"Those who make their patriotism a vehicle for intolerance are very dangerous friends of our institutions." In one sentence Charles Evans Hughes has summed up what must be every thinking man's opinion regarding the expulsion of the five Socialists from the New York Assembly.

Not because of seditious acts nor because of traitorous conduct during the war, but on the sole ground of membership in the Socialist party five lawfully elected men have been debarred from office. As Colonel Theodore Roosevelt so ably pointed out in his maiden speech at Albany yesterday the position of the majority of the Assembly is absolutely untenable. If those men deserve expulsion, just because they are Socialists, then every Socialist in every office throughout the land should be expelled, and every Socialist should be disenfranchised.

If the New York Assembly's highest purpose were to encourage unrest and precipitate revolution it could have done no better than to expel the five Socialists. However much we may dislike the principles of Socialism--and however justifiable that dislike may be--to expel lawfully elected men for adhering to those principles is nothing less than a crime against representative government.