American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1916-11-02

apply policies and Judge their effects, may work a
division among entirely sincere and earnest men and
women. 1t is difficult to understand, however, how
there can be any division of sentiment when the life
and liberty of citizens are at stake.
-Four years ago nearly four million people broke
away from their political moorings-many sunderng
long years OF pleasant personal and political assOcia-
ton, for a cause that needed only agitation and time
to remove. No property interests, no widespread
public welfare, no liberties, no lives were at stake.
The division was not so much over policies as to who
should direct those policies. Yet like a cloud out of
a clear sky a great upheaval came and a great party
for the time being was wrecked.
Not denying that there was some cause for unrest
and dissatisfaction, some evils to be corrected, was
there anything comparable to what the citizens of this
country have been compelled to SUBMIT to for the past
two and a half years? If the Republican party could
be split over purely domestic matters that threatened
no one, and that involved no one particularly except
certain groups of leaders, can be called hide-bOund,
what term can be applied to Democrats who defend
their leaders in their failure to protect the very lives
OF citizens of this country, on our own soil as well as
on foreign soil where they have every right to be.
The Press has observed with establishment the at
titude of both men and women of this community,
among whom are included the highest standards of
morality and citizenship in the attitude they have
taken regarding the most vital interests anyone can
have.
There are some things more sacred than life, and
among them are the sancity of wOmanhOOd. Anyone
in or out OF authority, who would not rush to the de-
Tense Of the security of the women of this nation, at
the sacrifice of even life if necessary, reflects no credit
upon citizenship, and adds neither glory nor prestige
to the flag.
The writer believes earnestly and sincerely, that a
great part of the American public has been deferred
from demanding that the government follow the
plain path of duty because it has been denied the in
formation necessary to reach an intelligent decision.
Facts have been withheld, and truth distorted, grave
matters made light OF, until the public has become con-
fused.
The most sacred guarantee of our constitution is
the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
III is the duty OF all governments To secure those and
to defend its citizens, especially upon its own soil, in
their possession. The American government has
signally failed, during the past two and a half years,
to secure these inaleinable rights to her citizens. The
records OF the war department contains the names of
more men who have been killed in Mexico and on our
own soil along the border than we lost in the Spanish
American war. AS many women have been violated
as men have been killed. Yet in order that one of the
great parties may triumph party that has signally
and shamefully failed to perform it's duty-we find
good men and women apologizing for and defending
the head of a government which has failed to protect
them in the most sacred rights they can have.
The writer attended a meeting recently and heard a
most estimable woman sing "The Flag Without a
Stain" and Immediately afterward heard a eulogy of
the head of this government because she had kept us
out OF war; The writer thought of San Ysabel where
twenty-five American citizens, one of them an Ida
hoan, were brutally assassinated; he thought of the
intermittent shooting across the border by drunken
%ruffians, and the dozens of men, women and children
who had suffered death or painful injuries; he
thought of the Columbus raid, where the intention
was to massacre 200 soldiers of the United States, to
massacre the entire population of a village on Amer.
lean soil except such women as might be taken cap
hves and forced into a slavery worse than death. He
thought of Glenn Springs, a ten year old boy and Ave
men killed, two wounded and three missing; of the
finding of two bodies filled with brass tacks from a
shotgun. He thought of Vera Cruz, where arrest of a
few marines caused great affront to the dignity of this
nation, an affront so great as to impel the head of
this government to appeal to congress to use the army
and navy of this nation to enforce a salute to the flag.
He thought of the destruction of that seaport, the
killing and wounding of several hundred Mexicans and
the loss of nineteen of our own men and the wound
ing of eighty more; of the capture of the city, the
seizing of the customs house and the collection of
more than a million dollars in customs duties which
is still being held; and of finally sailing away, leaving
three hundred Americans on shore pleading to be
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