Dangerous Ground

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 30, 1908

IN carrying out its purpose to suppress the dangerous elements to society which are now asserting themselves so vigorously, the government is more than likely to imperil the liberties of other classes of citizens. This possibility was referred to in a recent editorial in this paper. As showing that we are not alone in this view, we quote the following paragraph from an editorial in the Washington Herald under the title, “The Suppression of Anarchy:” —

But President Roosevelt is very much in earnest in his belief that one of the important duties of government is the suppression of anarchy. His power to exclude from the mails any publication advocating murder, arson, or treason, as a remedy for political or social wrongs, he purposes to exercise, on the advice of the attorney general that the exclusion of such publications is justified under existing statutes. But the attorney general, in his opinion, used a rather ominous phrase, “seditious libel,” holding that the publication of a seditious libel warrants exclusion of the seditious print from the mails. Now, if the president indorses the view that seditious writings should be debarred from the mails, he is treading on dangerous ground.

That suppression does not always suppress, is demonstrated in the recent history of Russia; and the outlook for the future of a republic is not flattering when repressive measures become a part of the regular program of the government. But in this time of general and increasing lawlessness, the exercise of arbitrary power by the government seems almost inevitable. We are between the Scylla of anarchy and the Charybdis of absolutism.