Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-12-02
The anarchists and the Lac.

TN the course of an inquiry INTO the ue-
nortation of dangerous aliens the House
Il Committee on immigration addressed a
thoroughly civil question to one OF the ue-
fiant figures in group Oh aharcnIsts ~" - -
duress at the port of New York. His reply is
worthy of note for the insight 1t gives INTO
the nature of the persons and the problems
with whom the Government is having TO cope
in this matter. Clenching his INST, ne shouCeo'
..You have got us in jail now, but our
turn is coming, and then God help you!
81 suppose you would like to go out
and blow I'D building" someone sug-
eve don't blow up buildings" was
the angry reply. I'VE want the build
ings to live in. But we will blow the
heads off a few people like you, When
the time comes.
Surely. one would imagine there can pc
little difficulty in ejecting/ aliens like TINS
once they are in the laws hands. The TACT 49,
however, that of some seven hundred TAKEN
in deportation proceedings since FeDruary'
1917, only sixty have been sent out OF the
country. notwithstanding the well-eVldenced
danger in the majority of the others. Out OF
sixty-four alien I. w. WIS who were arrested
in Seattle and other parts of the West early
last summer and sent to New YORK, only
seven have been deported. Three are stlll
held on Ellis Island" the Committee finds,
land the others have been turned loose
either on small DOuuS VI Ou paw iO'
fully half of this gang were shameless ad-
vocates of everthrowing the Government by
force assassination and the destruction OF
property Edivdently something is lacking
either in the law or in its enforcement.
However it may be with enforcement, the
existing statutes are certainly inadequate;
and even these, for the most part, will cease
to operate when peace is declared Short
handed as are the legal means OF dealing with
the alien Red, those for reaching the native
born anarchist are still more Intellectual. A
Senate resolution, Enthusiastically partisan
in it's animus, recently inquired of Attorney
General Palmer whether or not the Depart
ment of Justice has taken legal proceedings,
and if not why not, for the arrest and Danish
ment of the persons melting the overthrow or
the Government" The Attorney General CO.
gently reminded the Senatorial critics that
under the present law those attempting to
bring to pass the forcible overthrow of the
Government 'have committed no crime unless
their acts amount to treason, rebellion or Sc
ditious conspiracy" and that this is defined in
the criminal code. Under the general Grim
inal statutes Of the United States, he pointed
out, ''the preaching of anarchy and sedition
is not crime" Nor is advising the de-
fiance of law. a crime under the general
criminal laws, whether the same be done by
printing and circulating literature or by the
spoken word Not even advising and
openly advocating the unlawful obstruction
of industry and the unlawful and violent de-
struction of property is crime under the
present general statutes of the United States
Astounding as these statements may be to the
layman, they from the nations highest
legal counsel; and they disclose a need, a
critical need, which Congress should hasten
to supply.
Months ago the Attorney General urged
the necessity of legislation to meet this men
ace. By way of response seventy bills were
introduced. But with what result? The
Louisville Courier-Journal puts the answer
pithily: "This Congress, this great and only
constructive Congress, spent six months do
ing nothing except making faces at the Presi-
dent and attempting to wreck the Peace
Treaty, and adjourned without passing a
single one of the seventy bills, even through
one House." Is it astonishing in these cir
cumstances that all manner of anarchists,
from the imported Bolshevik to the native
l. W. W., continue their plots and crimes un-
whipt of justice? Surely Congress, upon re-
converting, will no longer delay action on
this imperative matter