Los Angeles Herald, Volume 35, Number 290, 18 July 1908 — KERN GIVES VIEWS ON FREE SPEECH FIGHT [ARTICLE]

KERN GIVES VIEWS ON FREE SPEECH FIGHT

SAYS SOCIALISTS CAUSE BUT

LITTLE TROUBLE

Chief of Police Declares They Are $ Not Vicious or Criminal, as Their Enemies Would Have the Public Believe

"The proposition of handling the Socialist speakers who are contending with the authorities for the right of what they call free speech has not reached the dignity of a problem to my mind," said Chief of Police Edward Kern last night. "The police department is not having any trouble with the Socialists, not near so much as we have every twenty-four hours of the day in handling the drunks on the streets. "They are I not criminals or lawbreakers in the sense which we ordinarily use the term. In every way except one they are peaceable, lawabiding man and women. They persist only In breaking the one ordinance on the city books which prohibits them from speaking on the streets without a permit from the police commission. "They are doing this merely to reach an end, very desirable from their point of view, and while X am- of the opinion that they are using the wrong means to achieve that end I am not going to quarrel with them on the POlnt- .'■■■-. Entitled to Views "Each man Is entitled to his views and to an expression of the same, except where he Interferes with the rights of others or of laws made forbidding the especial mode he uses in promulgating his Ideas. P "In this case, spiking genera the Socialists are persistent arid deliberate violators of th. law and in pursuance of mv duty as chief of police I have no "fher course than to order the arrest every time they violate this

long as that law is on the books It wfll be enforced and there will be noTet-up in the arrest of these people "r deviation mad, from the fixed course mm gStS tK cohere wHI be no cd.l A t bno driTa a ve we anticipated any UN! achieve their object." FORCED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN BIG SALARY AND CHAIN GANG

An intensely dramatic scene was enacted in Justice Fredericks™ sc o yesterday morning when Martin J. Witt had to decide between his liberty with .a job at $10 a day awaiting him or to go on the chain gang for vonty-flve days. He found a solution satisfactory to all parties and-will leave next week for South Dakota to take up his work. Witt was found guilty of speaking on the streets of Los Angeles without permission in writing from the police commissioners. Cloudesley Johns and Walter V. Holloway, managers of the "free speech" campaign being conducted by the Socialists, acted as attorneys for Witt. , .•„"„'■-' Z On Wednesday a meeting of "Branch City Jail, .Local Los Angeles County Socialist Party" was held in the city lull ■ R. L. Qulmby presided. About thirty members of the local attended. They couldn't well be absent, owing to the way jailers and iron bars have of compelling attendance at these meetings. The women Socialists in thi Jail vere not allowed to participate. Those who took part in the deliberations" are all confined in the jail on the same charge for which Witt was on trial. All are prepared to make the same defense; that they have a constitutional right to free speech.

Both Parties Are Stubborn At the meeting It was voted to permit Witt to waive a jury trinl so that he might at most have to remain on the chain gang twenty-five days.- In accordance with the decision of the jail branch Witt waived the Jury pro-i-eedure and his trial was expedited. In finding Witt guilty of speaking without a permit Justice Fredericks said, addressing Holloway, who had defended Witt: "You say he did not make a speech, in a legal sense, but the testimony shows, and you admit, that he said: 'I stand fpr free speech and the laboring man must always stand for free speech." That summed it all up. He got to the real point of any speech he might have intended to make in that. The best speech ever made consisted of only one sentence. I hope this whole matter can be adjusted before long and that some solution satisfactory to both parties will be reached. The city officials and the Socialists have both been

stubborn, many people believe this ordinance to be bad and I may believe the same thing, but we have to uphold' the ordinance while It is on the books. If enough people think it wrong It will be set aside." At this point Witt broke in to say that he had been taught in school that the principle of free speech was one of tne fundamental principles of Americanism. Dramatic Scene Follows

"One moment, Mr. Witt,' 1 said Judge Frederickson. "You say you believe in free speech, now the court wants a little free speech. I am going to give you a chance to go to South Dakota. How soon do you want to go?" Witt said he would be ready to start within three or four days. "I will sentence you to pay a fine of JSO or twenty-five days in jail. The sentence will be suspended for six months. You will understand, Mr. Witt, that during that time you must not break this ordlna'hce. Do you agree to that?"

There was deep silence in the court room, the prisoner looking squarely at the judge nearly a minute without answering. To agree without the consent of the free speech committee would be to break the discipline of the party organization; to withhold his promise to the court meant twenty-five more days in the jail or on the chain gang. Witt walked slowly out of the prisoner's dock and around to where Johns and Hoiloway stood leaning on the bench in front of the Judge. In a low voice he said: "It's up to the party to decide. What shall I do?" Without a reply to Witt Hoiloway tunua to the judge and said: "We will agree to that, your honor." Judge Frederickeon, who had watched the proceedings with deep interest milled his appreciation of the situation. Witt bowed to Judge Frederickson and left the court in company with his advisers. Card Frederick and B. Kichindorff, who were arrested Thursday night for speaking at Seventh and Grand streets, were arraigned yesterday morning before Justice Frederlckson. They pleaded "not guilty" and asked for Jury trials. Frederick will be tried on September 15 and Eichendorff on September 10.