Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-13
A WOMB WITH c0ppERHEADS.
In his Fourth of July address in this
city Senator Lee Mantle said:


city Senator Lee Mantle said:
1t is time for the adoption of that beau.
tiful and patriotic sentiment in which
believe a vast majority Of the people
most heartily concur: MY country: may
she ever be right, but right Of wrong, M
country" .su.t. ..,
To this sentiment the Great Falls Trib-
une. a democratic newspaper, takes ex-
ception. .
1t is Of the. opinion that when "my
country" is wrong the proper thing for
the patriot to do is to pitch in and help
it's enemies get away with it. Al 4 =
This is a brief way of expressing wa1at
the Tribune takes nearly a column, OF
editorial space to explain. II ~
The fact that our Great Falls cbn-
temporary beats around the bush,;ein
order to justify it's position on the ques-
ton Of patriotism. does not at All lessen
the fact tha! when it's arguments are
summed up they amount to copperhead-
ism pure and simple.
Whether the Tribune takes a column
in which to show that d~isloyafty is pa
triotism, or Charlie Hartman uSNs up hn
hour and a half trying to perform the
same task at Hamilton, the net results
are the same.
Both the ribune and the %Sourdough
statesman are just as thoroughly be-
frizzled ~copperheads as ever fired at our
soldiers from the rear in the dark days Of
the civil war.
Insisting that our government is wrong
and that the Filipinos are right, they ac-
cusea. the former of crime. in trying to
subdue the latter.
If our government is guilty of a crime
then it follows that our government
ought to be punished-in other words, the
followers Of Aguinaldo ought to win in
the present conflict and trample the flag
of the United States in the dust.
Such is. in brief, the position taken by
the Great Falls Tribune editorially. and
by Mr.. Hartman, whose Fourth of July
speech at Hamilton is published in full
in it's columns.
A lot OF spread-eagle ~buffoonery, in
tended for eloquence, does not relieve
SUCH nasty. apprehension of it's doors
or lessen the offense against good citizen
ship.
There never was a time in the history
of this republic when a lot of weazen-
faced political toad-stools didi not Am
agine that their country was wrong, no
matter what question came up for con-
sideration. aE
They are always right-their4 country
alwaysAwrong~ WI. .t
Thesalspsclaenlar individuals are, teller
ated witks>paaienoe instimes of peace, for
they aHm1pluunntt 70 little more than political
eczemadinstars blood of our national life,
ButAin7stin1es aof war they succeed n
theirsinhuence felt in behalf of
the enemias@efsihe country. and are en-
to more attention than is accorded
them when the nation is not engaged in
war. a=e
If there~isleyer a time when the citizen
should subordinate his personal views to
the w~elfaresoffh his country it is when it is
engaged in war.
Like a we'll disciplined soldier it is not
for the patriot to inquire whether all the
conditions leading uD to the war, or re-
sulting therefrom, are in accord with his
personal views as to the eternal fitness.
of things-it is not for the man who
owes all that he is and all that he hopes
to become to the maintenance of the
honor and dignity of the emblem. of his
country-to set himself up in judgment
against the honesty and rectitude of the
nation, to charge it with high crimes and
misdemeanors against the rights Of man
kind, and plead for the speedy rebuke
of it's flag upon the field Of battle.
The man who so far forgets himself
as to lend his energies to such a traitor
Gus procedure. whether upon the rostrum
or in the press, lacks every element of
He does not live among the sun
crowned heroes of the republic-he is a
gall bladder in the anatomy of the ma
ton.