The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1910-01-02
HOW FREE SPEECH
FIGHT APPEARS TO
THE NEW WORKERS
Editorial Printed in New York
Press.)
SUPPRESSION OF FREE SPEECH

! Many more men have been ar
rested in Spokane, WASH, for
speaking in the strets and thrown
into Jail since our last comment on
the suppression of free speech in
that city. And now one woman,
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, has been
convicted on the charge of con-
spiracy against the laws of Spo-.
kane" and sentenced to three
months imprisonment in the county
jail.
This young woman-she is not
yet u years old-was acting editor
of the Industrial Worker, a Spo-
kane newspaper. She wrote edi-
torials condemning the arrest of the
men who were. in speeches in the
streets. trying to express the alleged
grievances against the employment
agencies. On the day she was ar
rested while walking in the street
there appeared an editorial in the
paper bitterly condemning the sup
preston of free speech and full of
an intensely radical" spirit. There
is no doubt of the general extreme
ness of the editorial expression.
She tried to arouse the workers
from their apathy" in regard to
free speech, and that the editorial
had a revolutionary quality there
can be no doubt. So much must be
granted.
In her trial there was testimony
to the effect that she had been
overheard to say: eff Jesus Christ
were still alive He would be ar
rested for making a speech in Spo-
kane" Her conviction and sentence
were based upon evidence that she
had written and expressed in
speech opinions OF a certain kind.
1t was by expressing opinions that
she had committed crime, and for
her opinions she has been shut up
in Jail for three months. Since then,
on December IL, the city authorities
seized every copy of the Industrial
Worker, charging that it was a
libelous publication. In that num-
| Der of the paper there appeared an
article by Miss Flynn relating her
experience in the county Jail.
| Free speech has no meaning if
only desirable" opinions are to be
tolerated by the government. If
opinions which condemn actions by
the police, or even which condemn
certain laws or. regulating ordi-
nances, are to be suppressed. it is
difficult to see wherein lies the vi
tally of the principle of free
speech. The Spokane incident Is a
striking instance Of the tendency,
for the sake of immediate, govern
mental effectiveness, to drift away
from the fundamental principles
which are the bases not only of
American conceptions of liberty,
but of liberty as understood by all
enlightened people the world over.
Abraham Lincoln said to some
friends who desired him to sup
press the Chicago Times in the civil
war time: Il fear you do not fully
comprehend the danger of abridgina
the liberties of the people. A gov
eminent had better go to the very
extreme of liberation than to do
| aught that could be construed into
| an interference with or to leopard
ize in any degree the common
| rights of the citizen"
Such tendencies to suppress free
| speech as are witnessed now in
| Spokane ought powerfully to be COM
| bated, not only in order to retain
the principles which Abraham Lin
coin and all true Americans loved,
| but also in order to preserve indus
| trial peace, which in the long run
will not be helped by such meas
urpg