The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1917-11-23
TARRED BY THE SAME STICK.

Laughbaum, who recently passed
through the county delivering lectures
ostensibly on behalf of the anti-saloon
league, during the delivery of which
he found opportunity, or made the OPP
portunity, to indulge in language that
has been interpreted by every loyal
citizen who heard him as bordering
upon sedition, will not down, although
it is an unpleasant episode that those
who have the interest of the country
at heart would prefer to forget.
Friends of the Gazette residing at
Nelson report to this office that Rev.
Huff, of that place, defended Mr..
Laughbaum in a sermon Sunday de-
claring that he himself would not con-
tribute to food conservation, and in
cidentally taking fall out of the
newspapers that have had the temer-
ity to criticize Mr.. Laughbaum for the
language he used, declaring that such
papers were stabbing Laughbaum in
the back.
We never resort to the too common
practice of misquoting a speaker, or
writer, Intentionally in order to take
any advantage in controversy and
if we are misinformed as to the tenor
of Rev. Huff's remarks then we are
doing the clerical gentleman an in
justice, but if he has been correctly
quoted to us as refusing to lend aid
to the boys in the trenches by conser-
walton of food only little bit, the at
tention of the United States district
attorney should be called to his case,
for a clergyman who will make such
an assertion will stand watching, for
though he may be long on amens
he is evidently short on patriotism.
He should be placed upon the hlack
list with other. suspicious citizens who
seemingly have more love for a brutal
enemy than the government under
which they live.
Rev. Huff's assertion that the news
papers are stabbing Mr.. Laughbaum
in the back is only cheap defamation.
In almost every town where Mr.
Laughbaum appeared the local press
has denounced his statements as out
and out disloyal, or bordering on dis
loyalty, and the fact that he sowed
seeds that has had the effect of influ-
encing some people not to sign the
food conservation cards is ample evil
dence that his remarks were intended
to embarrass the government in the
effort to conceive food as far as pos
sible. AS the lecturer has neither the
time nor inclination to hang around a
town until after the local paper Is is
sued, it naturally follows that COM
lecture. So far as this paper is con-
cerned the comments it made would
not have been shaded single jot mad
Mr. Laughbaum remained in Oroville
tor a month.
Perhaps Rev. Huff is incapable of
understanding the feelings Of man
who has two boys, dearer to him than
life itself, voluntarily offering their
lives in defense of country that he
may live in and enjoy such degree
OF freedom and opportunity rs Is pre-"
scented nowhere else on Garth. Such q
G'' ihSC oi tuc pal VI tOAlo VuSCE-
ders feeling akin to hate toward any
man who remains smugly at home out
Of reach of danger, and uses every CT
fort to make the lives of those soldier
boys more unsafe. We believe that any
man who is against the government at
this serious crisis in its history,
whether he wears the cloth, whether
he is in high place, whoever or what
ever he is should be treated exactly
as the Germans would treat a traitor
in their midst. This is a time of no
compromise, and there can be no ex-
cuse for or defense of disloyalty. And
if Rev. Huff made the statements 1t Is
alleged he made in the pulpit, then he
is disgrace to the pulpit he occupies
For no man Is Christian at heart, no
man can truly worship God, who is
recreant In his fealty to his country.
From what we can learn Rev. Huff
does not express the true sentiments
of the people of Nelson. We know
many of the residents Of that place
personally, and are free to say they
stands for as the people Of any other
section of the state. Therefore. If Rev.
Huff is preaching disloyalty, and the
refusal to aid the government by the
conservation of food is step in that
direction, he must change the field OF
his endeavor to Germany If he expects
to secure following.