The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1894-11-19
SOVEREIGN'S ATTACK ON TIE
ARMY.


Labor at New Orleans last week Grand
Master Sovereign took General Schofield
TO task in bitter language for advising an
increase of the standing army. He like
wise appealed to the body he was adj
dressing to labor for the abolition of the
militia of the States and decrease of the
standing army, and insisted that from
these sources is growing up military
despotism.
This man Sovereign is the same who,
in the midst of the riots and mob law in
Chicago last summer, signed with Debs
an open letter to the President of the
United States that was contemptuous and
insulting, and charged him with subvert-
ing the laws and with the assumption of
the powers of dictator for saying that
he would call Federal troops into action
to restore peace, reopen the postal routes
and re-establish the movement of inter-
state commerce which the rioters had in
terrupted.
There IS no student of the times who
has carefully and coolly consideredn.hat
remarkable letter in the light of its sur
rounding conditions who has not reached
the conclusion that it was the forerunner
of an intended decree of dictatorship by
Debs, supported by Sovereign. Had the
PRESIDENT hesitated for a moment, have
replied to the impairment address, or de-
bated the matter with it's writer's, bloody
and awful calamity would have befallen
the country. 1t was the Presidents
promptness in replying with an order to
the military to restore peace and enforce
the laws that saved the situation and
baked the scheme of the conspirators.
Now comes this same man Sovereign
and urges the reduction of the small
standing army and the abolition of the
militia system. No one is deceived by
his expressed fear that out of the militia
and the army will grow a military des-
potism. The militia is the BODY of
American citizens between Is and %
years of age of the male sex. Mr., Sow
ereign is himself a militiaman. The or
ganized militia consists of such of the
militia as the States uniform and drill.
and in which they have some aid from
the Federal Government. This small
force is styled "the National Guard.u 1t
is Of the people, by the people and for
the people. 1t is to the State what
police reserve would be to a munich
pality.
The law is the expressed will of the
people, in orderly form, given out in
statutes. Without executive force be-
hind it, it would only be as sounding
brass. Hence we have an executive. and
civil assistants to enforce DEGREES of the
courts of the people, to protect the weak
against the vicious and strong. and to
conserve the rights of all citizens before
the law. Behind the peace officers of
civil government resides the power of
the Governor to enforce the laws nv
calling to the aid Of the civil officers
the armed power of the people-tbe
militia. This power is then under the
command OF a civil officer. It is not an
aggressive or warlike power, but the
methodized means of the chief civil AK
ecutive in the State for enforcing the
obedience to the laws. 1t is force
drawn from the people. volunteered bv
them, and in the broadest sense Is the
vigor and majesty of the people persona
fed.
This is the force Sovereign urges his
followers to break up. Why? That
there may be greater security in times of
peace and better preparation for times
of war? No. but that such ~ Sovereign
may defy the expressed will Of a self.
governing people. and freely work out,
uninterruptedly, the DEGREES aud ambf-
tons of private organizations Tho
claim that the militia as organized ia
used in the interest of the money power
ami to Cypress labor, is an insult to labor
itself, the followers of which in the main
rnake up the National Guard. Out OF
every ten men in the guard nine are wage
earners.
1t is not true that the State militia is
used to protect one class unworthily, or