The Connecticut labor press., 1920-11-27
THE OMOOkER
Y cock my hat as please,
 indoors or out. '-WaH Whifnan

took Is years to make France republic
 after the French revolution, and then
 they lost 1t and had to start all over
 again. And, by the way, there never | was such an attempt to suppress free l speech and free press as was made | III France III the years just previous to l the revolution. Again the aristocrats failed and "seditious" pamphlets and
 newspapers grew and spread like toad stools in the night. Tom Paine was l there, too, by the way, and helped to spread the light and got c1apped into l jail for his interference.
 I'm not speaking as socialist or a l paciflst, but 1 see no good Ill keeping l Comrade Debs and the other rebels in 1 prison, now that the war is over. Keep | ing such men in durance vile, in my | humble opinion, only serves to cause l more rancor and il1-feeling on the part of those who think as the Debsites do and on the part of many who believe ! i'll free speech to the utmost. This business of placing severe restrictions
 on speech, the press and the habits of | men IS bound to react with fearsome ! results. It IS reacting now, I believe, as witness the crime wave now going
 over this country; the holdups, highway 5, mention the crimes caused by moonshine whis- | key.
 When Thomas Jefferson held a1oft
 the banner of free press, 1t was sup
 posed that that settled the matter for all time in America: Not SO, it seems. in the minds of wou1d-be censors, par ticular1y the breed dressed i'll a little brief authority. Not long since I heard a prominent New Haven man say that not only all radical but all labor papers should be legislated out of business The narrow minded bigot even included
 conservative labor papers, saying that
 they breeded discontent among the
 workers and that discontent meant agi-
 ton for less hours of work, higher
 wages and possible strikes.
 No need to argue abott that mans
 statement. If the wage workers had
 been content in years past to take what
 was offered and never asked for more,
 there would be no labor unions now and
 no Federation of Labor 5,000,000 strong.
 Discomfort may be a breeder of either
 good or evil, but 1t has been discontent gust the same that was back of all re-
 forms and progressiveness. Back of the
 eight-hour day, the higher standard of
 living and the strong intrenchment of
 organized labor.
 The bitter enemy of organized labor referred to above IS not alone i'll his views. 1 have met many, of them and you will find that if they are narrow and biased in this respect they are in all things that make for liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This particular man not only denounced a free press and free speech, but he declared that the worker of today had too much idle time on his hands which gave him op- portunity for all kinds of devi1try. Pm telling you, friends, that if we don't keep everlastingly plugging for the union and the labor press we'll be l slipping backward and that indeed may l bury .'all kin,ls of deviltry."
 As I finished writing the above, news | came from Waterbury of a bit of jug g1ing over free speech According to | the report, Sergeant Hugh F1aherty and squad of fellow bluecoats broke up a meeting in the hall at 305 Bank street, Sunday night, and dispersed about 800 persons who had assembled to listen to an address delivered by An thony Bimba of New York. 7 Inspector Matthew Balanda of the Waterbury de- tectiye bureau called a halt to the speakers. remarks after the latter had made verbal attacks on police and cap ta1ists."
 Speaker Bimba, 1t appears, was also warned by the police to refrain from
 !