European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 4, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes monday january 4.19sb Anthony Lewis fascinating Book details Little known sedition Case month Ever leaflets were Din York s lower East Side. Unsigned one printed in English and one in yiddish attacking president Wilson for sending u.5. Troops to int Rene in revolutionary Russia. Thai obscure Momcil began a classic american Story of Law and change. Those who put out the leaflets were  of sedition. They appealed to the supreme court and lost. But there was a powerful Dis sent by Justice Holmes a dissent thai eventually dec Ades later led the court to redefine the Constitution and american Freedom. Strangely it is a store thai has never been properly told. We have known the Legal arguments but not the human beings involved. Now we have those in a mar Velous new Book thai brings the people and the Law to life. Ii is fighting faiths by Richard Polenberg. Three anarchists and a socialist were in the supreme court Case Abrams is. United Stales Jacob Abrams Hyman Lachowsky Samuel Lipman and Mollie Steimer. Alt had come to this country from czarist Russia fleeing its tyranny and pogroms. Steimer emerges As an especially remarkable Fig ure. She was Only 20 years old at the time of the trial 4 feet 9 inches tall weighing 90 pounds. She refused to Rise for the judge and so would not answer her own Tom Wicker workers of America should fight the workers Republic of  they were prosecuted under a sedition act passed by Congress in the jingoism hysteria of world War Ruthal made it a crime to Uller disloyal language or Lay things that might interfere with the War Elton. For their crude leaflets Holmes called them puny Anonym ties the three men were sentenced to 20 years in prison and Steim Crlos. The Savage sentences outraged Holmes. But it was quite unexpected for him to find hat their conviction for publishing the leaflets violated the first Amend ment s command Congress shall make no Law. Abridging the Freedom  Holmes had been quite indict Creel to the claims of free speech. In a letter to judge Learned hand in 1918 he said he saw no difference Between free speech and Freedom from  Early in 1919 he he T1 s opinion affirming the conviction of Eugene v. Debs inc socialist party Leader fora speech against War. But Holmes continued to think about the free speech question and read and argued. He corresponded with hand and others. Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to me perfectly logical Holmes wrote. If you have no but when men have realized that time has upset Many fighting Faith they May come to believe even More than they believe the very foundation of their own conduct that the ultimate Good desired is better reached by free Trade in ideas. That at any Rale is the theory of our Constitution. It is an Experiment As Alt life is 3d Experiment in 1921 the four were released from prison on Condi Tion that they leave at once for the soviet Union. Holme was joined Only by Justice Brandeis in dissent in 1919. Fifty years later a unanimous supreme court read the first amendment much a Holme did in the Ahrans Case to protect the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death unless in speech is imminently Likely to incite . In i9b7 americans had an extraordinary education in the Constitution learning not Only from the Bicentennial celebrations but from the contemporary realities explored in the Iran Confra hearings and the Bork nomination Debau. Fighting faiths teaches us again dramatically  lives because judge apply its eternal principles in the tight of accumulated experience and wis Dom. It is not . To err is human but to admit the errors is divine Check the listings a6aimits eithfrcampak5m 88 or Satu my hk3ht Uve the bad news folks is that on Jan. I your social Security payroll taxes went up again by an estimated j14 million a  Good news is that you re about to hear a soft headed Liberal pundit s confession of All Loo frequent error in the old year. Just last week one of those mistakes hardest to catch because it does t look like an error crept into this space. 1 referred repeatedly to Fulton county Georgia which is Atlanta when Actu ally it was Forsyth county where certain racial disturbances look place. On dec. 17, 1 twice used the phrase none of them  though thai con forms to the new York times style grammarians furiously wrote that it should have been none of them has including Jenny g. Strauss of new York who advised pull yourself together if Only one could. Numerous objections were registered to a Tongue in Cheek article raising the possibility of a Dole Dole ticket next Yean the Lith amendment readers protested pro Hibits election of a president and a vice president from the same stale la docs but since Elizabeth Dole had a flourishing Ca reer As a citizen of North Carolina before she married sen. Dole i assumed that she could be registered from that stale and he from Kansas in the unlikely event they wanted to run together. Errors of fact Are correctable errors of judgment can Only be admitted. Back in March for example i i cautiously predicted that events would Lead  and Howard Baker w run for president following the Market crash in october i suggested that the presidential candidates George Bush and Paul Simon would be Hurt and helped the most while new pres sures to run would fall on Mano Cuomo and Bill Bradley. So much for prophecy. In May and july 1 viewed with alarm the Reagan administration s policy of using the Navy to protect kuwaiti tankers newly flying the  Flag from iranian attack in he persian Gulf. A the end of the year it s fair w admit that the re Flag Ging policy has been reasonably successful attracting mow support than predicted from the Western allies ind the Gulf Stales although the danger of open warfare with Iran with unpredictable consequences seem to me Lutle diminished some Lough questions were raised about my support for the Midg Ciman missile Mobile single warhead cd supposedly survivable. Some who regard Ilai a potential first strike weapon suggest among other caveats that should be developed Only if a flight test ban ii negotiated on All other new ballistic missile save a soviet equivalent to Mio Getman. Welch for More on these Complex issues in the new  Reader cites an article in which Noam Chomsky reported that in a three month study of the Washington port and inc new York times he had found is editorials and opinion pieces referring to the sandinista in every Case Neil live by. Have i Ever reported on such things As san Dinsla health and education programs demands the Reader and if not Why not the Short answer is yes Partick laity during and after a trip to Nicaragua a few Yean ago. The Long answer is thai i per haps Lute most commentators have focused most of my articles on Tho Contra sandinista War and on International peace Effort while steadfastly opposing the Cru Cial . Roc in the War. The even longer answer is that i tee no reason Why i hive to Praise the Sandinia tas because 1 denounce us. Policy., re oppose that policy even i Oie sandinista were As bad Asay the. Loochee govern ment Chomsky s article. Moreover re minds me of complaints a few yep ago from quite different critics that the press did t often enough mention How a Maui the Viet Cong were. Criticism by foot Rule and calculator is often As simplistic As the reportage it purports to measure i some readers with Long Memont wanted to know Why 1 had dined no local and ideological opposition la William Rehn quit when president Nixon Inonu Nate i him for the supreme court bul found such opposition permissible in toe Case of Robert Bork. Two reasons i Alto Lime Reh naut was known As a conservative but had do such impressive record of Radical Newi Bork had compiled including fierce Dis sent from some of the most important re cent court decisions. 2 Bork s conf lion threatened As rein Quail did not to change the court s direction for years to come. Besides i m older now and maybe even a Little Wiser. Vou Don t think so Happy new year anyway