Evening star., 1927-05-14

That view knocks all the sentiment
out of the crisis, and there is no
chance TO get excited on one side or
the other, as, for instance. one might,
if we had a Mussolini decree which
takes an editor by the scruff of his
neck for telling the truth, whenever
any official, upon reading it. imagines
that sthe greater the truth. the greater
the chance of creating public unrest"
If any Italian Fascist paper We're TO
publish an editorial intimating that
George Washington had never said
anything which would bar a President
from a third term, the whole edition
might be confiscated on the order of
the spokesman, regardless of the con-
stitutional first amendment. The
editor thereupon would be pilloried or
imprisoned for life.
OF course, Blackstone is passe
among modern lawyers, but Senator
Reed, in his Ford defense, alleged that
there could be no libel through telling
the truth. Justice Blackstone set
down that "every free man has an
undoubted right TO lay what senti-
ments he pleases before the public:
to forbid this is to destroy the free
dom of the press, but If he publishes
what is improper. mischievouS or IL
legal, he must take the consequences
of his temerity.'
Under this rule, it was quite COM
mon, even in Massachusetts,, to punish
loose talker or writer by boring a
hole through his tongue with red
hot iron; In England, they used to
cut off ears also,
1t was to prevent Congress from
enacting any such law of intolerance
that the first amendment was
adopted. but negation is not the
same as guarantee and absence of
Federal legislation on the subject
does not limit the States from what
ever legislation their own Constitu-
stitution does not affect liberty of the
States-except as to the eighteenth
amendment.
Congress reaches it's end in con-
trolling the circulating of Objectionable
printed matter. not only through its
tariff laws, but also through its Post
Office, for obscene and other objection
able matter is unma malable-unless in
the discretion of the Postmaster Gen
eral it is going to addresses whom it
will not corrupt-as, for, example, to
college libraries! THE Deeameron" and
the Arabian Nights and Byron's
worst may be mailed to a college-it
can't hurt the callow youths there,
surely, according to the Post Office
rulings, and when the query was put
up to the authorities regarding the
of O well known book BY
Bernard Shaw, the answer was, "The
department cannot undertake to
state what would or would not be un-
mailabie in advance of the matter be.
ing actually presented for transmits
sion in the nails
1t is contended by legalistic critics
that the United States Constitution is
not neld 10 be quite so discretionary
as that; hence the Post ONCE is o,,f.
side of it's constitutional limitations.
Yet the constitutional prohibition Is
addressed only to Congress, not to a
General. A city censor
snip would have to follow the Post
Office rather than the instrument of
the first and eighteenth amendments.
Tor Post Office censor can now CON
hscate the entire edition of a paper
without court trial, upon his individual
judgment that it is bad for the public
10 read such stuff. No defense is
.tO.'AciO WiiIC tIfS GtutlO1 retains HE.
1t is like Judge Lynch's hanging the
culprit and then trying him at the
courts leisure.
This is not said i'm any spifit of
criticism of purifying printed mat
ter. but as illustrating the comp!ica-
tions involved
What is or what is not objection.
able speech--even to the point of oh
scenity or ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS not on
the words used but upon the manner
and circumstances. Parts of the
Bible are unreadable i'm mixed com.
pany, yet they are never s.obscene, -
while the veriest purity of language
IN poetry or prose may be given an
atmosphere which would make them
lntoierable. Rev. Henry Ward Beech
er said:
There is tonic in the things that
men do not love to hear; and there is
damnation in things that wicked men
love to hear. Free speech is to a
great people what winds are to oceans
Ind malarial regions. which. watt
away the elements OF disease and
bring new elements of health: and
where free speech is stopped imiasma
s bred and death comes fast
Lowell said. Men in earnest have
no time to waste in patching ne
caves for the naked truth"