Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-12-26
Friday, December 2e, 1918.
The Calumet Shame!

The world gaSpS IN horror Ut sum
as the Calumet, Mich, Christmas dls-
aster And by it almost every human
emotion but those Of hope and JOY is
aroused. It is hardly safe to analyze
the unconscious passion of every per-
60, with red blood in his veins, to-
ward the fiend who shouted fire"
None but a fool could be guilty OF
snch tbouebtlessness none but an in
toxicated man or lunatic could De
guilty of taking such chances on aw-
full possibilities, and none but Mo-
loch could have been guilty of ma
liciousIy precipitating such tragedy.
But let us leave him to the law or
IN his God: he is beyond our reach. 1t
is with the struggling mass of panic
stricken. suddenly bereft humans
turned back to unreasoning animals,
inside the building, that we have TO
deal. And yet 1t would seem useless
after this demonstration and such as
the upbuilding of rational intelligence
in the average human being in time
of stress. 1t requires but the single
alarming cry to turn a peaceful ana
happy gathering, each filled with love
for all and a spirit of self-sacrifice,
into a shrieking, tearing mob of
frenzied animals, each with but sin
gle thought-self.
At Calumet one calm soul of COM
manding presence and voice might
have breathed sanity into those mad
dened beings and have saved scores
of lives-lives of innocent children
gathered to commorate in joy and
giving joy, the birth of the Saviour.
One can hardly suppress a feeling
of contempt for the pitifuI inhumanity
of it all; the calling of human
bluff" the instant shrinking of boast
ed human yalor to the insane tram
pling of innocent flesh.
From smiles of approval and pleas
ure, strong men changed in the flick
of an eyelid to fighting. snarling
Berserkers, charging over women and
children to escape a suggested awful
fate which none of their senses had
pointed out to them. They had neith-
er seen, felt, smelled or heard the
ar1 a.
They were the victims of an awful
hoax and were willing to take inno-
cent human life in order to quickly
prove their culpability.
The smaller and weaker went down
first and cruel heels ground little
forms to pulp. Oh, the cowardliness
and the utter foolishness of it all
causes manhood to blush with shame
and women to silently pray. What
emotions must wrench at the soul of a
man who has felt his cowardly foot
crushing the life out of an innocent
babe!
And the populace, In its excitement
even talked of lynching the man who
started the whole pitiful tragedy! II
he had been known undoubtedly they
might. in their unreasoning folly, have
added to their sins. 1t is quite prob,
able that the man who yelled fire"
was drunk. First reports said that his
breath smelled of liquor And yet they
would have burned at the stake the
thing they had made. 1t is true that
he had voluntarily set about putting
himself in that condition, as all
around us men are doing every day,
and we tolerate it--even our govern
ment participates in the returns.
The United States government de-
rives revenue from the blood of 72
human beings wantonly massacred at
Calumet. oh. yes, it is a wonderful
system of control" of, and revenue
from, the Devils business. We turn
men into lunatics and fiends for rev
enue." and We pay for our revenue"
in the lives, the honor, the misery of
the weak and unfortunate among us
But may God forgive us for this--that
the great majority of the victims are
innocent children and helpless women!
Selfish interests and shrunken little
souls will explain and point out how
and why, but Gods way of showing
us our unending folly and inhumar
attributes are as clear TO the sane ant
edy as is the lesson of Sodom, afte,
the contemplation of thousands o.
years.