New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1910-03-09
On Government.
Concluded from page a.


willing to go on record however thai
we do not. We have only semblance
of it and not the real article We
have in our midst now and have had
for years the indomitable Anthony
Comstock whose special province
seems to be to Danish obscenity from
the world, and he sets himself up as
high judge of what is decent. It hurts
his esthetic feelings to see the nude in
art and he makes frequent raids upon
works of art exhibited in show win
dows and carries them away and per-
| haps destroys them so that the modesty
of the people and their acquired sense
| of shame will not be too severely
shocked. If what nature produces is
indecent, obscene and nasty, then the
antics of this whilom reformer can be
excused and on that ground only. To
me the human body has always ap-
peared as the most beautiful thing
! that Nature has ever produced and it
must indeed be a thoroughly perverted
nature that sees in it anything indie
cent, because it will ever remain true
that to the pure mind everything is
pure.
Closely allied to this pruriency is
the press censorship that has been
established in this country and IS now
working overtime. Did I hear any
one say that there is no such thing as
press censorship? wish I could say
that there is not, but we are simply
forced to plead guilty to the charge.
Under existing laws any post-ofice
official is clothed with authority to
decide whether or not certain article
is obscene and if he decides that it is,
he may refuse admission of the news
paper or magazine containing such
article to the mails. And what is
more, there is no appeal from his deci-
sion to any Court of law to jury
and no redress for the injury done.
Under this law he can also demand of
the publishers of newspapers etc.,
printed in a foreign language that
they prepare authentic TRANSACTIONS
Of any article into the English langu-
age and submit them under oath. Not
only are there prosecutions under
these censorship laws, but also con-
victions and only within the last few
edition M
er in Illinois, recently deceased, and a
doctor in this state, an instructor in
the medical department at Hamlin
University served time in their respec-
tive state prisons because they had
the temerity to discuss from scienti-
fc standpoint matters pertaining to
eugenics and had their views printed
aud disseminated through the mails.
One of these gentlemen [ know per-
sonally and the other by reputation
and can assure you that there is no
one in this entire audience, myself
included, who is better, more honor
able and more peace-loving citizen
than these two. Freedom of speech, if
anything, is in worse plight. There
the brutal police are the Judges of
what is permissible and what is not,
and times innumerable audiences have
been dubbed out of halls and speakers
dragged from the platform and lodged
in Jail only to be discharged by the
magistrate because no offense could be
proven against them. Not only were
audiences dispersed at the point of
the club and speakers prevented by
most brutal methods from expressing
their views, but keepers of halls were
inundated so that they dared not
rent their halls for certain meetings.
These intimidations consisted of yelled
and even open threats to punish the
owners of halls for any and every
breach of the excise laws and police
regulations. Even now members of
the |. W. W. are waging contest in
Spokane, Wash. for the right to speak
their views wherever and whenever
they want to and if I am correctly in
formed about one hundred men and
women have already been lodged and
are languishing in Jail. The fact that
free speech leagues are being organic
ed on every hand and are showing a
commendable activity is proof enough
to me that conditions are becoming
unbearable.
Granted that all these things are
true, and that they are due to govern
ment, how are they to be remediedo
In!a nutshell, would say, less govern
ment and more liberty. There is no
salvation in coercive measures. You
tell the child that is playing with beans
that il shall not thrust any of them up
its nose while you are absent and you
MI III f nd VOW, ,,ok,,n~