| Show X OI OP DIALOGUE Tho The Impotence Impotence- of oC the laws is again bein being flaunted In our faces this time by the mana managers ers oC of the Washington Washing S ton navy yard It seems that a youth of mechanical f turn living In tho the neighborhood of or the na navy nayar yard yar has sot eel up UI a wireless s telegraph apparatus on the pater- pater rul premises and und whiles away the tedious telioUS hours of boyhood bv Lw butting In upon tho the official wireless conversation conver conver- officials and battleships battleships battleships battle battle- carried carriel on n between nav navy yard ald ships on the Iho high h seas The Tho witty schoolboy pretends to bo hO far tar away on some mid-Atlantic mid vessel or 01 at a remote naval station and he greatly perturbs the clear stream of oC official coer conversation b by his Irrelevant remarks Interjected at moments of oC wireless silence So great has been the annoyance thus thu caused that the lie navy navr yard folks appealed for tOI relief relic to the time Washington police pollee i but In vain aln the latter have o refused to come como to the K- K rescue first because the Iho conversation spoiler Is tho the son of ot a policeman and secondly because there thero alo aro ao no laws laus forbidding citizens to break In upon a conversation Tho The second excuse brings us face to face with a i serious Jaw flaw in the legal leg code The rho freedom of ot speech c which has hag long been a boa boast t of orators and Billingsgate p- p ladles ladies has become empty phrase because the laws guar- guar c D it apply only to single le individuals So long longas long as a person Is content to set the atmosphere In vibration with his remarks the strong hand of the state keeps r i tho the path clear for Ol his output But with strange blindness blind blind- I ness mess ness to the tho deepest needs of or mankind the government refuses this same protection JJ lo to two or more conver conver- Should the time young miscreant who has rigged S up lip a pole on his fathers father's roof tr try to prevent a government government govern govern- ment official from talking wirelessly the minions of or the law lav would descend upon him with sudden violence but as he merely throws in a remar remark here and there I between the parts of or a dialogue the Declara Declaration on of InU In- In dependence i U ence and the Con Constitution are arc baffled 1 t tT T l Il I not a curio curios curio's s oversight t that freedom of r di al dialogue l gue has never been granted to a long suffering world whose whole history has been grievously checkered by the Intrusion of uninvited remarks from uninvited talkers For Fol generations the young sons o of 01 the family have been allowed to dislocate Important conver conversations between between be- be be be- tween their thell seniors by queries and jokes while old bores haVe haNe not been prevented from pitching bricks Into the stream of oC conversation and roiling it sadly But Butof Butof of what value is freedom of or speech without freedom of dialogue Vh Why should wo prize the privilege of monOlogue monologue mono mono- logue so highly when we cannot use the monolo monologue ue to convince somebody of something Why rhy do we make interruption of conversation a. a misdemeanor only Un UnI in I parliamentary law leaving the time great mass muss of i conversationalists to the mercy o of every InI In- In Intruder I r trudel There can bo ho no doubt doubt that human progress s lm has been retarded b by this Imperfection In our laws I The navy Y yard ard might rid themselves of their t. t young nuisance by an nn appeal to the gods Jolls of the shingle let le t I But nothing short of legislative o enactment can supplant 0 with universal hi high h protection the tho freo free Ira trade trado do of words 7 f New ew York Tribune 1 |
