The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-09-19
ENGLAND AND ANARCHISTS
CONTINUED from Page one.1

after many, many years of repression
that British discovered this fact. The
secret meetings, the midnight plots, the
pamphlets and newspapers surrepti-
tiously circulated, bred mystery and
dark dOings and anarchism thrives on
such things. On such occasions when
the authorities, with soldiers, police
men and special constabulary, attempt.
ed to stop professions and prevent
meetings there were conflicts and riots.
But for nearly a quarter of a century
London has been quite at peace with
the turbulent element If any one
wants to have procession in great
numbers because of some public ques-
ton the police authorities tell them to
go ahead provided always that an ade-
quate police escort accompanies the
marchers to see that traffic is not de-
layed and that there is no rufianism
by hooligans along the line of march.
If few thousands or a hundred thou
sand want to hold q public meeting
Hyde park or Trafalgar square is open
to them. The police always suggest,
however, that if the meeting is to be
a very large one it be held in Hyde
park, rather than in Trafalgar square.
For in the park there is more room.
The police certainly heed what the
speakers say. They make a note Of
certain speeches and mark down the
speaker, and he may some day discover
that his name is on the list Of the
special branch at Scotland Yard But
men and women can wave the red flag
all they want. They can yell "Down
with the king and government" till
they are black in the face. They can
advise march on Buckingham palace,
the footing of the fashionable West
end, the reddest kinds of revolution
and, in fact, spout and shout until they
are hoarse without interruption or APP
parent heed from the police.
An official of Scotland Yard s special
branch in Whitehall explained the
secret to me the other day. "It's just
this way" he said. "We find that
speechmaking in the park is a safety
valve. IF you are in a balloon and
want to let the gas out by degrees you
open the safety valve. If you hold
this valve open long enough all the gas
comes out and your balloon is Debated
and harmless. So it is with the turbu
lent agitator. Let him and his comrades
meet in public and let them spout
for all they are worth. The gas is
escaping fairly gently. By the time
these men are talked dry they are
harmless. They take few weeks to
generate enough gas to get dangerous
again, but by giving them the right to
let it off the gas never explodes. 1t
comes out through the safety valve.
The public meeting is good thing, too
in another way. 1t gives the authori-
ties an idea of the strength Of the
particular movement in the first place,
and then supplies us also with the iden-
tifeation of the leading spirits, and
when we once are on even terms with
the leaders. the whole movement, what
over it may be, is practically under
our thumb If there are any dangerous
men, anarchists if you viii, that we
have not spotted on their arrival in
London, we get to know them at these
meetings.
1'The United States is grand country J
but why it should be called the land Of |
the free, I do not know. It may be a /
bit more free than Russia and few
continental countries, but if ever there !
was land Of the free it is England. /
If my memory serves me right there
have been more assassinations of rulers