The Washington times., 1922-10-02
U.S.FREES
BONBERS,
He AYERS
Declares Administration Treats
Plotters Better Than Free
Speech Advocates.
BY WILLIAM f. BORAH,
United States Senator From Idaho.
Written for the Cosmopolitan News
Service,

Service.
CHICAGO, Oct. 2.-Visitors
from other countries are mysti-
fed when they learn that the
United States alone among the
nations still holds in its prisons
seventy-five men who stand con-
victed solely for expressing op-
position to the world war through
speech or writing.
They ask why, and we cannot
tell them. We cannot give any
logical reason for keeping these
men locked up when all our allies
have long since been granted am
nesty.
How About DynamitersS
In Washington the official ex.
PLANTATION is that these men are
dangerous persons" Yet we who
have regard for our own intelli-
gence cannot repeat this dictum
with straight faces. 1t has been
rendered meaningless, if it ever
had a meaning, by the pardon and
release, one by one. Of the spies
and dynamiters inCarcerated during
the war.
Just the other day the news
was widely published that a COM
mutation of sentence had been
granted to Capt. Robert Fay, who
was serving a long term at Atlanta
for an attempt to blow up British
munition ship in New York harbor
in 1916. The commutation was
done in secrecy more than month
ago, according to the reports, ana
Fay was permitted to leave the
country. About the same time II
appears, another conspirator and
aspiring dynamiter of ships named
koenig was likewise accorded his
liberty.
Are those dynamiters any less
dangerous to the welfare Of the
world outside than those men who
suspected commercial motives be-
hino the war, and whose conscience
made them put into words what
they felt?
No Violence Charged.
Examination of the court records
evidences that none OF the remain
ing political prisoners is serving a
sentence for a crime of violence,
sabotage. nor for any kindred Of
fense. They are shut off from
their families and friends and de-
MED the right to live as other
humans live solely because they
expressed opinions in opposition to
the wishes of the forces in power
in 1917.
These men were convicted when
the insanity of war ruled the whole
country. when people became al
most afraid to think for themselves,
even in the silence of a closed room.
Not legal nor tangible evidence, but
propaganda and artificially sur
charged atmosphere, convicted these
seventy-five men who are still con-
fined.
Two of the seventy.ffive are de-
Clared to be dying of tuberculosis
in Leavenworth. One has become
insane from his treatment in Jail
and prison. And a few days ago
one of the politiCals in the Kansas
prison lost his privileges, including
that of writing to his wife, be-
cause he sought to send n telegram
through regular prison channels to
the pardon attorney asking for
legitimate information in behalf of
his comrades.
Mr.. Debbs was pardoned last
Christmas. There were some OBJ
tections from newspapers and indi-
Viduas and organizations not Yet
Cognizant that the war had ended
three years before. But Mr.. Debs,
who also was characterized in some
quarters as dangerous person."
has failed to turn the country up
side down.
Surely II Mr.. Debs is free the
others who committed no more seri-
Gus offense than he ought to be
liberated. To leave them in prison
IS without consistency and without
justice. We ought to deal with
these men in a spirit OF fairness
and equity.
But more important than the re.
lease of individual prisoners is the
maintenance in America of the
great principles of free speech and
free press. l am more deeply in
terested in that than in any other
phase of the amnesty question.
There is no doubt that when we go
home for the elections we are
going to be asked what guarantees
the present Administration has to