The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-23
PUZZLED OVER SOLUTION
Chicago Is Believed To Have Situation Under Better Control Than Any Other City In the Country.
 Reds" Number 40, 900.
BY FREDERIC j. HAsKlN.

compared with that of the govern
 ment in the handling of the anarchist.
 How to get rid of the "red" is q l question not so easy to solve as 1t
 seems to be. and when each plan pro-
 posed is analysed it is found to have
 about six advantages to a half dozen
 wbacks But the attack on the Chicago chief of police and the mur
 der of the Denver priest have brought
 about a recrudescence of the talk of
 extermination that grew so ominous l just after the assa ssination of Presi-
 dent Mckinley "The reds must go'
 was then the cry even as it is today.
 but there is little to indicate that they went.
 The fact is. there is a wide diver gence of opinion S to how to handle 1 the anarchist. There are two schools l of thought as to the best way to hold
 him in check. The one believes in 1 stern, strict unrelenting repression.
 It thinks that he must be muzzled, his
 utterances and his writings smothered the minute they come to the surface.
 MT. Roosevelt is of this school. He said in his message to Congress that
 anarchy is no more an expression of social discontent than is pocket picking or wife-beating" and further on that If eyer anarchy is triumphant it will last but one red moment to
 be succeeded for ages by the gloomy night of despotism." He then urged Congress to pass tn emost stringent {cfS 4a regard them as outlaws of the first
 water.
 This same idea finds expression in the action of Philadelphia in calling to a halt the anarchist meeting sched-
 uled to take place there, and in de- termining to put a quietus on any
 anarchistic utterances that may be
 made at any other meeting which
 might be held. It also finds expression in the New York law against anarchy.
 In that state the police power is ex- ercised to prevent the propagation of
 anarchistic doctrine whenever it par 1 takes of the nature of the gospel of
 murder and assassinat tion. New York
 has compara lively few anarchists. The
 laws of New Jersey are more hospita
 ble to them.
 The other school takes the ground 1 that harsh measures drive the l archist to cover, that the secret pro
 ceedings are more dangerous than those which are open, that where the 1 anarchist is not denied the right of
 free speech and public assemblage he
 can be kept track of. and violence can
 thus be kept down. Its supporters | point out that where the harshest l mea sures have been adopted the an- archists flourish the most, and that n
 England and America, where their idiosyncrasies are allowed to come to l light, there is not nearly so much vio- l lence on the part of anarchists as
 there is in those countries where the
 profession of their faith makes thein
 outlaws, to be hunted down like wild
 animals.
 This policy is illustrated by the Illi-
 nois way of handling the situation. l There anarchists are allowed to speaK and write on their favorite subject as much as they are inclined to, and 1 the result is that they are all known l to the officers of the law and can be
 kept track of. However, the Illinois
 law makes every anarchist responsi- ble for his utterances. For instance if the murder of President Mckinley
 had taken place in Chicago, or in any l part of Illinois, Emma Goldman, whose
 preachings affected Czolgosz, could l have been held as accompice in
 the eyes of the law. The sum of the Illinois law is that if man or 1 woman has been influenced to commit | a crime by the words or writing of
 another, the author of those words is
 equally guilty with the actual perpe- trator of the crime.
 Chicago has probably come as near | to offering a solution of the question l of anarchy as any other place on | earth. At the Chicago commons there
 is what is known as the free floor. l Here whosoever will may come and | have his say. The anarchist comes
 and is given three minutes. He raves
 about the injustice of government, re-
 beating the arguments that he has | heard in some foul-smelling saloon | To meet tn ese arguments, there are | good speakers ready, who have been
 secured by those who seek to uplift l the benighted souls. The anarchist ! comes, so to speak, with his bomb in | his hand for everybody. Next time ne
 comes with it in his pocket and per l haps the third time he leaves it d. | home. He is made to see the utter | futility of desperate meth ods and the
 hopelessness of. accomplishing any thing by violerfee He will still re-
 main an anarchist but as rule. he 1 ceases to be filled with the spirit of l assassination and murder.
 The crusade that has been going on against anarchy lately cannot bear
 great deal of fruit, as might be sup l posed from what has been written on the subject. unless there is new leg l islation. In years there have been | less than a half dozen anarchists de-
 barred from our ports. The law pro- hibits the entry of an anarchist, and every immigrant is asked whether or not he is one. Of course no an- archist would admit 1t when he seeks
 to land, and so they go through. It is only where informatio comes from the country from wh ence he sails that he can be kept out. After he gets here he is for three years liable to deportation if he is found to be crim- inal an anarchist. When that .I- lxz- fA1