Arizona republican., 1918-04-09
SED|T|ON BILL ]. WILL NUT STOP
 JUST CRITICISM
Lively Debate In Senate Brings Denunciation of Illinois Lynching and
 Amendments to MeasureI
Republican A. p. Leased Wire]

Republican A. p. Leased Wire]
 WASHINGTON, April S.-Another | day of lively senate debate on the | sedition bill which would punish dis loyal utterances and attempts to hinder the army draft and Liberty bond campaigns, resulted in the adop- 1 tion of amendments designed to meet the objection of senators that the measure might prevent legitimate criticisms in the war.
 The changes were in the clause pen alizing disloyal, profane, scurrilous, abusive or contemptuous language" di- rected at the form of government constitution. flag or uniforms of the nation and calculated to bring them into contempt or scorn.'
 Acts Must be WiIIfu
 Senator Thomas of Colorado offered an amendment to provide that such acts should be 'willfur and Senator Borah of Idaho, proposed to substitute the word intended" for calculated" There were objections that convictions would be difficult to secure under such language but both amendments were approved, that of Senator Borah by a vote of 34 to 2S with partisan lines ldisregarded.
 An amendment, urged by Senator Hardwick of Georgia, which led to d controversy between the Georgia sena- tor and Senator PoindeXter of Wash ington, proposed that the words "cause of the' should be eliminated from the latter's amendment penalizing those favoring the cause of the German empire" It was rejected with a rec ord vote, after the two senators be- came so pointed in their language that the chair called them to order Senator Hardwick insisted that millions of peo- l pie honestly differ on the cause of the war. Senator PoindeXter retorted that the Georgia senator had not "particu- larly supported" the war and cited his opposition to the draft law.
 Illinois lynching Denounced Senator sherman, Illinois, denounced the recent lynching of a German at Collinsville, H., as a disgrace" ac- complished by drunken mob masquerading under the guise of pa triotism' and criticized town officials for failing to protect the mob's victim. He urged that the language of the bill penalizing "contemptuous and scurrilous" criticism should apply to dlsloyal utterances only, and said As sistant Secretary of Labor Post and George Greet, chairman of public in- formation, in the past had written ar ticles severely criticizing the American form of governmentseS,hieh would he punishable under the measure as now ldrawn
 Senator Gallinger, the republican leader, also urged that the prohibition should be limited to disloyal utterances and suggested that as drawn the clause might be construed to prevent legiti- innate criticism of the president in the | oh in
 he introduced substitute bill en- bracing his ideas but retaining sub stantially all other provisions. Senator France. Maryland also offered an amendment providing that the bill
 should not limit the liberty or impair
 the right of ''any individual to publish
 or speak what is true, with good mo
 tives and for justifiable ends" Will Not Stop Criticism
 Another unsuccessful effort was made during the day by Senator Over man of North Carolina, in charge oi
 the measure, to secure unanimous con-
 sent to fix time for final vote. Ob-
 Jections immediately followed
 Referring to the discussion Saturday of Colonel Roosevelt's statement that the bill would prohibit criticism of the president, Sefstor Myers of Montana said neither the pending bill nor tho one proposed by him last August would
 prevent legitimate criticism, and tha ? even if the words president of tn, : United States eliminated from tn, . original draft, now were re-inserted l such criticism would not be affected : He added, however:
 7 T believe that when we are engaged in war anybody who uses vile Ian
 guage against the president ought t, : be punished. I believe it is just as of
 fensive and disloyal language agains
 the president as the same kind of Ian
 guage against the form of government
 I believe it would be a better bill
 the president were included"