The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-03-09
FREE SPEECH.
Germany Has First to Try to Stop 1t in
United States.
(By A. NJ. Simons.)

1
One of the INSIDE lines" upon whicl
Germany moves in this war is her abili
ty to run below the higher moral stand
ards and the greater liberties of her op
ponents. She can bomb schools and hos
pitfalls, undefended cities, and crowded
tenements and sink passenger, relief, anC
hospital ships without warning in com
parative security that like barbaritie.
will not be practiced against her
In the second, or economic, line oil
defense Germany also profits by her will.
ingness to use more primitive and barba
rous weapons. She cuts down French or
chards, loots Belgian co-operatives and
factories, and levies tribute on cities, en-.
slaves even women and young girls and
introduces anthrax germs into Rumanan
herds, secure in the fact that she is
moving in a neolithic strata of civiliza
tion into which the minds and morals
OF her opponents do not penetrate.
As might be expected, this backward
character of Germanys methods of war
making is most evident in what she has
herself called the third line of offense,'
and which consists in propaganda to
weaken the civilian morale of the enc
my. Here Germany has committed some
OF her most fragrant atrocities, won her
greatest victories, and feels most sure
of immunity. BY this form of offensive
she overeame Russia and Tasmania and
swept deep into Italy. BY it she long
held the United States at bay and still
depends upon it as her main weapon
against this country.
Germany's success here depends pre-
eminently upon her ability TO suppress
free speech at home and encourage un-
licensed liberty abroad She has been
perfectly successful in her domestic
measures. The very idea of freedom of
speech and press, as understood in dem
ocratic nations, has not entered into the
domes ticated minds of Germany An
unsubsidzed press, uncontrolled news
service, unregIlated public meetings are
all totally foreign to German thought
and practice. Having alternately gagged,
bribed, intimidated and manipulated,
and created public opinion at
home, Germany sends her agents abroad
to exploit the freedom of speech of other
nations in the interest of the autocracy
hat stifed such freedom in Germany. !
The story of how every publicity niche
n this country was infested with these |
pests has been told until even those
who secretly wish their success no long
n deny their existence 1t was these
dispensers of mental poison gas that first
lsphyxiated free speech in America Sub
idy equally with suppression, destroys
rec speech The believing of hired
mob is as effective as gag in stopping
'ublic discussion.
The agents of Germany were the first
o suppress free speech in this country.
Nothing was ever so deadly to such lib
rty as the spreading of the Sl0O00000
fund of Won Bernstorff. Free.
ON of speech was stifed much more
Then Won Rntelen financed the Madi.
on Square Garden meeting OF labor's
ational peace council. How many of
hose who bewail the steps necessary
0 restoration of untrammeled express I
ion of speech had hand in influencing
Qngress' on former ocCseions," as de-
,ribed by Won Bernstorffy
There could be no freedom of speech {
this country until the roar of Ger
ian dollars was stopped Unfortunate
Z, so many American organizations were
aking sounds impossible to be distin- !
lished from that roar that it was in U
3itable, and perhaps not wholly unjust,
rat some should be punished because of
leir bad associations and worse appear :
lces.
1t is hard To find a defender of free
,eech and press so fanatical as to claim
Iat the German government should be
,rmitted TO keep its Ven lgels, Rim
lens, and similar tools at work during
ar. But it will take fine discriminat
z craftsmanship to hit these agents of
e kaiser and miss the pacifists and So
alists who insist upon saying the same
ngs in the same manner at the same
time. Yet these German
lents must be muzzled if we are to
We any freedom of discussion what
err. II would not be free speech II the
'rman government was permitted to use
Q, 0O0 900 megaphones at all OF our pub
meetings.
We limit speech today that IT may
e free forever. This Is not tricky
radox. Whenever free and self gov
ming people fights for more freedom,
must momentarily restrict ITS own