Omaha daily bee., 1920-02-15
Society's Right of Self
Preservation
From the Chicago Tribune.


On Sunday public meeting was held at the
Coliseum in protest against alleged restrictions
upon the right OF free speech.
We hope and believe the American people
will always be jealous OF their fundamental
rights, among which one of the most vital is
freedom of thought and speech. We are aware
that irresponsible radicalsm has raised against
itself among most Americans spirit OF resent
ment which in some cases may have expressed
itself by proposed legislation or by acts OF sup
preston not consistent with our accepted ideal
of freedom.
This is not likely to continue unless its
provocation continues, but we should like to
say that if the report of the principal address at
the Sunday meeting is substantially correct and
if it represents the protest we think the Amer
ican doctrine OF free speech needs wiser cham
pions.
The American people will respect free speech
without forgetting that public speech should be
not only free but marked by at least little
good sense. In fact, we are inclined to think
there is more speech at this moment than SEN
sible speech.
The chief address at the Sunday meeting
seems to be case in point. 1t was delivered by
an orator who was, rightly or wrongly, de-
scribed as Jewish rabbi from New York City.
His judgment to the limits of free speech
seems to be represented by the following: Let
US grant that this or that group openly advo-
Gates in speech or writing the overthrow of the
government by force or violence. Let them ad-
vocate itas long as no overt acts are commit
ted"
Now what this recommendation means in
plain English is this Let anyone with the gift
Of CAB and filled with confidence in the superior
recttude of his own thought or feeling, or filled
at any rate with a desire to create disturbance,
do his uttermost to inhame other men to vio
lence. Then when they act in accordance with
the nciternent we have allowed, punish them
This means lnhamnlatory speech, followed
by violent action, followed by stern repression.
1t means bombs, machine guns executions. 1t
means the slaughter of innocent and guilty alike.
This is not common sense. 1t is not justice.
1t is not what Americans conceive as American
ism 1t is not what was intended to be included
within the doctrine of free speech.
But this champion of free and unlimited
preaching of violence has other views which
perhaps explain his theory. He declares that
fundamental changes are needed in the world
today, including of course, America. and they
are these: For example, political dictatorship
must be taken out of the hands of the minority,
of the privileged few, and the political powers
must be placed in the hands of the great masses
of the people"
How this is to be done we do not learn that
he prescribed In this country every man votes
after he has reached 2l, and soon every woman
will vote. Every man votes directly for his
legislators, for most of his judges, for most of
his administrative officials, for the president of
the United States
If the political power is not now in the hands
OF the masses how can it be put there?
The trouble with radical orator is that
he is using the jargon of European radicasm
without respect for American facts.
From the same foreign arsenal of revolt
comes the following: Economic dictatorship
oligarchy of big business men and their sateI-
lites, lawyers, teachers and clergymen, and the
power put in the hands of those to whom right
fully it belongs-the masses who work with
hand and brain"
This is the jargon of the bo1shevist orators
in Russia. echoed with the intelligence of
parrot in defiance of the different facts of Amer
ican conditions. If our radical protester had
given five minutes honest thought to American
facts he would know that business men in Amer
ica, big or little, are drawn from the masses of
the people. like the lawyers, teachers and clergy
men he calls their satellites; that good part Of
them worked with their hands to get forward,
and that there are mighty few of them who
don't use their brains.
There no castles or classes in this coun-
try. There is no height politically, economi-
cally, or socially that men are not constantly
raising themselves to in this country from the
bottom of the ladder. Rockefeller came from
a farm Marshall Field from country village.
Carnegie and Schwab were poor boys and vir-
tualy every man of substance in the land has
won his own way to the top.
The preaching of revolution in this country
is the raving of minds fuddled by jargon. Revo.
luton by. orderly process-that is, by political
and social and economic evolution--is the most
outstanding fact i'll American life. 1t is going
on every day. In Illinois at this moment body
of men elected from the people, by direct vote
of all the people, are engaged in revising the
fundamental law of the state In the nation two
amendments of the most revolutionary character
have recently been passed, one for the enfran-
chisement of all women, one for the prohibition
of the individually use of alcohol. The govern
ment and all the laws and conditions which the
foreigners among us find oppressive can be
changed or abolished at any time by the direct
and constitutional action of the masses of the
people in whom already resides all power.
lncitement to violence in such country is
insane folly without the dimmest shadow of ex-
cuse in the facts. There is no excuse for it and
no excuse for permitting it. Against it is op-
posed higher right than the right of free
speech, and that is society's right to protect
itself from destruction and chaos, the first right
of society the first right of the individual, that
OF self-preservation.
n