FREE-SPEECH PERSECUTION

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 62, 11 September 1911, Page 8

FREE-SPEECH PERSECUTION

»O Ml* *»1TO«. Sir,~"Men dressed in a little brief #utho«"Y > (Shakespeare). When the folios o-jlled to execute o:i mo a warrant Of committal to the 'i'irrace Gaol for *\venty-four hours io? refusiug to move ftti when holding & itte&t meeting, I said pf the authority implicated showed a disposition to administer impartially the bylaws and, police regulations, I would pay tho fine imposed cheerfully. But as ono .representative of a society which is plainJy being singled out for penal treatment^ as a protest and to assert the rights of iti'ee speech, I would go to gaol and refuse to tmy any fiae. The Law, ifc was said long ago, was, an JABS, and tho present titxm gives it point, «V\- t lfc H ttp £f. ars to , ho , administered by «"stiokß ; " The authorities have yet to tfeeogmse that the simple rule of equity .Us the only safe and sound foundation of jpubho and civil policy, and the only rttlo *•? .law inei-Hing the esteem or support «£ intelligent moa. And that liberty and (protection is tho right of the whole comauunity, not oven excepting Socialists. jjCertam societies aro allowed by the City fCouneil, police, and magistrates to hold ' t«eetingß in certain streets; our society is vdebarred<^-on what grounds? No explanation ts given, li h Dot tho right* of the feooidrhatr Society which alone are endau- • gered by tho ag'greasive ntid usurping acw of the authorities, but the rights of frc<> icpaech and liberty and protection geuer. ally. Our rulers aro apcing to become ibmtal tyrants. For asserting well reoog. mised eommon i rights Socialists aro treated *»y the authorities as malefactors, whereius the real malefactors aro tho aocallcd re , (preaenttttiveij of law and order, who aro disgracing tho courts of tho city and mak. tog at publio exhibition of thoir incoin■peteney for their offices. We are punished Hor our opinions, and stupidly sent to gaol as if bolts and bars could alter, confine. «nd bwj&fc the spirit and lofty goul of man. Law should bo liberty, and not a cloak for tyranny, and its power and digtiity t should be manifested not in blind (partisanship, but in tho impartial adJtainißtration of the law and noble spirit iof justice. Thsro kat least this point to lio constdorGd-'-thal, public opinion whtm aroused can always be coitntod upon to 'assert ltsolf. It is no degradation to go <to gaol for upholding liberty and fie& -epeedh, rather is it «, noble honour. As regarding my expericnco.l, there aro so fflftny criminals outside that it is no additional' honour to meet a few of them in ■gael. The less e&id about them and tho >gaol the bettor. I am, etc., T. A. EAGLE. .Wellington, 10th September, 1911.