The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-12-11

No, Mr. Mitchell, much we admire your hon
esty and sincerity; much we love you for your
adherence. to sound principles you have not the
right to write and speak you please. No man,
not even the President of the United States the
King of England, has that right. The laws of our
country respect for the rights of neighbor and
the canons of common sense, are opposed to the
license of free speech
Great Britain and the United States concede
more liberty to their subjects than all the nations
of Christendom, but, at times, they are compelled
in self-defense, to muzzle the press and suppress
freedom of speech Tennyson, in a burst Of patri-
otic enthusiasm, hailed his country as
Land where girt by friend or foe
A man may speak the thing he Wills"
and when John Dillon, William O'Brien and Par
nell himself attempted the experiment, they landed
in the prisons of Ireland. When Herr Most, Emma
Goldman and John Berkmans, failing to secure
halls took to the streets to air their anarchcal hob
bies, they were introduced to the wardens of our
prisons. When the orators of the Industrial Work
of the World attempted free speech in Spokane,
the other day, they we're collared by the police,
dragged to the old Franklin street school, where
they had to chop wood or freeze.
So. you perceive, we can't all speak as we please
It viii be an i'll day for our country when no one
is compelled to obey those who wiser than him
SELF and when each one of us is to write and speak
only what is right in our own eyes. Even Karataka
the Hindu, understood this, for he tells us that
IF Vrihaspati, the grave
Spoke a sentence out of season,
Even Vrihaspati would have
Strong rebuke for such unreason"
The notion that everybody has the right to speak
he peases is admitted to be absurd, even in or
binary affairs of life; why them should he be al
lowed to do in grave matters affecting the laws
of our country and the security of the state?
Today, in view of the irreligious chaos in our
Republic, we admit that the breaking down of
Church authority at the Reformation was fatal
disaster for without a sense of responsibility to a
supernatural power what better are men than sheep
goats, 'that noursh blind life within the brain
and lift not hands of prayer to God?" So long as
serious men held to the conviction of ruling
Providence, and that conviction was embodied in
the law, religion spoke with authority. When that
authority denied, by the free speech and writ
ings of Luther and Meanethon, belief in the SUI
pematural was shaken, and today, outside the
Catholic church, has almost disappeared. In every
practical art or science the ignorant submit to be
guided by those who are better instructed than
themselves. Why, then, should they be left to their
private judgment subjects of supreme import
ance. where to go wrong is to embrace anarchy
The disastrous results of freedom of speech in
religious matters has led to a confusion like unto
that which the Patriarch Job tells us exists in the
abode of lost souls, where "there is no order but
eternal horror reigns.' And if the state should toll
crate entire freedom of the press and platform it
would be inviting its own dismemberment
"If ] denied freedom of speech" cried out
John Berkman, when arrested in Philadelphia Il |
am no longer freeman; l am slave" But there
may be authority, yet not slavery; soldier is not
a slave, child is not slave, wife is not slave,
yet they may not live by their own wills. A man
must obey his countrys laws and these laws tell him
he must not write speak as he pleases The laws
Of God the etiquette of society," the welfare of the
state, demand that men should put bride on |
glib tongue and respect the laws of their country
and the feelings of their fellow men.