principles of government. According to Mr.
Crosby. in the light of the arrest of Mr.. Tur-
ner the Statue of Liberty was "A brazen lie
which should be replaced by an iron ogre Of
DespOtism Darkening the World. Poor, old Su-
preme Court, which sits nOdding in its gowns
at Washington and does not realize the desp6t-
ism which stalks at MONDAY under its pro
lection! Representative Baker was convinced
that the law was deliberate attempt of the
monopolies to silence those whose voices might
be raised against them. Has the Supreme
Court as Mr. Bryan has sometimes hinted
gone over to the despotism and taken its Demo
cratic Chief Justice with it? Mr.. Warner
thought that one might as well discuss the
etiquette of murder as TO discuss the defects
Of the bill. so atrocious was its character; and
yet the Supreme Court, unawed by his elo-
quence, has the temerity 10 say that the law
Is all right and fully within the powers of
| Congress, according to the Constitution and
the true principles of American liberty! Mr.
Shepard took another tack He was not so
much against the law as against its enforce
nent He wrote:
The sole defence of the government is that
Mr.. Turner "disbelieves in all organized govern
rnenL Secretary Corteyou applies a statute
evidently intended TO exclude persons who
threaten violence or murder to the of