The Courier. (Genoa, Nev.) 1899-1904, 1901-10-25
Uncle Sam is Calm Again.
From the HI Dorado Republican,

There is something in the national
characteristics of the people of the
United States that is woefully like the
impetuous nature of the French nation.
The editor writes 'woefullyh after due
consideration of the value of the word,
for this hasty, excitable disposition
may very easily bring national trouble
some day. 1t is the fashion to speak
of our people as branch of the Anglo
Saxon race. That is not true, and the
only basis of the assertion is the fact
that we speak the English language.
We are q congfomeration of all the
European stocks in which the phleg
matte, taciturn, and stubborn Teutonic
basis of the Anglo-Saxton is modified
by the more enthusiastic elements of
the Latin and Celtic strains. Climate
is also having its influence, and the
sum total of these influences gives us
characteristics very different from
those of the Teutonic races. These
characteristics may be better or worse
than the Teuton's in certain particu-
lars, but they are undeniably different.
This impulsiveness has been illus
trated during the past month by the
clamor arising from the lamentable
assassination of the President by one
crank who developed out of the vast
population of eighty millions of people
among whom our presidents mingle.
Because one crank assassinated the
President and few others approved
the insane procedure, the first impulse
has been to convert the institutions of
the country into kind of Russian des-
potism and to restrict all sorts of public
utterances for the sake of keeping the
anarchists silent about their peculiar
opinions. In other words Uncle Sans
first idea after the assassination was to
set his house on fire in order to scorch
out few bedbugs.
He is now calmer 1t will probably
be possible from this time on for people
who do not believe that all the wisdom
of the universe has been enunciated by
legislatures and thus formulated into
laws, to mildly express their dissent
without being accused of encouraging
anarchism. 1t will perhaps be admit
ted that although liberty of speech
and free press imply that some fool
ish people or vicious people may utter
or publish bad things or silly senti-
ments, the fact remains that restric-
tions placed upon the liberty of press
and speech must suppress other utter
ances that may be wise, good, and
necessary to the peaceful development
of American Institutions. We cannot
abrogate childbirth for the sake of
avoiding idiots. 1t doesn't pay to gag
all people of independent minds be-
cause some of them are irrational.
What public official is fit to say that
this public utteranee is good and that
is bad? What court, but that of Public
Sentiment, is fit to decide that one
mans ideas are worthy of preservation
and that another's must be smothered?
We don't need to gag the people and
the press because we have trouble with
anarchists, any more than we need to
burn all the churches and hang the
preachers because some people go
crazy about religion. Perfectly frank,
free and open discussion of the doc
trines of anarchism, as we'll as other
doctrines, and accountability for re-
suits of public utterance will do more
to give us wholesome atmosphere
than repressive measures, which never
accomplish anything more than to
compel secret plotting. AS President
Jordon of Stanford University recently
said, Eve have too many laws now for
men to break,p and we don't need any
more. There are some things against
which laws are no protection, and one
of them is insanity. That particular
form of suicidal insanity known as de-
structive anarchism cannot be abolished
by mere flats of the governing power,
but must be treated for what it is--a
peculiar form of fanaticism allied to
mental disease. The laws we now have
are sufficient to give rs all the protec-
ton that we can derive from laws; but
we should enforce them, applying
them equally to aristocrat and anar-
chist, president and pauper, trust-king
and tramp.
--se+---
The great primal point in the 'triap'
of Admiral Schley is Who won the
naval battle of Santiago, Schley or
Sampson? The former was there and
In command The latter WAC not there