The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1910-08-18
FREE SPEECH
a Fundamental Right and Can
not be Disregarded Accor-
ding to Constitution.

cannot too vigorously defend the right
of free speech. even thoughtful people
sometimes overlook the fact-that upon
the rights of fire speech, free assembly
and free publication depend all other
rights The first amendment to the
United States Constitution was enacted
to protect from violation these funda.
mental rights of the people. The i'm
%portance of these rights in the minds of
those who sought to establish conditions
of freedom is well expressed in Judge
Story's statement of the purpose of the
first ten amendments to the constitution:
They were adopted to guard more
efficiently certain rights already pro-
vided for in the constitution, or to pro.
hibit certain exercises of authority sup.
posed to be dangerous to the public in
terests."
gress shall make no law abridp.
ing the freedom of speech or of the
press; or the right of he people peace.
ably to assemble. :"
An amendment. to the constitution
u be taken as a far more decided ex.
preston of the peoples will than any of
the original provisions. The original
document was formulated by a limited
convention, and a study of the minutes
of convention proves c~onclusively tina
its leaders were bent upon thwarting
rather thar fulfilling the will of the
people; whereas, t%wo-thirds of both
houses of Congress or the legislatures of
the two-thirdS of the states must pro.
pose an amendment before it is even
submitted for consideration, and a ma
jority vote of the legislatures of three
fourths of h states, or ratification by
conventions in th~ree-fourths of the
States, is necessary for the adoption of
the amendment. Indeed, only sixteen
out of twenty-five hundred amendments
proposed have been adopted, and these
may be said to have been adopted
through by the stress of national up
heavel amounting to revolution. So in
flexible is our constitution that a prime
minister of monarchial England has had
a fundamental law like that of America
j.. . for the better protection of her
upper classes. Any attack upon rights
guaranteed by amendments to our con-
stitution must, in the light of the above
facts, be viewed as fragrant disregard of
the will of the majority the
overriding of popular rights by minori-
ties whose power resides in the special
privileges which they lave pIundered
from h people.
We are now engaged in a political
compaign. The three recognized parties
of the country are presenting to the
people their proposals for correction of
the abuses from which the people ad-
mittedly suffer. The Republican and
Democratic parties propose relief by
busting" the monopolies or regulating
the monopolies. The most effectual bit
of busting" on record was perpetuated
by Mr.. Roosevelt on the Northern
Securities Company. Mr.. J. J.. Hill is
authority for the statement that while
Mr.. Roosevelt's campaign put his COM
pany to the inconvenience of calling in
their red certificates and issuing blue
ones, the plundering power of said COM
pany was left quite unimpaired. In
view of the futility of the busting and
regulating methods of the Republicans
and Democrats, the Socialists proposal
for the establishment of free industrial
institutions-people's ownership and con-
troll of industry is striking today a re-
sponsive chord in the peoples intelli-
gence.
The long and strong issue between
the Republicans and the Democrats, is
to control office and the spoils of office
the control of corruption funds that
must be wrung from unpaid labor and
unprotected Somewhat nat
urally, therefore, the old parties are less
interested in the protection of the right
of street speaking in political campaigns
than is the Socialist party, the party of
the common people. The s%poilsmen,
political and industrial, of our cities do
not hesitate to fatten on graft Drawn
from poisonous social c~esspool, gam
bling hells, and houses of prostitution.
These institutions pay their "hush
money and flourish unmolested; but a
peoples meeting, discussing lawful ways
and means of abolishing graft and graft
ers, must be dispersed by these same
spoilsmen as inimical to claw and order"
We notice that the order of the city
authorities against street speaking does
not include the Salvation army-presum-
ably because the army is working in the
interest of the worthy poor. Permit us
to suggest that the worthy poor are a
product of the predatory rich who ride