The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-09-22
LA FoLLETTE'S FIRE IN
TILE DEAD


cause Of humanity itself"
LA FoLLETTE'S FIRE IN
THE REAR.
Minneapolis Journal Robert NJ. La
Toilette, fugleman of sedition. was
permitted in ST Paul to make a
speech more disloyal more treason
able, than the utteranCes that have
landed lesser pro Germans in prison
and sent them into internment.
The privilege of a United States
senator. which makes him account
able only to the senate for what he
says on the floor of the senate, did
not protect him. He went to the ex-
treme limit of nti-Americanism and
pro- Germanism. He denounced the
war and every important step that
has been taken in supporting it.
He justified the sinking Of the
Lusitania. and strOve to make it Np-
pear that America is in the war be-
cause of that act. He repeated the
familiar German sophistries that the
Americans murdered on the Lusi-
tania had no right to be there, be-
cause she carried munitions. But he
ignored the numerous other cases of
American ships carrying no NUM-
nothing to say of Germany's final
notice that she would sink all ships,
enemy or neutral. whatever they
carried and whithersoever bound,
that entered a certain area.
Addressing a conference which
had just adopted with cheers a set
Of resolutions supporting the war as
our war;" and endorsing the Presi-
dents answer to the Pope, Senator
La Toilette elected more cheers by
his wild and whirling words of trea-
not arrested. His defiance of the
agents of the government went I'M
rebuked. Why?
Three governors refused to permit
the Peoples Council to hold its con-
gress of treason. and loyal Ameri-
cans everywhere approved. Yet it
was to utter exactly this sort of Sc
dition that the Council planned it's
gathering 1t expected to have this
same La Toilette present to deliver
the same false and bitter speech he
has now uttered without hindrance.
What is the purpose of La Fol-
lettes talk at this time? 1t will not
stop the war. 1t will not alter the
determination Of the American peo-
pie to see matters through. 1t can
have but one purpose-to give aid
and comfort to the enemy, and that
is treason. 1t will be used to fool and
mislead the German people as to
American sentiment. 1t is a fire in
the rear, a shooting at the backs of
the American soldiers who have gone
and will go to the front.
Has not the time come to put an
end to this sort Of thing?
DEFENDER OF CHILD MURDER.
Duluth Herald: If an l. w. w. or
any other anarchist in a flannel
shirt had got up on a soapbox in a
street in any city Of the United
States. and said what United States
Senator Robert NJ. La Toilette said
last night from the platform, he
would have been arrested and Jailed
inside of five minutes.
He would be getting only what he
had coming to him, too, and in most
cases his Imprisonment would be
most welcome to him because it
would save him from being mobbed.
Yet La Toilette, because he is a
senator of the United States, goes
safely back to continue Decorating
the hall that has resounded with the
voices of great American patriots!
Far more culpable, this man, than
any /. w. w. in whose ignorant mind
the poison of morbid unrest has bred
the maggots of disorder and revolt.
1t is a shame to America, shame to
that the senate of the
United States must harbor a defend
err of the child-murderers who sank
the Lusitania.
Perhaps America and Wisconsin
al 4 EnTw
being no machinery for the recall of
senators. But what of the organiza-
ton that invited La Toilette to speak
and with him Gronna and others
Of his colleagues in the kaiser party
of America?
He Went Over the Top.
The Minneapolis Tribune this
says:
Senator La Toilette Of Wiscon-
sin went over the top and shot the
full bolt Of his deadly poison into
the minds of American citizens at
the closing session of the mis- manned
war-price and war economic con-
ference of the Nonpartisan league in
St. Paul. The cunning had no i'm
mediate dangerous recoil for him,
the leagues leader and
A. c. Townley, had as
sembled the conference under
that any speaker who dared
to utter seditious sentiments would
be choked of and kicked out Of the
hall.
What thea Wisconsin spewer of
pro Teuton sophistry spat out was
precisely what was to be expected of
him in view of the rank un- Ameri-
canism he has displayed in the last
six or seven months. What Townley
failed to do in seeing that his prom
Use was carried out was precisely
what was to be expected Of him in
view of what he has said about
Americas part in the war.
LA Toilette intimated to his audi
ence an expectation that he might be
by somebody before he
reached his train outbound from
Minnesota. Justice would have shed
no tears If he had been stopped. He
had amply earned stopping If that
penalty has been, earned by an
American citizen in this or any other
state.
LA Follette's speech was the cli-
max of a feast OF tainted loyalty,
partaken of by Townley's followers
Of the Nonpartisan league who at
tended the conference. The soil had
been well prepared for the sowing Of
the La Toilette seed. The atmosphere
was right for just the sort Of thing
that happened. The Townley- ties.
the Van T.ears the local disciples Of