The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-01-23
CITIZEN SOLDiERY.

CITIZEN SOLDiERY.
| The Importance of a militia, compos-
/ ed of citizens, in the United States,
can hardly be exaggerated. 1t is dis
tinctly in the interest of domestic peace
| and furnishes a reservoir for the pro-
| duction of trained soldiers in case of
war. 1t backs discipline with intel
/ Iigence and with patriotism and, when
i enforcement of the law. This country
needs only limited standing army.
! for. as in the Civil War and in the
war with Spain, out of the militia and
volunteers, habituated to the restrained
use of arms, all the soldiers required
can be speedily drawn and an aggres-
sive or defensive force modified.
The American militia has been noted
for it's intense devotion to the flag and
all it symboIizes. 1t represents neither
capital nor labor distinctively, but the
nation with it's institutions, it's consti-
tuition and it's laws. In Illinois, in
Pennsylvania, in Colorado, and in other
States and Territories, it has exhibited
it's moderation and it's efficiency. In
the event of a foreign war or of in
ternal broils, neither of which is at
present threatened, the territorial mill
tia would be a guarantee of protection.
1t is we'll manned we'll drilled and es-
sentially patriotic.
In the New York Independent, within
a few weeks, Jack London wrote: mo
workman can be true to his class and
at the same time be a member of the
militia-this is the dictum of the labor
leaders" ITO be member of
the militia is to be a traitor to the !
union, for the militia is weapon !
moulded by the employers to crush the /
workers in the struggle between the |
warning groups
These of course are not the views of |
Mr.. London himself, but his interpreta-
ton of the views of labor organiza-
tions. as enforced by their leaders.
They are grossly inaccurate and unjust
and are founded upon an obvious false
hood. The militia is equally Indifferent
to labor and to capital, as such, al
though its members naturally, as ali
intelligent Americans do would sym
pathize with labor and with it's legiti-
mate combinations, pursuing lawful
ends by lawful means. With them it I
has never interfered. But it has prop
erly been employed TO prevent or queI !
for which, not the mass of
or their properly ORGAN
lied unions, but fraudulent and Iawless
delegates, were responsible.
Capital, never, or rarely, has attempted
to break the law by the use of force.
It's ordinary methods are lawful, and,
when it seeks illegal ends, it resorts 20
fraud and bribery, which the ordinary
tribunals of the country, as the last
year has demonstrated, are both able
and ready to expose, to arrest and to
punish. Corruption, however, is not
confined to capital but has, been prac-
Used by assumed representatives of Ia
Dor. The law is equally competent to
Zeal with either.
The Socialists in Germany tried to
the German army, but they
ANONYMOUSLY failed. In the United ,
States, the militia so far has proved ,
tself above contamination by illegal
lggressiyeness, no matter from what
source it enanated. If capital sought
o resist by armed Hessians the execu- ,
ion of a judicial decree, and the ordi-
lary power of the law was inadequate
o it's enforcement, the militia would
espond with the same deliberate inn
,artiality which it has always exhibit .
ID when outrages were perpetrated, in :
he name of unionized labor but with
'ut it's genuine sanction, upon non
lniQn wage-earners.
There is no class of citizens, to whom
he law and the flag should be more
acred than workmen, whether skilled
n unsliiled. No man is above the law :
nd all men need the law, honestly and {
earlessly administered, for their pro- I
ection. In our history. the militia has
My been used, when necessary, for
he enforcement of law, and it has
lever yet proved recreant to its trust
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