State v. Freerks

• Decision Date: 14 June 1918
• Docket Number: No. 20968.,20968.
• Citation: 140 Minn. 349,168 N.W. 23
• Parties: STATE v. FREERKS.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

140 Minn. 349

168 N.W. 23

STATE

v.FREERKS.

No. 20968.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

June 14, 1918.

Case Certified from District Court, Big Stone County; S. A. Flaherty, Judge.

George W. Freerks was indicted for orally advocating that the citizens of the state should not aid or assist the United States in prosecuting the war. Demurrer to indictment overruled, and case certified to Supreme Court for determination of question raised by the demurrer. Question answered in affirmative, order overruling demurrer affirmed, and case remanded for further proceedings.

Syllabus by the Court

The indictment set forth in the opinion states facts sufficient to constitute a public offense under the provision of section 3, chapter 463, Laws 1917 (Gen. St. Supp. 1917, § 8521-3). C. L. Hilton, Atty. Gen., J. E. Markham, Asst. Atty. Gen., Linus O'Malley, of St. Paul, and Chas. E. Houston, of Wheaton, for the State.

Ray G. Farrington, of Ortonville, for defendant.

BUNN, J.

The court below overruled the demurrer of defendant to the indictment hereafter set forth, and certified the case to this court for its opinion on the question raised by the demurrer that is, whether the facts alleged in the indictment constitute a public offense. The indictment is as follows:

‘George W. Freerks is accused by the grand jury of the county of Big Stone by this indictment of the crime of advocating by oral speech that the citizens of this state should not aid or assist the United States in prosecuting or carrying on war with the public enemies of the United States, committed as follows:

‘That the said George W. Freerks, on the twenty-first day of January, in the year nineteen hundred and eighteen, at the city of Ortonville, in the county of Big Stone, in the state of Minnesota, then and there being, did wrongfully and unlawfully advocate by oral speech, uttered by him, the said George W. Freerks, in the presence and hearing of Thomas Finley, Robert Jones and Julius Fenner, that the citizens of the state of Minnesota should not aid and assist the United States in prosecuting and carrying on war with the public enemies of the United States, namely, the German Empire, and he, the said George W. Freerks, did then and there for such purpose say: ‘The second and third verses of the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ are nothing but rotten doggerel, just rotten doggerel. John Bull is in New York. England is doing just as she always has done. She is waging a commercial war. She always sells out her allies after it is over and will sell out this country after this war is over. The war is managed just the same as they are doing with these old hens. They get them to knit socks and sweaters to try to make them believe we are at war. No soldier ever sees these socks. What good are all these damned sweaters? It is all bunk'-against the statute in such case made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the state of Minnesota.

‘Dated at Ortonville, in the county of Big Stone, the twenty-second day of March, nineteen hundred and eighteen.’

It is plain that the indictment...