The New York Legislative Assembly recently declined to admit five
Socialist members returned at the last State elections. On Monday it refused, by a majority of two to one, to reconsider its decision. The action of the Assembly cannot possibly be defended on democratic grounds. The electors chose to return
the five Socialists, and from this decision there is no appeal. The same issue has repeatedly been raised in Great Britain, especially in the ease of John Wilkes, and, more recently, in the case of Bradlaugh, and it is now settled law that any man Dr woman who is duly elected and who is not disqualified by a previous conviction or by bankruptcy is entitled to sit in Parlia- ment, subject to the usual formalities of the oath or affirmation, The Now York Assembly is right in disliking Socialists, but is it right in trying to exclude them from their seats ?
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