BY THE WAY

Evening Star, Issue 17062, 5 June 1919, Page 2

BY THE WAY

[By C&BXL Cross.] The excitement in Sydney over tho Paul Freeman case is quite intelligible, _ and there is no necessity to account for it on the assumption of sympathy with l.w.W •- ism on the .part of the agitators, or on any other assumption but that of human. sympathy with a human being who baa been tenaised between San Francisco mm Svdaey until, driven to desperation, he is now reported to bo in a dying condition from the effects of a hanger strike undergone as a means of compelling the authorities to allow him to land and grant an inquiry. If everything Commonwealth Federal Minister Russell says is demonstrably true, and Freeman is "a cisioyal and dangerous I.W.W. agitator," of German parentage, the essential absurdity and cruelty of the casa remain, * aou o n Freeman is said to have denied that he is of German extraction, or that be has any connection with the I.W.W. But the real point does not turn on the truth or otherwise of these allegations. America orders Freeman to get out of the country. Freeman sails for Australia, where the authorities will net allow him to land lor tho earns reason that caused America to deport him. He is returned to 'Frisco on the ship that brought him. only to be eent back to Sydney, and the_ operation is repeated, so that'he is now in Sydney for the third time, and, as we are informed, in a dying condition, though, m response to a public agitation, %a has been taken ashore to be cared for arid his casa formally inquired into._ The logic of the situation is that America has dumped an undesirable citizen on to a shipping company, who have become absolutely responsible for his disposal; and this'briiurs into all tho more clear relief the principle that a country has no more right to deport its own bad citizen stuff to° another country than a householder has to deport his dead cat to neighbor's premises- All such deportations of bad .native-born material are but selfish and cowardly expedients for shunting awkward responsibilities. If a man becomes an enemy of his own country and a resourceful and desperate menace to society, let- him, upon conviction, be shot, hanged. electrocuted, or set to work in some penal gang; but it is a despicable thing to throw him over tho fence or make a tennis ball of him.. One often wishes t-bexe exfeted some recognised island home whore all the social intractables and impossibles I.W.W.s, Anarchists, Communists, Bolsheviks, Spartacfets. or by whatever other name thev might be called—might live and flourish and be happy together m their own way, and thus set tho world a liying example of naselfislmess, forbearance, brotherly love, unbroken harmony, and idyllic peace. *******

The vicious element in tin?. 0.8. E. perpetration which so aualines_ its value. and may yet bury it in oblivion, _is daring and quite* arbitrary selection. 01 the particular citizens upon whom the distinction is bestowed. Patriotism and patriotic effort ought to be assumed as a matter of course among normal, healthyminded citizens, and not as so exceptional as to call for recognition by & special order of merit. Military decorations for service on the field are granted upon Teports of specific instances of devotion guaranteed by eye-witnesses; but who has ever heard, and in many instances who can even conceive, -upon -what proend of specially conspicuous patriotism the 0.8. E. honor has" been With bat few exceptions there isn't a private soldier who has served at the frontwho has not a higher claim to distinction for sacrifice in the service of the Empire than 9CT per cent, of civilian 0.8.E.5. And among civilian patriots what reasonable attempt has been made—could bo made—to impartially adjudicate in such a matter! How many 0!8.E.s have gone to the hundreds of thousands, of both sexes who, as mrmitioners, etc., and voluntary workers, forked themselves nearly dead? The thiftr that's wronsr with _tho 0.8. E. is that Ft ever came into beinjr. Instead of p-itriotism it -weakens it by virtually declaring: it to be each, an unexpected and wonderful bit of supererogation as to merit special recognition. ♦ »**#** "Tmrty-threa Labor leaders have sizned a manifesto protesting as;ain<=t the Peace Treaty on the ground." among other tilings, that it "does not recognise the change following the Gormen revolution. resulting in. the establishment of a Social Deraocracy. and contains ssxms of new conflicts, and creates conditions of nnre-.t and injustice, which must make the Lea-srue of Nations, if it survives, merely an instrument of Imperialism." The perversa and eapienb 33 do not say how many hendreds of thousands or millions cf workers they profess to represent, but their protest smells high of the wsivil anti-nationalism and unctuous hypocrisy to which we have become so accustomed from such quarters. As M. Clemenceau recently pointed out, in the dictated peace of 2871 the Germans did not dream of softening their terms for the fact that a French. Republic had been established on the ruins of the Monarchy. Does anybody imagine that if the Germans had won in this war the German people would have attempted to make any distinction between themselves and their rulers? The entiro cotmtry would bare been mad with comrratrdaiion, and not a barbarity would have been repudiated, not an infamy denied. They would h&vo gloried in every element and every department, of the policy of "schxeckliclikoit" that had Drousht each mighty results and laid the world at their feet." Now, however, that things have gone the other way, they adroitly try to save their necks by turning Knag's evidence, and electing to manage ■without the Hohenzollerns. Such a manoeuvre will impose upon nobody hut such aa the "thirty-three" and their following. The people who have painted out the word "empire" and written "republic'* on their front door are the tame people that burst upon Europe with the most malevolent savagery that ever_ revealed the black purpose of a nation's heart. And even if the " thirty-three Labor leaders" could the reality and permanence of the change in the form of government, the fact remains that the German nation that turned hell loose upon Europe in August, 1914, is th« very nation that is now called up for judgment and the imposition of guarantees for future conduct which she has tau.rht the world to regard as the only sort she can appreciate. The expressed concern of the_ 53 Labor leaders lest the Leasrne of Nations become "merely an instrument of Imperialism" doesn't amount to much if we have to choose, between Imperialism and the "despotif.in of the proletariat" as exemplified by Leninism and its works.

It would be well if Labor_ leaders and their organisations could stick to their proper mission and their legitimate function, instead of attempting the role oi supreme censor and universal meddler. In their attempt to discredit and defeat the .Allies' peace terms the 55 Labor leaders are as much out of court as the same or any number of capitalists or educationists or artists would be. The mere accident of a man's particular employment is no warrant for his claim to what is virtually an extra vota. For -what Labor seems to claim hj a kind of double franchise—one -rote to create the Government and another to bounce and defy it; one vote to make the laws, and another to scout them. The mischief of great aggressive organisations is that they are so often formed not of men as men, but of men as conditioned by some accident. Nor would that matter much so long as the organisation kept to its own proper business; but it is a different matter -when it develops the propensity to poke its cose into everything. It then becomes a national danger when men rush to some objective like a herd of buffalo, not because they are con--jrinced intelligent men, but only because they happen to be there can be no peace—either social or international —possible nntil the great and pressing problems of Ufa are allowed thair full appeal to all that is best in the intelligence and personality of men as men. * # * # * * * Th© attitude of America on some of the knotty points that have occurred during jjjM r jge*ce negotiations hat hardly, 6ua-

tained the reputation for outstanding magnanimity she seemed so anxious to achieve. It is now reported from Paris that at the eleventh hour she has declined a mandate for Constantinople. President Wilson lias given the impression that he has never been nearly so much concerned as to the proper settlement of Europe as ho has been to set the League of Nations going. A laudable enough object, it is true, but it is to be feared that the academic and sentimental elements in the President's interest have been somewhat more conspicuous than his resolution to face all its practical implications both for himself and his country. America steadily holds aloof from the burden and the care of world responsibility, and is no more desirous than more modest nations of entering into entanglements that are not likely to pay. America was the hist in th© war, and did not come to blows till the enemy was already staggering; but when the armistice was agreed upon she showed a surprising eagerness to get* her armies back across the Atlantic. Nor has her magnanimity been too conspicuous in the matter of the surrenderee German warships and the merchant vessels interned in her ports. Still, there are many points of view, and many pairs of eyes through which the situation is construed.