University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1911-09-14
ENGLISH SOCIALISTS
ARE PECULIAR TYPE
Their Ways Vary Consider
ably From Those of
This Country.
NO SORT OF BUG" BARRED
The Police Attend All Their
Meetings-But it's to
Protect Speakers.

LondOn-Some things they do il
undemOcratic old England are quit,
shocking to the newly arrived Amer
lean. Both the things they do anG
the way they dc them.
If Emma Goldman were to attempt
to expOund the doctrines of anarchy
i'll Central Park, or in the White Lot
at Washington, she would doubtless
be given an unsympathetic reception
by both the pOpulace and authorities
Yet here in London every Sunday aft.
ernOOn one may hear anarchy of the
pure, unadulterated type preached on
the sward of Hyde Park, almost with
in the shadow of Buckingham Pal
ace. And the police are at hand
TO protect the speaker. A corner in
the park is set aside as a sort of
public forum where anyone with q
mission or grievance may deliver his
message to his cOuntrymen. No sort
of bug" is barred. Meetings ar
ranged for tomorrow include woman
suffragists, anti-vivisectionists, anti
Catholics, socialists mild and revO-
lutiOnary, salvation army, Irish
home-rulers and Ulster anti-hOme-
rulers, and five brand new varieties of
religion, as well as anarchists. Each
cult has its own particular plot of
ground upon which the others by
common courtesy do not encrOach.
Each has its own clientle. The ora
tors are obliged to submit to a GER
tain amount of hacking, and in some
instances are forced to retire from
the field, the successful heckler ap-
propriating the audience. 1t is rare,
however, that there is any attempt at
physical violence, no matter how
rabid or unpalatable the character of
the speakers's utterances. 1t is free
speech with a vengeance. The au-
dicerses are composed chiefly of
Working men, and the questions they
put indicate an unusual degree of
intelligence.
1t is true that the anarchist ora
tor of last Sunday. whose sonorOus
demands for the abolition of all gov
ernment might have been heard by
King George had he been sitting in
the back parlor of the palace with
open, had some difficulay
with his audience when the time for
heckling arrived. But the only brick
bats hurled were verbal ones. 1t was
moreover, that many of
the questions came from men who ap-
parently agreed with the speaker in
| rinciple, and differed only in
minor points of doctrine. He did
not go into the methods whereby he
would bring about the end of all
but doubtless if he had
there would have been none to mo-
lest.
The most largely attended of these
soirees are the woman suf-|
frage meetings, particularly those
conducted by the new Mems League
for Woman Suffrage. Herein is the
visitor provided with another shock.
He finds that the speaker, instead
of being an anemic, henpecked ap-
pearirg old gentleman with fu-tive
eye and dropping whiskers, is a rO-
bust young fellow of 25 or there
abouts who looks as if he might have
been drafted by the cause" from the
football field. He has his audience
with him from the start, and none of
his arguments is better received than
his reference to the recent hOOligan
scene in the House of Commons when |
he conservatives hOwled down Pre-
nier Asquith. do you believe our
and sisters would behave |
Ike that" he asks. "No!" thund-
RS the crowd.