The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1917-10-18
DIFFERENT MEN HERE"

Editor brown or the ST. petersburg
Independent is on his ear. The other
day the Star printed brief explain
alton as to why it was not whooping
it up for a home guard company in
this county. 1t was strictly local
matter and didn't concern anyone
outside our own county, but Editor
Brown took it on himself to try to
either lecture the Star or abuse Mar
ion or both He wrote a half column
article, headed Different Men Here"
referring to st. Petersburg. We are
not abusing st. Petersburg, which
we've thought was a fine little town,
but we are glad there are some diff
ferent men here, especially different
in the newspaper line from Editor
Brown, who proves by his article that
he can sometimes be very unjust, I'M
kind and untruthful.
Editor Brown says in his article:
"The Star evidently does not be-
lieve in preparedness. 1t would have
/. the counties in this state follow the
plan of this country and wait until
war comes before getting ready to
meet it. In many places in this coun-
try today the county guards are on
duty and performing real service. On
last Friday in Danville, Va, the home
guard was called out but because it
had no guns was unable to do any
thing but preserve order. And the
Star should know that a uniformed
soldier, with gun, is worth dozen
men acting as citizens, especially in
the handling of blacks Pinellas
county does not want to have to rely
on. vigilance committees and mobs, so
has organized the county guard"
In reply we beg to remind Editor
Brown that the Star began working
for preparedness over three years
ago, when it was a hopeless minority
in its own town and county, and kept
it up until the nation came around on
its side. In that time, if Editor
Brown will look back over the files
of his paper, he will find that it was
serenely Indifferent to preparedness.
Editor Brown, who is now major of
the Pinellas home guards, has been
more ferocious in the brief time since
that organization was formed than in
all the years that the country was
drifting unprepared into the whirl-
pool of war. He did little or nothing
to arouse the public to its danger.
We think home guards are meri-
torious organizations and are glad
when company is formed. We have
praised the Pinellas guards and the
Duval guards. and some other COM
panies. But we do not believe that
they are worth ten times their num-
Der of armed civilians acting under
the orders of a police officer. They
might be in the city. In this county,
however, if the sheriff called out
posse, it would be made up of lead
ing and responsible citizens, armed
with guns that they knew how to use;
pretty much the same kind of men,
in short, as those who fought at Lex
ington. When Editor Brown speaks
of such men as vigilance commit
tees and mobs,a he shows an ignor>
ance not only of Marion but other
Florida counties where it hasn't been
necessary to call troops out in over
SeneTdIlOn. 1t must De remember
ed, tho, that Editor-M Major Brown
came here from another state only a
few years ago. and knows compare
lively little about the state or its peo-
pie. He talks about the necessity of
home guards in dealing with blacks.
We have been here twenty-five years,
and in all that time there has been no
trouble with the negroes that the
sheriff and a very ordinary sized
posse couldn't handle. There are
some individually bad negroes in this
county, but the mass of them are
just as quiet and law-abiding as the
whites.
With all respect to the patriotism
of the Pinellas home guards. and the
guards of other counties, we don't
think they would rank very high as
soldiers. They are able to drill on
the streets, about as well as the
Ocala high school cadets, and after
they obtain guns they will in time be
able to go thru the manual of arms
and shoot without hitting each other.
They will lack whole lot of being