The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1917-05-25
A FIRM STAND
FOR FREE SPEECH
(Peoples' News Service)

at Columbia university III CnlS clJy,
head of the department of sociology
belongs to the latter class.
Some time ago, when certain pow
erful influences had been exerted to
muzzle another member of the fac
ulty who had been especially en-
phatc in his protest against our
entry into the war, DR.. Giddings hunt
ed up his colleague and told him:
"If anybody attempts to prevent
you from expressing your opinion
on any subject whatsoever, I'll fight
with every ounce of strength / pos
sess to help you maintain your right
to say what you think. Ill do that
in spite of the fact that in the mat
ter on which they are trying to
shut you up, think you're wrong as
hell" DR.. Giddings' attitude on the
matter was so small factor in main
tanning inviolate the rights of all
members of the faculty to free
speech.
Concerning the Espionage bill, with
its clauses to limit the right of the
press and of individuals to discuss
matters connected with the conduct
of the war, DR.. Giddings today made
this statement: "Any attempt to vio-
late the right of free discussion is
blow at the very foundations in this
connection, am not indulging in
no mere rhetorical phrase making. |
mean what l say literally For
what after all is the bond which
holds us together as nation?
"The earliest forms of human or
ganization of which we have any
knowledge were based on kinship.
Even in tribes of considerable size,
the bond of unity was still to be
found in blood relationship supple
mented sometimes by superstitious
belief in a common duty. Gradually
out of the welter of intertribal wars,
new form of social organization
developed. Kin-wrecked men men
bers of broken tribes or outcasts
from their own tribes-sought pro-
lection from the chiefs of other
tribes; and in return for this pro-
lection, they swore unquestioning
loyalty and obedience.
"But while this development was
going on, an entirely different form
of political craftsmanship was grow
ing up. Here and there along the
great trade routes of the period,
principally on the seacoast, towns
grew up composed of artisans and
traders from many tribes. In these
compact city-states, the ties of blood
and the relation between lord and
vassal, came to be replaced by the
broader bonds of a common inter-
est, whether in commercial inter
course in times of peace, or in the
necessity for mutual protection dur
ing periods of war For the first
time in history, individuals began to
claim and exercise the right to say
dam you to the government and
mean it. The foundations of our
modern political institutions are to be
found in these small beginnings.
"When, however, we get great
national state, especially federal
state like our own, so different from
the small city-state, men of every
race and nationality are represented
not only in the population but also
in the citizenship. We find with
in the same community every re-
ligion, every shade of political be-
lief, every graduation from egoism
to altruism, and from ignorance to
the highest education. But in spite
of our extreme heterogeneity-in
spite of the facts that the old bonds
of kinship, of allegiance to a COM
mon lord, and to some extent of a
community of interest, have disap-
peared-we are nevertheless in some
respects a fairly successful mutual
benefit association. What is the
bond that enables US to work to-
gether for common ends in more or
less harmony?
"All the great popular governments
in the world are held together, in
spite of the extremely great diver
gence of views on nearly every
thing else, because there is practi-
cal unity of belief, feeling and be-
havior on one specific thing an
abstraction with concrete mani
festation. That one thing is pro-
cedure, the agreement to abide by
the decision of the majority.
"This procedure, however, is much
more complex than the simple man
ner in which l have stated it would
imply. What notion impels the
minority to acquissce in the decision
Of the majority? IL is the fact