The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-07-24
Traitor and Spy Afflicted
Country to Be Given Wig
orous and Effective Med
icine of Lead.
START A CLEANING UP
Russia ls Full OF German Piotters
Who Are Being Run Down
and Weeded
Out.

[By William G. Shepherd, United
Press Staff Correspondent
PETROGRAD, July 24.-Russia will
shoot down as traitors the mutineers
In her armies and the German spies
In her cities. :,
Clothed with unlimited powers.
the new peoples cabinet was prepar
ed today to invoke measures OF blood
shed to stop the rout OF the south
east army and to clean out the nests
Of German provocators scattered
throughout the nation. Premier ker-
ensky, arriving at the front today,
was expected to order loyal troops
without mercy to shoot down such OF
their fellow soldiers who yielded 70
German propaganda and started the
mutiny
The rigorous policy Of repression
of traitors and Of German sympathiz-
ers is the peoples own plan. The all
Russia workmen's and soldiers anu
peasants congresses formally ap-
prove 1t. A proclamation declaring
all who disobey the provisional gov
ernment's battle orders will be re-
garded as traitors and cowards, and
"shown no mercy" was issued today.
Petrograd is hoping that Kerensky
will again perform miracle at the
front. With Tarnopol gone and the
Teutonic armies pushing forward on
q front of close to forty miles, the
whole Of the great Russian line as
far north as Pinsk is menaced. Turn
ing OF the Russian flank may be at
tempted To avert disaster, the
Russian troops must be reformed, the
malcontents weeded out or shot and
firm stand made.
Not alone on the front is the new
policy of determination Of undesi--
aJbles, of traitors and pro-Germans to
be carried out. Today in Petrograd
strong forces OF soldiers and special
agents began a systematic uprooting
of the German spy system as we'll as
a sorting out of all suspicious troops.
The first machine gun regiment was
disarmed. Four hundred machine
guns and truck loads of military sup
plies were seized. The regiment It.
self marched to Winter Palace square
and formally surrendered. 1t was
transferred to new barracks and will
shortly be sent to the front. Parts
Of this regiment were among those
who participated in last weeks riot
ing in Petrograd.
The existence of a huge German
plot to overthrow the new democracy
by a counter revolution, was defin-
itely proved today in wholesale ar.
rests in the capital. 1t was German
money that melted anarchists last
week to treason; it was German
agents and provocators at the front
who led the mutiny in the army.
The German plot for a counter
revolution must have been forming
for months. Millions have been
spent in Matching the scheme. Among
several hundred anarchists and rev.
olutionaries Of scant means and no
income who were seized today, the
authorities found large sums of
money. None had less than 300
roubles ($15O) and many carried sey-
eral thousand.
! But from out OF the shock Of this
German perfidy, Premier Nerensky
emerged today stronger than ever.
He is now clothed with all the pow
ers of an absolute ruler-a mark Of
universal public confidence.
1--WE are glad the storm broke so
soon," declared Mrs. Emmelyne
Pankhurst, England's suffragette
leader, today. I'VE had known it was
gathering for weeks. We knew the
Germans We're at work. but how or
where their Vaccinations would
break out. no one knew.
Gas an American, you can see
from this situation what we had to
fight against in England. God only
knows how many English lives were
lost because England permitted the
Germans to remain working in our
midst. You in America will find
sooner or 1ater-perhaps at terrible
cost-that you must lock up every
German sympathizer."
Even with the new policy Of run
fcon+gnred on napa sN