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Show Prevailing Opinions ' Comment of the American Prets t Law and Order in Seattle Mayor Dore of Seattle acts with a certain color of legality when he declares that he will permit no communist meeting in Seattle. The bill of right does guarantee that the people may "peaceably assemble." but there is an inherent inher-ent police power which in emergency emer-gency has very wide latitude to preserve the public peace and the public health. The communists, it is true, have shown no intention of assembling otherwise than peaceably. If their meeting threatens to disrupt the public peace it is because other groups whose devotion to law and order is so fervent that they abhor communists, have signified their intention of busting up the meeting. meet-ing. This, of course, would be a breach of the public peace. If Mayor Dore's grip of the lawful and orderly groups of Seattle has slipped to such an extent that they will riot if the communists peaceably assemble, he might plead justification for suspending the constitution until he. or outside out-side force, can restore the authority author-ity of Seattle's municipal government govern-ment to make the good people behave be-have themselves and recognize the constitutional lights of even communists. com-munists. The San Francisco Chronicle. . Lett We Forget Americans recently put Kipling into pictures with a film version of "Captains Courageous"; the town of Broadstairs. England, has put him into the news by an action ac-tion described as "a contribution to world peace." On the pier at broadstairs lies a raft from the Lusitania. It was inscribed with these words from the "Recessional" "Reces-sional" "Lest we forget." The phrase has now been removed. Whatever may be the effect upon international relations, this removal repairs an injustice to Kipling. For his words were not an exhortation to cherish malice and revenge. They were part of an appeal to forget the "frantic boast and foolish word." Their meaning was, in fact, precisely the opposite of what a casual reader on the pier at Broadstairs might have supposed. Poets are supposed hot to care who makes a nation's laws so long as they are allowed to compose com-pose their nation's songs. But the office of poet loses a good deal of its attractiveness when the writer's message is liable to be traduced. In these days, when public opinion in the west at least is of paramount influence, and at the same time is largely based on what ia read in books and papers, pa-pers, it is desirable that writers should have a due serse of responsibility. re-sponsibility. But it is also essential essen-tial that readers too should 'do their bit, and take care that they do not misunderstand what is set before them. The Christian Science Monitor. Cat of the Wont Firebug W alter Foley, 43 years old.' was released on parole the other day after having served It years of a prison sentence of 35 years for ar- , son. He was taken before County Judge Martin. In Brooklyn, where he pleaded guilty to an old arson indictment. He was immediately aentenced to 40 years In Sing Sing, but Judge Martin suspended sentence, sen-tence, remarking that he believed Foley had been cured, and that he had "every confidence" In him. One lapse from grace, however, will mean that Foley must begin serving the 40-year sentence. The court told Foley, an alcoholic py-romaniac. py-romaniac. that he must not take a drink. It will be interesting to see how this case turns out. In 192. w hen he was csptured by Fire Msrshal Thomas Patrick Brophy. Foley confessed to having set 48 fires, and Mr. Brophy called him the "worst firebug" in the history of the city. He was not a professional profes-sional firebug: that is to say. he did not hire out to unscrupulous business men to set fires for profit. He merely had the urge when he was drinking heavily, as others, for some reason, set fires when the moon is full. The professional pro-fessional firebug is simply a scoundrel: the pyromamac of Foley's apparent type is something some-thing else again something upon which penologists and psychiatrists psychiat-rists have never been able completely com-pletely to agree. What should society so-ciety do with such men? Can they ever be fully cured? . Perhaps Per-haps .the sympathetic treatment by he court, with the knowledge that a heavy prison sentence hangs over his head, will prove successful in this ease. New York Herald Tribune. - . j |