THE STATES ON THE TRAIL OF SUBVERSION                                                                 185

the local press and American Legion. I was forced to give my
speech at the small and inadequate headquarters of the ALP.

A week later at Kingston I was unable to obtain any hall at all
in which to speak. First, the Hotel Stuyvesant canceled a reserva¬
tion made by the local ALP and refunded a deposit of $15.
Then the ALP hired a hall in the YMCA building; but in two or
three days the YMCA canceled that reservation. Finally, the ALP
tiied to obtain a room in the Municipal Auditorium; but the
Mayor of the city thereupon discovered that it was against the
policy of the municipal Common Councfl to permit political
meetings in the Auditorium.

The consequence was that I did not make my scheduled Satur¬
day night talk in Kingston, but instead read aloud the Bill of
Rights, by the light of a stieet lamp, from the steps of the County
Courthouse in the center of the city. I had a small audience of
about twenty-five persons, almost all of them ALP members or
sympathizers. I prefaced the reading by saying: "FeUow citizens,
I have been denied my right to make a speech tonight. I would
like to read to you the most precious part of the United States
Constitution. That is the Bill of Rights, for which every American
should be wilHng to give his lffe."

A favorite device of city authorities has been to prevent a
meeting they do not like by suddenly informing the owner of the
hall where it is scheduled that his building violates the local
statute against inadequate fire exits or too narrow staircases or
some other stiuetural insufficiency. Since a mayor can revoke the
hcense of a hall for sueh defects, the owner is incHned to heed
such a warning and cancel the meeting.

Long a scandal, with little relation to anti-Communist hysteria,
has been a dangerous disregard by municipal police for the pro¬
tections of the Bill of Rights. This includes illegal search and
seizure, false arrest and various types of police brutality such as
solitary confinement or beating in order to obtain incriminating
evidence. Needed corrections are better tiained police, fullest
pubHcity on abuses, and civil suits against policemen for lawless
conduct.