The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1917-05-24
Thursday, May "a, 1917.

group of wives and mothers and sisters, of help
less age and helpless infancy, shall gather round
the theatre of this horrible lottery as if the
strokes of death were to fall from heaven before
their eyes on father, son, or husband. And
IN the majority of cases, Sir, it will be stroke
OF death Under present prospects Of continu-
ance OF the war, not one half of them whom
your CONSUMPTION shall fall, will return to
tell the tale of their sufferngs
They will perish of disease and pestilence or
they will leave their bones to Eyhiten I'm fields
beyond the frontier. Does the lot fall on the
father of family? His children, already orphans,
shall see his face When they behold
him for the last time they shall him dashed
and fettered, and dragged away froln his own
threshold, like felon and an outlaw. Does it
fall ON SON, the hope and staff of aged parents?
That hope shall fail them. On that staff they shall
4ean no longer. They shall not enjoy the happi-
ness OF dying before their children They shall
totter to their graves, bereft of their offspring,
and unWept by any who inherit their blood. Does
it fall husband? The eyes which watch his
parting steps may swim in tears forever. She is
a Wife no longer There is no relation so tender
Or so sacred that by these accused measures,
You do not propose to violate it. Into the para
disc of domestic life you enter, not indeed by
temptations and sorceries, but by open force and
violence. $ g
Nor is it, Sir, for the defense of his own house
and home that he who is subject to military draft
is to perform the task allotted to him. 81
Thus spoke the greatest constitutional law
yer this country ever produced. HIS 0rgu-
moent killed the cOnSc1iption bill.
He asserted, with statesmanly foresight and
wisdom, that the same usurped powers which
create Army By comapuzSt0n, could with
equal ease create a Dictator
Hasn't this Congress carried, in one hand,
a Consumption bill and, in the other, a bill
to give the President the unlimited authority
to gag the press and fix the prices of all COM
mndities?
Ism t that the same as veStlng HIM with the
doSDOtlc mower of q Dictator?
No king thnt epey 3iued 2cjezeZed more 01stO-
cratic control than President Wilson hos de-
m2Gnded!
The European War has already inundated
free speech, and made the average citizen
afraid to sign Petition to the Government,
although the U. S. Constitution guarantees
him that right, forever.
The War has also furnished the enemies of
free press with the excuse for giving the
Postmaster General aut0cr0tic p0aoer to RUE
papers end magazines out Of the mails, thus
taking away mans property without any
proceeding In court, and robbing him arbl
trarily of one of the most valuable rights OF
citizenship.
The wise Frenchman, De Tocqueville, who
wrote great book hundred years ago, on
Democracy in America" said
In countries where the doctrine of the soye-
reignty of the people prevails, the censorship Of
the press is not only dangerous, but absurd. When
the right of every citizen to share in the gov
eminent society is acknowledged, every
must be presumed to be able to choose between
the various opinions of his contemporaries, and
to appreciate the different facts from which i'm
ferences may be drawn. The sovereignty of the
people and the liberty of the press may therefore
be regarded COrreatiye; just as the censorship
of the press and universal suffrage two things
which irreconcilably opposed, and which cam
not long be retained among the institutions of the
same people.