The record-union., 1891-05-05

bub WHaC were the TlOU6rS OOlIlG Inoy
were not striking in a labor difficulty,
but indulging in contemplated riotous
proceedings, because it was the day set
apart by Anarchists and disorganiZers of
every grade in Europe to fiaunt red flags
and shout defiance to law. 1t is true that
there was faint effort made to clothe the
movement with the garb of labor dem
onstration, but it was thin disguise and
wholly unlike orderly laborday demon
stration here; for the real motive of the
affair with Anarchists was radical hatred
of orderly government.
The dispatches say that ''the soldiers
were merely exposed to stone-throwing."
So, then, when the Government is as
sailed by rioters through assault upon its
soldiery, there must be no resistance
until the mob kills few of the defenders
of the law and of order. In all such cases
stoning is the principal means employed
by the mob in resistance of troops, and in
nearly all such cases they are ordered to
fire. To stone body of soldiers is
enough to draw their fire. A compact
body Of men fully armed cannot be ex-
pected to stand idle and be beaten down
with rocks torn from the streets and
hurled against them with malice and
intention to kill. In our own country, as
we'll as in Europe, the assaulting of troops
with stones and heavy clubs, and missiles
hurled through the air, is nearly always
held to be justification for firing II is
right that it should be considered an in
vitation to shoot.
The trouble in our country is that the
militia takes too much abuse before it
fires. It should be understood that when
the organized militia is assaiIed by rioters
in the United States with force and
weapons, be they stones or other deadly
missiles, the Government itself is struck,
and that the citizen soldiery will return
the fire with bullets. 1t is the short road
and the effective one. For citizen soldiers
to stand beneath a fusiIlade of stones
hurled by lawless and reckless beings
and fail to resent the assault, is but to
temporize with the mob spirit and incite
it's actors to greater violence.
The general rule should be TO return
lead for stones; blank cartridges will do
for curses. The lawless and alien ele-
ments that have been stoning, killing and
burning in the coke regions of Pennsyl-
yania, and driving out men willing to
work, are led by demagogues and de-
signing men who flourish only when
labor is unemployed, and hence exert
themselves to foment disturbances. All
such elements need to be taught the folly
of such leadership by treatment with the
rigor of arms whenever they resort to
stones and clubs and pistols. Let it go
forth that citizen soldiers, who give their
time freely to maintain order, must stand
to be stoned and dubbed by mobs and be
forbidden to resist, and there will be an
end to the organized militia. No citizen
will enter the National Guard to be made
a dummy in uniform to receive the blows
of the lawless.
The mob has no respect for uniform,
but it does entertain wholesome fear of a
bullet with powder behind it in a
weapon in the hands of one invested with
due authority. 1t does have regard for a
bayonet behind which is the law abiding
soldier of the Republic, sworn to main
tain the laws and obey the commands
given him. But let mob and soldier un-
derstand that force by the Government is
only a matter of show, and is not actual
vigor, and there viii be an end of the
latter and the triumph of the former.
There is, in short, no use for q bullet in
times of trouble, unless the weapon bear
ing it is in the hand that has the power to
pull the trigger, and is fortified by au-
thority that does not fear to give the COM
mand to fire when lawlessness is trans
formed into active assault with weapons
upon the representatives of order.