The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1901-10-17
THE SWORD IS THERE:
NOW LET 1T BE DRAWN
lChicago Inter ocean,

Congressman Lands of Indiana, in
his Marquette club speech, clearly
voiced the American peoples earnest
hope and firm resolution. "We will, )"
he said of the imperative duties laid
upon the coming Congress, ''go after
the red flag. Congress will convene
in less than two months, and l be-
ieye that before the holidays a bill
will be enacted into a law that will
enable the people of this republic to
crush the life out of these social and
political reptiles. "
These words have the right ring.
They embody concrete proposal to
deal with an unbearable grievance.
For what is the situation of the Ameri-
can people today? The wild beasts
that slew their chosen leader grin at
them in inSOlent defiance and daily
plot new crimes. And the American
people, unless they break their own
laws, are helpless. They must endure
the threats, they must submit to
the insolence of pack of murderers.
William Mckinley is dead and bur-
led, and the wretched tool of his
aSsassins is doomed to die. But what
of the asSaSSinS themSelveS-thoSe who
counseled and instigated the crime?
''The only way" as Mr.. Lands we'll
said, ''to lay hands on the wretch at
Spring Valley is to arrest him for pub
fishing lottery advertisement. And
that creature without sex, who set
that coward S brain on fire, is turned
loose on the streets of Chicago and
protected by the very system to whose
destruction the efforts of her life are
dedicated"
To Snch petty SubterfugeS, to such
feeble attempts. to guard against
asSasSins, to such manifest failure
and mockery of justice, are the Ameri-
can people condemned by their very
virtues. If they were not the most
patient, long-suffering, and law-abid-
ing people in the world they would
before this have risen in righteous
wrath and exterminated every pro-
feSSor of the creed of murder.
And i'm the face of these facts,
with the laws made for civilized men
visibly perverted for the protection of
murderouS wild beasts, there are still
those who preach federation" and
''sympathy"and "humane generosity"
to incorrigible murdererS. But from
behind all this sentimental sobbing,
all this exhortation to recite the be-
attitudes and the commandments to
rabid wolves and thus hope torestrain
their fury, one grim issue is plain.
Anarchy counsels, instigates, leads
to, and is, nothing but murder. Shall
we continue, under any pretext what
ever. to tolerate murder?
That is the real issue before the
American people, and to that ques-
ton there can be but one answer
federation is very beautiful, but when
they are asked to extend its benefits
to murder, tho American people ans
wer, "Nol"
Yet when thus made war upon by
murderers, the peoples hands are tied
by their own laws. They look to
Congress to release them from their
own laws. They look to Congress to
release them from their bonds, to free
them from the shame wherewith the
anarchist has blackened their faces.
They ask their Congress, against
those who have drawn upon them the
sword and sworn their destruction, to
arm them with the sword. They ask
that legal form and sanction be given
to their exercise of the inalienable
right of self-defense. The sword is
there. 1t is the military law. 1t
has too long slept in its sheath. Let
it be drawn.