COMMON ORATORY

Hyde Park, in London, is the favorite spot for any man with a Grievance. Here he can talk his head off on any subject from evolution to revolution, to an audience which comes to cheer or boo him, then goes home rejoicing over the free entertainment, to think no more of it. There is no disturbance; the policemen present are never more than spectators; while the orator exhausts in empty words whatever wrath might be turned into action against society.

In Boston, at the present time, a prospective open-air orator must obtain a permit before he can speak. Usually such requests are granted; it is always possible, however, to prevent speeches on undesirable subjects by refusing the necessary authorization. Limitations which have been laid down in this way have served only to drive the agitators to secret meetings, where by posing as martyrs, they have been able to exert a far more dangerous influence than they could by speaking in the open.

To guard against such conditions, as well as to preserve the institution of free speech for the American people, is the aim of a bill which has passed the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and which comes before the Senate tomorrow. This bill, if passed, will make it legal to speak in public merely by notifying the authorities in advance; but it will not legalize utterances which are now forbidden. It will put into fact the words of Mr. Chief Justice Hughes, that "Hyde Park meetings and soap-box oratory constitute the most efficient safety-valve against resort by the discontented to physical force."