FREE SPEECH AT ISSUE
Evans, Elizabeth Glen Dower
Free Speech at Issue By ELIZABETH GLEN DOWER EVANS RECENT hearings before the House Judiciary committee on the so-called Espionage Bill should hiing home to American citizens the time-honored...
...Mrs...
...Mr...
...W'illiam J. Thomas, Secretary of the Woman's Peace Party, who ripped the bill wide open...
...Evans: "Hut do wo want to copy the Russia which the 1'residcut of the United States has congratulated the world for getting rid of...
...Carux: "If your speech goes to the point of heing treasonable, you are denied that right and you ought to he...
...I do not need any bills to tell me what my love of country shall represent...
...Our cause may not be popular, but .we felt it was righteous...
...We felt we did not have any more rights in America...
...Dyer: "Then you do not honor your citizenship qf this country...
...Is that right...
...Evans: "No, I am not...
...But I want to be free to discuss the policy of the government and to agitate for the repeal of acts of Congress which I may think unwise, and which another election may turn down...
...We are all at one as to the clearly stated purposes of this bill You all agree that before a law is enacted It Is legitimate to agitate against it It should he eqnafiy legitimate, after It is enacted, to agitate for Its repeal...
...Mrs...
...Caraway: "1 am inclined to suspect that you have confused freedom of speech with a license to express any views you might have...
...That shows the dilemma into which the attempt to suppress this propaganda is driven...
...Mrs...
...Car-ix: "You might be called a traitor, and be convicted as a traitor, hut you might be conscientious...
...Evans "That is what we object to, and what •we belleve -would be a violation of rights guaranteed as by the-Canstition of the United States...
...Might not similar criticisms of similar scandals during the present war be construed as causing disaffection in the army or giving military information to the enemy...
...Free speech is a great deal safer than to try to stifle it and drive the agitation underground...
...Some of these things that have been said have elucidated the matter and have made us even more fearful than we were in the beginning," said Mrs...
...In England, as you have been told this afternoon, the printing and circulation of the Sermon on the Mount was punished under the Defense of the Realm Act, as instigating disloyalty to the government...
...Carlin: "That is what they will do here, 41 they break the law...
...Waters: "Are you sure...
...If this bill goe3 through, especially section 3 of chapter 2, it is possible that under that section th« President will become a virtual dictator of what we could say about anything in connection with the war...
...Mrs...
...United States, to prevent cspionane, and better to enforce, the criminal laws of the United States, and for other purposes.'' Some of its "other purposes" were brought to light in the first hearing...
...Mr...
...Mrs...
...Why can it not be explicitly stated that its application Is limited to giving naval and military information which no one of us wants to do...
...And I think the right to agitate for a change of a law should be constitutional and that it is constitutional...
...Arc we to be allowed free speech...
...The discussion...
...the Chairman "There is nothing in this bill to perment you.from opposing conscription...
...The Chairman: "The object of the bill, as stated on page 9, is to prevent people from doing things intended to produce disaffection among the aimed forces...
...Carux: "They ought to go to jail if they don't stop it...
...Dykr: "There must be some limit to the freedom of speech...
...Mr...
...He believed that meetings and criticisms of the President and resolutions would be permissible...
...We want all the rights the American people ever bled and died for...
...ATA LATER HEARING when Jane Addams ap- peared before the committee, the question as to liberty of propaganda was again raised...
...You cannot advocate those things...
...Evans: Then make that clear...
...Mrs...
...If you try to put down unsound opinion by force, you breed disaffection...
...Mrs...
...291, in the draft before the committee, was similar to that, which passed the Senate in the last Congress by a vote of fio to 10...
...And so the genial assurances of the earlier stages of the hearing broke down...
...Dyek: "The President has already issued a proclamation—to the effect, as I recall it, that people should go ahead and obey the law and keep their mouths shut and let the government run the war...
...Why turn the law into their persecutors...
...The phrase that especially aroused uneasiness was the closing lines in section 3 of chapter ". providing that '•whoever in time of war shall wilfvlly cause or attempt to cause disaffection in the military or naval forces of the United States, shall he punished by imprisonment for nut less than twenty years or for life," Mrs...
...Might it not be construed as intended to stir up disaffection...
...There are well recognized precedents against allowing a person to incite to crime...
...Waters: "All right, that is all I am asking for, I do not want to harbor any traitors, and I do not want to protect any spies...
...Glen-dower Evans asked to be recognized...
...Mr...
...IT WAS Mrs...
...Mr...
...Mrs...
...The trouble is that the application of the bill is not clear...
...Mr...
...Make it clear in this bill that in so doing I am within my constitutional rights...
...Yet it is this bill, implied by the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee to be in need of drastic revision, which passed the Senate of the last Congress by a vote of 60 to 10...
...Thomas: "That is the question we have been raising: Does this affect freedom of speech under the Constitution...
...Casus...
...Feople will have a hard enough time anyway who champion such unpopular views...
...Why is there need for uncertainty...
...Evans: "I do not think that is a question that can be fairly asked...
...You stated that in preference to having your sons join the Army, you would have them shot down...
...But others of the committee would have none of such milk-and-water views...
...Edwin V. Webb, as aimed "to punish (u'ts of interfere tier, with the foreign relations...
...Can this propaganda be carried on during war...
...If the government is authorized to conscript men for the army and if a man thus conscripted refuses to servo and says, 'I will take my punishment,'—I think it is safer that this matter should be discussed...
...Mr...
...Mr...
...Yon -will simply have to postpone the discussion until the -war is over...
...Card: "I think that is very laudable...
...Dykr: "Cnder the proclamation of thd President, he can stop these things and put people in jail...
...Mr...
...Had not the values of newspaper criticism been illustrated during the present war by Lord Northcliffe's revelations in" regard to shortage of high explosives...
...I believe that free speech would lead to a more united support of the government and to a better spirit all around...
...And so on...
...Mr...
...Thomas: "Then I might be called a traitor...
...It aims to secure a permanent peace when the war is over...
...Walsh: "Conscription refers to the military or naval forces...
...There is a difference of opinion around this table as to what this bill would allow me to say and not to say...
...But when a government passes a law which makes a thing a crime which had not before been a crime, and when there arc reputable people who question the morality of that law, ministers and others, they should be free to discuss It, and It the discussion makes converts, it will create a change in public opinion -which •will lead to the repeal of the law...
...Caraway: "Do you not think, if you want your propaganda to succeed, you ought to encourage us, and set us against it...
...Free Speech at Issue By ELIZABETH GLEN DOWER EVANS RECENT hearings before the House Judiciary committee on the so-called Espionage Bill should hiing home to American citizens the time-honored maxim, "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty...
...Walsh: "You are advocating the right to go out in the highways and by-ways and resist conscription...
...Mrs...
...1 do not see why the issues raised cannot be mst in a way that will forward the efficiency for carrying on the war, and steer around the difficulties which have been pointed out...
...Walsh: "You would prefer to see the United States defeated rather than have your right to advocate people not joining the army abridged...
...Mrs...
...at THIS POINT in the proceedings Mrs...
...She is the mother of two sons of military age, so she explained, and she would prefer to have them shot for refusing to fight rather than to have thorn hear arms against any other living being...
...But she was assured by Mr...
...Mrs...
...Mrs...
...to one after another of those who urged their misgivings as to possible interpretations of this provision in the proposed law...
...So spoke John Reed, War Correspondent from every belligerent country upon five fronts...
...Mrs...
...Pleaso draft the bill so that it...
...Caraway that "there is absolutely nothing in that section that any honest man need fear.' Mrs...
...Why should there be any difficulty about this thing...
...Mrs...
...Thomas: "I feel I have a right to interpret my loyalty to my own country in my own way, and according to my own conscience...
...Evans: "I believe it would hurt the United States Government a great deal more to have this freedom denied than to allow free speech...
...Mr...
...Evans: "But discussing conscription is not military or naval information...
...Believing as we do," said Miss Addams, "and some of us hold our belief with an almost religious fervor—that the only successful moral outcome of this war is that the tremendous international position of the United States should be used to bring forth some sort of international view-point, can we go forth and say that...
...ANUMBER of men and women engaged in conducting propaganda for suffrage, peace, and similar measures of social justice, appeared before the committee to inquire whether free speech might not be jeopardized under possible interpretations of the proposed law...
...Mrs...
...Mrs...
...Thomas: "That is the question, as to how far free speech is abridged...
...Carawat: "Yes...
...A person who holds otherwise is the one in fault...
...W.ALSH: "That is what you are advocating...
...When the hearing closed, the Chairman announced that the difficulties which hare been pointed out would be carefully considered, and every effort made to draft a bill which will at once do justice to tho government in wartime and protect and preserve the rights of the American people...
...she said, "has been very illuminating to mc...
...Might not .lane Addams and others like her be accused of treason and sent to jail for life...
...None of our people do...
...will not take away from ub our right to apeak for suffrage and for righteousness...
...Dyer: "This bill would not permit you to hold meetings and have speeches criticizing the President,1 and pass resolutions condemning the President...
...Mr...
...Mr...
...Dyer: "You've got to do it...
...Am I to be allowed in time of war to say that I do not believe in killing human beings, and that 1 do not want my sons to go out and kill other women's sons...
...the neutrality, and the, foreign commerce of the...
...Thomas, as she withdrew...
...Thomas: "Do you call it license for peoplj to say that they do not believe in war, and that they want to advocate measures which will load to the establishment of an international organization which will make such destruction as is now going ou impossible...
...Mrs...
...This appeal was well received by the committee, and gentlemen who a few moments before had looked capable of committing deeds of "frightfulncss" resumed their more urbane manners...
...Mr...
...And the Chairman answered most explicitly, "1 do not think there is any doubt about your having the right to say those things...
...Site had come to the hearing, as she explained, for information, and had not intended to speak...
...Mr...
...Mr...
...Mrs...
...This question produced consternation in the committee...
...We want the right to assemble and the right to free speech...
...Caraway: "They are both rights guaranteed under this hill...
...And why can it not be explicitly stated in the bill that it is not applicable to a discussion of questions which should be debatable in a free land...
...Carlin: "My snggestion is, after these statutes are passed, be very careful how far you go...
...And if this bill, with its invasions of the rights of free speech and free press, is not enacted by the Sixty-Fifth Congress, it will be because of the vigilance of private citizens, women as well as men...
...EvANS: "But the gentlemen think there ia...
...Mr...
...Waters, a representative of organized labor, was the first to question the possible interpretation of these words...
...Carux : "Because Congress has declared it to be...
...Might not the question of intent be difficult to prove by a person in collision with the government and running counter to tho passions of the hour...
...People talk about this great revolution in Russia...
...If you make martyrs of them they will win more converts than if you leave them free...
...Can we say that this war will -he fought in vain unless at the end some international machinery is created which shall deal with the issues which precipitated the war...
...If the Conscription Bill is enacted into law, are we going to be allowed to say that we do not believe in conscription...
...During the Spanish War, "Embalmed Beef" and similar army scandals had been ventilated by the press and as a result of this ventilation had been corrected...
...Mrs...
...Evans: "I think I understand that...
...Caraway: "It could not be made more definite than that—we could no more repeal the Constitution than we could the law of gravity...
...Carltn: "And why should they not go to jail if what they say is treason...
...Mr...
...The only control you should undertake to exercise is over naval and military information...
...No one of us wants Germany to succeed...
...Gard (to a later question): "You cannot abridge the constitutional right...
...At the second hearing, however, another danger lurking in the Espionage Bill was brought to light...
...Mr...
...Thomas: "Can we not advocate a conscientious objection...
...Mr...
...Thomas: "Why should it be treason...
...Thomas then went on to question a possible Interference with the propaganda of the Woman's Peace Party...
...This bill...
...Mrs...
...Thomas: "That means that nobody is going to be allowed to say that they do not believe in fighting...
...We do not want to be ridden down by soldiers, and treated as we were before the war...
...Mi...
...Why do you not make it plain...
...Waters: "I am very glad to know that...
...HERE the chairman interposed with a less drastic interpretation...
...Folks who object to the laws of the land should have a right to say so and to bring the majority over to their side if they are able...
...Mrs...
...There arc some rights we have to surrender to live in a country where other people enjoy other rights...
...It was described by the chairman, Hon...
...It was against the law, and they were willing to break the law and suffer for it" Mr...
...I want to be loyal to my government and to uphold the common weal while this war is on...
...GarD "It does not affect freedom of speech, it affects license of speech...
...Evans: "No, because I love my country more than my propaganda...
...The revolution came because for sixty years people had been willing to give their lives in their determination to say things which the government forbade them to say...
Vol. 9 • April 1917 • No. 4
