The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-10-12
TREASON AND DISLOYALTY
BY Thomas W. Gregory Attorney the United states

we uglt. Our own ldl AhAiO -
bound up in this pledge. Our honor
demands that it be met to the fuil
measure. From the time congress
and the president thus spoke for US
it became the duty, moral and legal,
of each of us to abate nothing tina.
Law within his power to make our
pledge good. Whatever our views,
whatever our sympathies heretofore
had been, the quarrel was now our
quarrel, and we must be true to it IN
order to be true to ourselves. That
this meant that some of us must
break with cherished memories, with
friends, home, and kindred, can not
matter. So broke our fathers, who
gave us our liberties; so must We
break to preserve them. The man
who Is unwilling to make that sac
rifice is unworthy the liberties he en-
joys and is unwelcome in our midst.
The sovereign people of the United
States have willed that our every
available resource of men and INDUS
try must play it's part in winning
this war, and no head is too high or
too low to wish to escape the heavy
hand of our sovereign necessity.
l have spoken thus far, not OF the
legal penalties which attach to OBJ.
struction and disloyalty to this gov
eminent. but of the broad political
and moral elements of our situation
and of the considerations OF 1nteg.
rity and honor which must impei us
to loyalty to our cause and compel
our active aid and support l have
done this because after all our safe
ty lies not in penal statutes, but in a
realizing sense of righteous cause,
a firm resolution to do our full duty,
and an understanding that. we fight
for the liberties of ourselves, our
families, and our posterity. l have
purposely moved slowly and with
caution in invoking the strong arm
of the law for seeming disloyalty, be-
lieving that more mature considera-
ton would show the occasional agi-
tator that he was wrong and the rest
of us were right. However, l shall
not be half measured in undertaking
the control of those who persist in
their disloyaky and Screenings
against the government and its pur
poses.
The federal government is not
powerless to handle such malcon-
tents. Amongst other offenses, it
can prosecute those who willfully
make or convey false reports or false
statements, when the United States
is at war, with intent to interfere
with the operation or success of the
military or naval forces Of the fed
eral government, or to promote the
success of our country's enemies.
also those who willfully cause, or
attempt to cause, characterization,
disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal Of duty,
or willfully obstruct the recruiting or
enlistment service of the United
States; also those who unlawfully
combine or conspire to impede, OBJ
struct, or prevent the execution OF
the laws of the United States; also
those who undertake to overawe the
officers of the United States in per-
forming their duties either by direct
intimidation or threats, or by injur-
ing their persons or property; also
those who engage in seditious con-
spiracies to overthrow or levy war
against the government or forcibly
oppose its authority.
The recently enacted espionage act
is designed, among other things, to
punish spies, regulate the use Of the
mails, and punish those who abuse
that use.
The provisions of the selective
draft act provide punishment for
those who fail or refuse to register,
or hinder or obstruct the enforce
ment of that act
Treason defined by the constitu-
ton as consisting only in levying war
against the United States, or in ad-
herring to their enemies, giving them
aid and comfor) Is punishable by
death, and the other offenses men
toned by severe and just penalties.
The federal government can find
in existing statutes and others now
pending before congress power to
handle any situation likely to arise
because of the ill-advised activities
of disloyal agitators.