Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-04-02

IL was not AmerlcanlSm lnat was III
action at Albany. 1t was not America.
1t was the old school Of professional
politics in a maneuver characteristic
cally reckless and short sighted. 1t is
school which still holds to the belief
that you can stop the processes of mems
minds with police clubs and deporta-
tons.
Liberals who happen to be better in
formed and more rational than the five
ousted Assemblymen need not feel that
they alone are being Disseminated
against. The crowd that rules IN the
Legislature of New York is the same
crowd that called Roosevelt an anarch-
ist. It called Wilson an unbalanced
demagogue. 1t is beginning to speak
of Hoover as "a menace"
II the Legislature of New York wishes
n find n cure for radicalism in politics
II ought to look Immediately into its
own conscience and consider its own
sins First causes are not hard TO hnd.
And such blame as is to be apportioned
belongs with politicians of the sort who
now have declared the revival of a die
tatorship Of intolerance.
IhpN.
whom they have made famous. ought to
be summoned for a reckoning. They
have permitted aliens and illiterates to
stagnate in sodden masses without en-
,ightenment or guidance. They played
fast and loose in the game of spoils.
They have. by their own shameless
example. encouraged cynicism in multi
tudes of voters. They opened the flood
gates for armies of the ignorant, the
npurotic and the dissatisfied, and for a
world of tormented minds so warped by
suffering aud oppression that they are
no longer able to see or understand
what we are driving at on this side of
the world And they asked these fever
ish, searching people to believe that
Charley Murphy was sacred being (;
that Tammany was the ultimate of po-
litical achievement in free land that
tinhorns in Office cmbody our ideals in
government: that the VIGOROUSLY cor
rupt New York police reveal our con .
ceptions of law and order and justice
and that the street cleaners ball is
American communal life at its highest
and most perfect state, You must be e
lieve all this, it seems, and you must
believe that Mr.. Palmer is an angel OF
light, or be denied the right of rep
resentation In the governmental affairs
of the state of New York.
1t is only fair to remember that in
this instance these men were moved by
a very real sense of outrage. Solomon
| Waldman, Claessens, Dewitt and Orr
J SI.., /
! be. They were not an aid but q
hindrance to the government in time
| of unexampled crisis. But to say that
they were intent on overthrowing tn,
government is idle. And even if they
did hope to overthrow the government
are we to suppose that the Assembly
in New York feared the hypnotic
influence of five isolated members
The Assembly had no such fear Il
reacted to rampant antipathies. and t.
the fear and hatred of things that il
was not wise enough to understand
The damage is not to Socialists ol
Socialism. 1t is TO America anC
Americans. Mr.. Cuvillier and hi
associates have replaced a magnifcen
aud dependable principle with a dis
astrOus and uncertain precedent. Fol
ii man may be officially debarreC
from an elective Office because of Il
state of mind there is no reason why
he may not in the future be debarreC
because Of the color of his hair, hi
religious beliefs or the name of hi
party.
II is altogether likely that tn,
Socialists at Albany were secret!
jubilant at the outcome. The adyer
tising that they will get, the attitude o
martyrdom which they may now assume
| and the appearance Of justification