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Show JOHN MITCHELL AND ' FREEDOM OF SPEECH. i : 'Jf I know myself, not any amount of suffering j will persuade me that I have not the right to write and speak as I please." John Mitchell, at the meet- ing of the American Federation of Labor, Toronto, Xov. 17. I ' . ' ' Xo. Air. Mitchell, much as we admire your hon- j esty and sincerity; much as we love you for your I i "; adherence-to sound principles, you have not the ' , right to write and speak as you please. Xo man, I ' ' not even the President of the United States or the ' King of England, has that right. The laws of our I , country, respect for the rights of our neighbor, and I : , ' the canons of common sense, are opposed to the f ; ' Great Britain and the United States concede I i , more liberty to their subjects than all the nations j of Christendom, but, at times, they are compelled in self-defense, to muzzle the press and suppress 1 . freedom of speech. Tennyson, in a burst of patri- I otic enthusiasm, hailed his country ss a ''Land, where girt by friend or foe, ; A man may speak the thing he wills," i and when John Dillon, "William O'Brien and Par- I noil himself attempted the experiment, they landed , j j , in the prisons of Ireland. When Ilerr Most, Emma ' Goldman and J ohn Berkmans. failing " to secure I halls, took to the streets to air their anarchical hob- bies, they were introduced to the wardens of our i .. prisons. When the orators of the Industrial Work- : ers of the World attempted free speech in Spokane, the other day, they were collared by the police, j' dragged to the old Franklin street school, where 1 ! they had to chop wood or freeze. ; Sn. you perceive, we can't all speak as we please. It will be an ill day for our country when no one . is compelled to obey those who are wiser than him- i ' l,! anl 'hen each one of us is to write and speak j only what is right in our own eyes. Even Karataka, I i the Hindu, understood this, for he tells us that ! '. " ' ' ''If Vrihasnati. the irrave. Spoke a sentence out of season, j ; r ; Even Yrihaspati would have f ' Strong rebuke for such unreason." (" " - The notion that everybody has the right to speak ' ' RS he pleases is admitted to be absurd, even in or- I; K. dinary affairs of life; why, then, should he be al- lowed to do so in grave matters, affecting the laws j ; of our country and the security of the state? j ' Today, in view of the irreligious chaos in our , - ; Republic, we admit that the breaking down of ; ; Church aulhority at the Reformation was a fatal i , disaster, for without a sense of responsibility to a ' supernatural power, what better are men than sheep ! or goats, "that nourish a blind life within the brain . . and lift not hands of prayer to God?" So long as I ; serious men held to the conviction of a ruling Providence, and that conviction was embodied in i i ; the law, religion spoke with authority. When that authority was denied, by the free speech and writ- ','-, ijigs of Luther and Melanethon, belief in the su- j i, pornaturnl was shaken, and, today, outside the ; . Catholic church, has almost disappeared. In every 1 j practical art or science the ignorant submit to be i , . guided by those who are better instructed than ! l ' themselves. Why, then, should they be left to their : private judgment on subjects of supreme import- ; ? J! ancc. where to go wrong is to embrace anarchy. ,7 The disastrous results of freedom of speech in religious matters has led to a confusion like unto if that which the Patriarch Job tells us exists in the . abode of lost souls, where "there is no order, but ! eternal horror reigns." And if the state should tol-. tol-. j erate entire freedom of the press and platform, it i ; ' would be inviting its own dismemberment. ; ) :: "If I am denied freedom of speech," cried out ; John Bcrkman, when arrested in Philadelphia, "I '- ' am no longer a freeman; I am a slave." But there I i : may be authority, yet not slavery; a soldier is not I ; ' ; s , a slave, a child is not a slave, a wife is not a slave, I yet they may not live by their own wills. A man I , ' must obey his country's laws and these laws tell him I ' ; j; he must not write or speak 83 he pleases. The laws I ' ; f God, the etiqueete of society, the welfare of the I : ; state, demand that men should put a bridle on a I ' : glib tongue and respect the laws of their country and the feelings of their fellow men. |