Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1916-12-26
militia had been the football Of iocal
politics.

militia had been the football Of local
politics.
MILITIA USED IN STRIKES.
In the closing debate on the bill SEN
ator Borah strongly limited at plan
in the country to make the militia a
police power of the federal government
for REFRESHING strikers AMI make a
strong speech in opposition - the plan
of the organization bill for utilizing
the national guard.
II called attention the other day."
said Senator Borah. "to the tendency
in this country the last ten or Is years
to call into service upon the slightest
excuse the state militia or the national
guard in these strike matters, matters
which generally have been heretofore
settled without the interference of mil
itary authority. i called attention to
the tendency which had developed of
late years. and especially since we had
undertaken in a measure to federalize
the national guard some eight or ten
years ago.
1.-THE military force Is there; the
1t has seemed to me that by reason of
military organization is at hand; and
its readiness and nearness at hand the
BONcIUOIS u tAC btdtCo heiNC NCNSAoPCo
marked tendency toward calling them
into the service, supplanting the civil
authorities and taking the place of the
civil courts and the civil forces, with
out in many instances any reasonable
justification at all.
IN EMPLOY OF COMPANIES.
Il am not again going to review
those instances; but l do want to call
the attention of the senate to the fact
that I am familiar with one instance in
which the state militia was called into
action, wherein 1t was found after they
were called into action that the cap
tains and lieutenants and colonies and
officers of the guard were practically
all upon the payroll and in the employ
of the companies against which the
strike was proceeding. 1t transpired in
that instance that practically the en-
tire control of the state militia was a
part of the employment and part of
the payroll of the corporations against
which the laboring men were making
their contention.
1T resulted in one of the most dis
graceful episodes tat has character
lied this entire matter from the be-
ginning. 1t naturally followed that 1t
would be so, because those who were
| interested financially, with their pref
| udices and their interests aroused, were
the parties who, under military or
ganization and military authority, had
the right to act as otherwise they
would not have had.
There can be only one kind 81
militarism in our republic. and that is
the mlitarism which arises by reason
of the combination Of the military
power and political power. Men who
are organizing as a military force but
exercise their influence under their or
ganization as a political force consti-
tute the greater menace to our institu-
tions. / have less fear of a standing
army because the people are braced
through inherited prejudices and be-
liefs, they are on their guard against 1T;
but when you take an organization or
ganized for military purposes and al
the same time active through political
channels and for political purposes. II
becomes an organization subject to the
direction and control of the politica
general who may best mobilize the
forces. 1t is not the military genera
who will organize these military forces
but the political general.
SUPPLANTS THE COURTS.
THE old form Of militarisn, the mar
on horseback, the crossing of the Rubi-
con, the coup d'etat-these things arc
ancient and out of style and wholly be-
hind the times. There Is q more mod
ern, more subtle, less risky, and less
suspected method by which modcrr
militarism under the guise of law and
order, as in West Virginia, supplants
the courts and tears down the guar.
antees of personal liberty. 1t subordiH.
ates the civil to the military authority
as happered in the New York conven.
ton when the influence CT the state
r,ilit'a defeated the proposed provisln.
to the constitution providing a jurJ
trial for civilians when the courts were
open. Why should men adopt the ole
method and risk life in an effort tt
subjugate a government or a country
to their will when they can effectuat'
their purposes. fix the amount Of th'
appropriation and shape the Avs.