Lower coast gazette., 1913-06-21
NATIONAL NEWS.

Up in West Virginia they have a
coal strike and they have an armored
train which made one violent trip in.
to the coal mine district and poured
shot into the tented cities of the strik-
ers, where few of the men congregat.
ed, ut each tent had its family full Of
women and children. The State of West
Virginia allowed that and a Senator
from West Virginia, who knew that
such things were founded on truth,
though colored by the excited imagi-
nation OF tho victims vino committed
no sin Of exaggeration, SO terrible
was the terror that these legalized
bandits spread with shots through the
white canvas cities of women who
could only do as women-work-and
children, who yet believed in God and
thought the world was good. The
United States Senator, under pretense
of defending the honor of his State,
defends the criminality of numbering
mine owners, and forgets that the
murdered were his people and that
his people wanted right. And behold
the sad spectacle of a man whose po-
sition is honorable sweating blood in
dishonest effort to set the seal of in
nOcence On the numbering marked
mine operators! State endowed mill
tary operations-for, to uphold these
men the militia was sent against these
people who were d~isorderly-to restore
order, while law-abiding armored
trains showered death on guiltless wo-
men and guileless children. The Unit
ed States Senate concludes to investi-
gate. and then there is a fear express
ed that 1t can do nothing because the
obliging law is so framed that nothing
can be done. In these expressed in
completeness Of law wealth finds re-
fuge, and lawmakers know this. Yet
lawmakers let linger as laws these
wealth-Written measures. An ex-mine
guard, Lee Calvin, tells the story Of
the trip of the armored death.train.
He tells Of the expressed desire of the
men of the train to return after they
had raked the little village Of the strik-
ers and one man had been killed be-
side his home. His mistaken story
startles the striped souls Of the coal
mine owners and an army of lawyers
is recruited for the battle whose YER
dict may save a State. whose filthy
decision may wreck a nation. In
courts are decided questions upon
whose truth or falsity vital principles
are suspended. Championing the truth
may breathe new hope and spirit into
these men and make them better. But
falseho0d may do almost anything the
en0rmity of which is infinite and it
will breed despair and detection and
will make these men secede from our
nation in spirit and there will be many
others who will suffer the submission
but reject the task of defending feu-
dial government which has forgot them
and turns to the enemy at the first
call against their country. They will
be called traitors by historians who
can never understand that govern
ment is an institution whose duty is
the betterment Of the people and that
when government fails Of It's purpose
it f0rfeits its right to life and glory
and should be killed and buried with
those other nations which since Adam
have been led to betray the trust Of
the people, who, in time, revenged
themselves. So will it be with Amer
lea if it throw up its hands in an ex-
preston Of weakness, and so should
it be, and God wills it.
Women can vote in Illinois.