Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1914-02-19
A Correction.
Editor Enterprise:

! In the Lower Payette" items o.
; your issue of the 18th l find the fol
lowing in the report of the Socialist
lecture at Dist. No. ON Monday
} might. preceding: ''The old parties
were attacked as usual and George
Washington was represented as hav
, ing stolen 10000 acres of land, alb
| solute anti-patriotism was the gen
: eral trend of the lecture"
, Now l have taught in both the pub
lie schools and in an academy, have
edited two newspapers, and written
extensively for many others and
think l am familiar enough with En-
gGsh language to understand the i'm
port of common ordinary talk, and
if that lecturer uttered a word,
Iphrase or sentence that by any
stretch of the Imagination could be
construed as unpatriotic l simply
don't understand my mother tongue,
neither do l think anyone else, who
heard that lecture, except the writer
quoted above, understands plain En-
glish. AS for the statement about
Washington, having stolen 10000
acres of land, do not think any pat
riotic American will object to that
whea properly understood Whatever
Land Washington took he had to take
from the British government, and at
that day, and I think ever since, any
thing that an American could put ov-
err on the English government and
get away with it was considered, not
only patriotic, but rather cute.
Aside, therefore, from patriotic mo-
tives, Washington had an additional
incentive to fight for. there was
price upon his head for taking land
and some other slight irregularities
that the English thought him guilty
of. This was what the speaker was
trying to explain.
Neither was there any personal
abuse in this lecture. He stated at
the beginning that Socialists had no
personal quarrel with any ones that
the system under which we are living
compels men to do things that are
not right and as a matterof self-pre-
servation they must do them or per-
ish. He gave the clearest calculation
of the formation of the trusts 1 ev-
err heard; telling how they were
formed, and why; what they are do
ing and why they have to do the
things they are doing, following close
ly the lines of evolutions as outlined |
by all political economists regard
less of politics. His remarks along |
these lines could be appropriately in
corporated into the speech of any |
one who opposes special privilege.
His explanation of real patriotism
was the best 1 have ever heard. In
a word it was humanity and the
brotherhood of man above everything
else. He stated that when a work
ing man left his family and shoulder
I'd his gun to fight to protect the
of Rockefeller, Morgan, Car
legie or any other exploiter, he was
lot patrioti but fool, and l say
Amen to that and l think anyone
Else with spoonful of brains will
'ay the same But if this country
aver confronts real danger, that
threatens our national existence the
speaker said every man Jack of a
Socialist would be on the spot ready
o fight. But fighting in such wars
s the Spanish-American or Boer
var in South Africa, is not patriot
SIN in any sense and no well inform
ID person will now contend that it {
5. If the capitalists want their I
Dot defended let them set their fat S
arcasses up to stop some bullets.
hey are glib enough talking pat {
iotism when they want fool working
len to do their fighting but you new l
r see any of them on the firing {
ne. l can not sum up this speak
rs explanation of patriotism bet
sr than to quote a stock phrase
lat we see in nearly all political
latforms, "The greatest good to the
reatest number"
Now misrepresentation will not
OPP Socialism. 1t must be met
18th something more than abuse. n
is here and here to stay, and the
sst thing for all to do lis to study
and know what they are talking
'out when discussing it. j. w. G.
,ringstun.