The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1916-01-27
Tom DixOn's Ringing Declara-
tom Against u. S. EncPOach-
1nents Upon Free Speech
and Press.


and Press.
f the Knights of Columbus can give the
Postmaster-General the powers of Cen
sor. equal to those formerly enj oyed by the
Roman Catholic Inquisition; and can then
elect President pledged to appoint Knight
of Columbus to the office OF Postmaster
General, the Italian Pope will have gained
the same power over the circulation OF
thought and facts, that he enjoyed IN the days
when astronomers were kept IN dungeons,
physicians treated as wizards, and Bible
translators murdered.
The Italian Popes gang is not only trying
to suppress free speech and free press, but to
establish despotic control over the moving
picture shows.
Not many days ago, the Romanist papers
were savagely denouncing the 41earst-Setg
movies, because they faithfully pictured the
fearful scene in New England, where the
Pope's school-house caught afre, and the
teacher-nuns ran away leaving Catholic pu-
pills to be caught and burned to death.
The Romanists had built the house without
any provision for the escape of the children
In case of fire.
In like manner, ''the enemy of American
principles is bounding Tom Dixon and his
moving picture drama, "The Birth of
Nation"
Congress has nothing to do with circuses,
theatres, operas, and moving pictures; and
any effort to create a L. S. censorship is sheer
usurpation and centralsm of the most dam
geT0us kind
The next step would be y. S. censorship
of books and If books can be censored, private
libraries will come under the control of the
Federal Government-and the Italian Pope.
Tom Dixon protest is Well-worded and to
the point; give it to you as 1t appears IN
the Congressional Record of January IS:
TELEGRAM
New York, N Y
Hon. James E. MARITIME United States Senate
Washington D. c.:
Censorship Of motion pictures is the most dam
gerous attack American liberties since the
foundation of the Republic The motion picture
is process of recording thought on yellow parch-
ment without the of printers ink, and is as
great an advance printing as Guttenberg's
invention the quill pen The printing
press reVolutonized the world by bringing knoHl-
edge within the reach of thousands. The motion
picture brings knowledge within the reach of aan-
dreds Of millions. To strange this great art in
its infancy will be a crime against humanity.
Free speech is the foundation of our Republic.
There is no reason for censorship. The motion
picture is now cleaner than the spoken drama
or the press. The police powers of the State are
already ample. Amy citizen can close any theatre
within an hour if the laws of morality are vio-
lated. A censorship of opinion is the aim of our
enemies. Our fathers fed the Old World to es-
cape this and founded the Republic to free the
human mind from such shaCkles. Shall we 20
back to the dark ages? first preached the Clans
man as sermon. No censor dared to silence my
pulpit. | turned my sermon into a lecture aud
delivered it from Maine to California without
license. ] turned the lecture into novel, and no
censor has yet stopped the press of Doubleday
Page 81 Co. turned the novel into a spoken play
and no censor has dared to interfere. l turned the
play into a motion picture, and it has cost me
$4,000 in lawyers fees to fight the local censors
the first ten months. This condition of affairs is
Infamous 1t is the immediate DUTY of CONGRESS-