Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-10-23

Aeau NO man IN puDIlC H1e VINO Is pos
sessed of VISION he observed in a man
ner of generous tolerance. would favor
regulation of the public press by law
We will gladly go n little further than that.
We will say that no man in or ont Of public
Office who had not lost all sense of the de-
cencicS. traditions. purposes and hopes of
Government in the United States would ven
ture Il suggestion so outrageous as that
which the Attorney General in his speech
advanced by the most delicate and cautious
of Implications.
Mr.. Daugherty Is conspicuous in II small
but aggressive group of Americans who. for
the good OF their souls and the good Of their
community, ought to be shut up once
week in n quiet room and compelled TO read
and reread the Constitution OF their coun-
try He reveals symptoms Of the suppress
sionist mania which this Nation tolerated
as transient and thoroughly hateful af-
Fiction during the period Of the war--a
mania much fostcrcd by Mr.. Daugherty's
predecessor in Office, Mr.. Palmer
The Constitution would be good for the
Attorney General. 1t is truly wonderful
tElng III many why's. pom u!uloSl All otHel
accepted codes the passing years Of cen
tury have had the effects of passing flame.
! The Constitution emerges regularly from
every test and every trial appearing more
noble. more magnifcently adequate TO the
service of the hopes. aspirations and needs
/ Of mankind than 1t was before. This is
| because of its great humanity and because
| its authors put their faith firmly in the
| Judgment of the people rs opposed to the
! will Of transient bureaucrats. Its first
provision is that Government shall he by,
for and OF the people. Ii nowhere suggests.
as Mr. Daugherty does, that the people
should he by. for and OF Government. The
people alone are sovereign under the terms
! Of the Constitution. Their collective will
is the one high and Interchangeable law which
it prorlaims and sanctions.
The thought that the people should ever
appear doCile and idolatrous uncritical and
unques,ionng before any group of poll
| tlcians temporarily in power a. the visible
! Government never occurred to he founders
| Of the Republic. II would have sckened
and enragcd them. They expressly provided
means by which all laws and all admins
trative forms could be revised or completely
| altered when in the opinion of the people
| such changes seemed wise or desirable.
Yet persstontly since the war there has
grown ND in the minds Of some public men
n belief that all the mcchanlsms Of Gov
ernmpnt are somehow sacred and beyond
I criticism and that no one but an anarchist
would venture to question the logic or
righteousness Of law once that law had
been passed by Congress. II history proves
ANYTHING it proves that all political and
social progress is the result Of idealistic
dissatisfactions expressed in free criticism
Of laws and public institutions.
History demonstrates more than that. 1t
shows clearly that nations that fight vic.
| torious wars are likely TO acquire un-
consciously the CHARACTERISTICS of their
defeated antagonists Naturally enough,
then, the astounding claim to immunity
from questioning and criticism advanced by
bureaucratic groups in the United States
reflects the rise Of new Junkerism. II
that claim is ever accepted as valid one
il. through laws or courts or Attorneys
General, the rights Of free speech and free
criticism are ever abridged beyond lines
already fixed by the common law, thu
Epoch Of Independence in the United States
| will have come to an end.
The passion FOR Official censorship, in
spired by a budding autocraCy that came
into being with the war and is as yet hardl!
conscious Of itself, is an extremely perou
thing In any country. Yet we now are wit
Messing its progress as ruling and ac
cepted force in our national life.
Commissioner Haynes, for example
doubtless felt that he was doing a propc
and conventional thing when he requeste
newspapers TO refrain from saying humorou
things about prohibition, This was re
peated In more general terms by Mr.
Daugherty. Prohibition Is in itself an In
cident. 1t is the principle Of action sug
, gested by its more ardent advocates tina
is important and ominous.
If the light of irony or satire or eve
ridicule can no longer be permitted to illu
inmate a public question, then rationi
criticism has lost two. thirds of its force /
America. II it is wrong to criticize III
dry laws, then why is 1t right to critici2
railroad laws or bank laws, revenue law
, or labor laws or any other Of the innu
mcrablc acts of Congress or the Legislator,
y which are frankly tentative and cypcrimen