The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-05-08
JOHN F. CROSBY STRIKES OPTIMISTIC
 NOTE FOR DEMOCRATS AT DINNER

to be and there will be but one traps l cendent issue. The next campaign | will be a. clean clear-cut far-reach- l ing battle between the forces of re- | action and the forces of progress.
 The present leadership of the Re publican party is so steeped in the ] Gecadent ideals of intrenched special privilege and arrogant stand-patism That 1t cannot be conceived as un- derstandtng, much less as legislating, the popular will. Additionally, from it's foundation by the great wise Jeff ferson, the Democratic party has stood with it's face ever forward and with it's eyes ever uplifted to the vision of an enlightened and Hberal=- ized justice for all mankind. Within it's wide embrace, all classes have found a beckoning shelter. It is and always has been uniquely the party of progress in America. And surely there never was greater need for 1t than now.
 ''The struggling aspirations of the proletariat the wide world over have been thrilled with a new vigor and a new faith. This newborn conscious ness of power-this high resolve of men everywhere to be free in accord ance with the eternal principles of our Declaration of Independence Is a living part of the great march of the race. It is one of those magnificent and resistless facts of history whose onward rush and sweep we can no more arrest or turn aside than we can reverse the progress of the tides. "The Republican party, by its re- actionary organization of the House, has definitely set itself to a career | of fatuous and studied retrogression. l By that first fell stroke, 1t has chal- l lenged the whole problem of mass ameioriation and social justice that ] has signalized our party's leadership | through the past six years.
 Up to now, this nation has been l singularIy free from that chaos of | anarchy and discomfort that stalks in i hideous unrestraint through so great | a part of desoIated Europe. Compare 1 our labor problem with that of the l countries of the old world-even with 1 that of England-and you find that | practically we have no labor problem. 1 The so-CaIIed general strikes that so
 frequently arise to distract and con- vulse the industrial life of England | are utterly unknown to America. Bol- 1 shevism and ochlocracy and the other 1 governmental perversions that seek to l set up tyranny py d GLASS; nave no | football here. I say this advisedly 1 and upon information which believe
 to be peculiarly dependable and com prehensive.
 l "To be sure, we have had dastardly | offenses against the government by men who are out of sympathy with | our institutions and grossly unworthy of the shelter of our flag. They are not, however, as numerous as they ] seem---for a handful of villains, you know, can perpetrate a veritable wave of crime in a community. We need a law to deal with such political crimes as are being committed To- day we have no such law. This is not because of any dereliction of the De- partment of Justice for 1t submitted
 an Act to Congress which was passed iby the lower House and killed by the Republican filibuster in the Senate. That act would have enabled us to deal properly with any emergencies
 that might arise I say this notwith-
 standing the recent declaration of MT. NTondeu Wyoming's future leader in the Republican House, that we aI- ready have statutes enough to deal with the problems of anarchy MT. MOndeu is sadly in error and betrays Ia lamenta5le ignorance of the state of
 
 the future security of the country.
 There are but two statutes which by any possible construction can be
 of avail in the exigency at hand. The
 first is the Espionage Act, purely a
 war measure directed primarily, ex- clusively and satisfactorily against
 acts calculated or intended to inter- fere with the progress of the war Today the war is no longer progress 
 even to the minds of all that prose cution under the Espionage Act vii be necessarily futile and far-fetched
 The second and only other statute that can conceivably be applied to the situation is the sO-calIed Alien De.
 pOrtation Act, which applies to alien, - only and provides that aliens who ad. vocate the overthrow by force of this Government or all government, ol
 who belong to a society advocating the overthrow by force of this gov ernment or all governments may b, l deported from the country Such { t statute is obviously inadequate. w, g need & statute directed against citi l zens as well. I care not whethe l men have come from other countries t and taken harbor in free America, O @ whether they have been nurtured iron , birth at the generous bosom, of he ? soil. I care not whether they ar @ aliens, or whether they are citizens f naturalized or native, those creature . who have the detestable audacity t q attempt or to advocate the destruc a ton of the Government of the Unite f States by force ought to be summaril,
 crushed and expelled from the bod !, polite, even as we would purge our < selves from some foul and 1oathsom . disease.
 V But I apprehend that there is n - acute or permanent peril of anarch
 in this Republic. A nation, tn great mass of whose inhabitants eth
 CT own property, or hope to ow 7. property and expect 10 own property IL is indeed a sterile and unprofta bl v soil for the annihilating creed of tn . Bolshevik. but we must see to it tha
 this country continues a fruitIess so 4 fer the incubation of anarchy B y perpetuating wide prevalence of jus
 tice, equality of opportunity and - fair distribution of prosperity, "
 must continue to discourage tn horde of malcontents and politics cit