The Climax-Madisonian. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1914-1917, 1915-12-08
NATIONS SECRET FOES
SHOULD BE CRUSHED.

SHOULD BE CRUSHED.
cravest Danger to Country Comes
From Within Our Own Borders.
have spoken to you today. gentle
men. upon single theme. the thor
ough preparation Of the nation to care
for its own security and TO make sure
OF entire freedom to play the Impair
tial role in this hemisphere and in the
world which we all believe to have
been providentiaIly assigned to It.
have had In my mind no thought Of
any immediate or particular danger
arising out of our relations with other
nations. We are at peace with all the
nations of the world. and there is rea-
son to hope that no question in con-
troversy between this and other gov
ernments will lead to any serious
breach of amicable relations, grave as
some differences of attitude and policy
have been and may yet turn out to be-
] am sorry to say that the gravest
threats against our national peace and
safety have been uttered within our
\
United States, ! blush to admit. born
under other flags, but welcomed under
our generous naturalization laws to the
full freedom and opportunity OF Amer
lea, who have poured the poison of dis
loyalty into the very arteries Of our
national life, who have sought to bring
the authority and good name Of our
government into contempt, to destroy
our Industries wherever they thought
1t effective for their vindictive pur-
poses to strike at them and to debase
our politics TO the uses Of foreign In
trigue. Their number is not great as
compared with the whole number Of
those sturdy hosts by which our ma
ton has been enriched In recent gen.
erations out OF virile foreign stocks,
but it is great enough to have brought
deep disgrace upon us and to have
made it necessary that we should
promptly make use OF processes Of law
Lby which we may be purged OF their
corrupt distempers.
America never witnessed anything
like this before. 1t never dreamed it
possible that men sworn into Its own
citizenship, men drawn out of great
free stocks such as supplied some Of
the best and strongest elements of that
little, but how heroic. nation that in a
high day OF old staked its very life to
| free itself from every ENHANCEMENT
that had darkened the fortunes of the
older nations and set up new stand
ard here-that men OF such origins and
such free choices of allegiance would
ever turn in malign reaction against
the government and people who had
welcomed and nurtured them and seek
to make this proud country once more
| a hotbed of European passion A lit
tie while ago such a thing would have
seemed incredible. Because 1t was in
credible we made no preparation fol
it We would have been almost
ashamed to prepare for 1t, as II we
were suspicious of ourselves. our Owl
comrades and neighborsi But the ugly
and incredible thing has actually come
i about, and we are without adequate
| federal laws to deal with It. I urge
| you to enact such laws at the earliest
| possible moment and feel that in doing
so am urging you to do nothing less
than save the honor and self respect
of the nation. Such creatures OF pas
sion, disloyalty and anarchy must bt
crushed out They are not many. but
they are infinitely malignant. and tho
hand of our power should close ovel
them at once. They have formed plots
to destroy property. they have entered
into conspiracies against the neutrality
of the government. they have sought
to pry into every confidential trans
action OF the government I'm order t.
serve interests alien to our own. 1t l:
possible to deal with these things very
| effectually. I need not suggest tbs
terms in which they may be dealt with
wish that 1t could be said that onl.
few men. misled by mistaken sent
ments of allegiance to the government
under which they were born. had beef
guilty OF disturbing the self possession
and disappearing the temper ant
principles of the country during thes'
days of terrible war. when 1t would
seem that every man who was truly al
American would instinctively make /
his duty and his pride to keep thu
scales of Judgment even and prove him
self a partisan of no nation but hi
own. But it cannot. There are SOM
men among US and many residen
abroad who, though born and bred II
the United States and calling them
selves Americans, have so forgotten
themselves and their honor as citizen
as to put their passionate sympath.
with one or the other side in the grea
European conflict above their regar'
for the peace and dignity of the Unite'
States. They also preach and practic
disloyaIty. No laws, / suppose. cal
reach corruptions of the mind an,
heart. but should not speak of other
without also speaking OF these and ex
pressing the even deeper humiliation
and scorn which every self possesses
and -thoughtfully patriotic American
must feel when he thinks OF them an,
of the discredit they are daily bringing
upon us.
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