Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-09-22
SHAMEFUL AND HUMlLIATING

million men are enrolled in the army and navy OF
the United States. Thirty thousand Of the new Nation
al army are now in their cantonments, and a quarter Of
a million more are leaving for the camps at this time.
Regiment after regiment Of the national guard is being
called out. and on Monday the North Dakota regiments
will be entrained for their destination near the Atlantic
coast. Units Of the regular army. of the engineer corps,
of the medical corps and Of other branches of the service
are nowin France, some of them actually on the field of
battle, others preparing as rapidly as they, can. Within
a few months two million Americans will be under arms
on the European continent or1in training in the United
States preparatory to going to the front. These men are
the finest that can be found in America. Young, strong
and vigorous, they represent American manhood at it's
best. Whether they volunteer individually or wait for
the formal call of their government under the cpnscrip-
ton law, they represent Americas answer to the call of
the world for help in the fight against the determined
effort Of the greatest military powers to subvert human
liberty and impose it's will upon the nations. IS
And, while these gigantic forces are being marshall
ed, while young men are bidding farewell to their homes
and closing up their affairs for indefinite absence, while
mothers weep at parting from their loved ones, and faith
.ers grinly force back the tears that dim their eyes, while
patriotic men and women everywhere are doing their ut
most to cheer the departing soldiers, to facilitate their
proper equipment, and to shape things in such a manner
that the war will be shortened as much as possible and
the return of our men to their homes will be hastened-
while all this is going on, we have the spectacle of a great
gathering in the capital Of a great state devoting its time
to a program whose very essence is disloyalty, and whose
method, adopted as a subterfuge in order to keep from
being barred from the state, is to carp and equivocate.
to criticise and censure, to discredit the government Of
the country and to aim a knife at the back Of every man
who wears the nations uniform.
Look over the list Of speakers at the ST. Paul con-
ference and consider what they said. Townley, political
boss and master Of ceremonies, bitter, sarcastic, brim-
ming over with venom: Frazier. ttular governor of "a
great state and abject tool of the power that made him;
Baer, a bubble in a pile of froth, swept into office by
forces which he is powerless to control, menacing the
government with force and fury If the demands which
he sees fit to make are not met: LaFollette, selfish ego
fist, barking back to the days of the Lusitania and re-
peating the shameful, sordid doctrine that 1t was the
business of the United States to abandon even the pre-
tense OF protecting human rights in order that her own
blood might not be spilled and her own treasure spent;
Gronna, the pitifuI echo ola stronger mind and keener
intellect, Jester to La Toilette without the testers wit;
Young, who seems to have abandoned an honorable at
titude to drift with the stream. and whose conception of
helping his government is to create distrust Of one of the
governments chief administrators; Van Lear, whose name
is a kissing and a fby-word in the city in which he is
mayor; these. with the motley crew Of pacifists, Social
lists and anarchists who helped to fill out the program
with characteristic utterances-these people have the
ducers and consumers of the northwest, and that their
malodorous program was prepared in the public interest
and for the purpose of aiding in the winning Of the war.
The people who were responsible for that meeting,
and most of those who appeared on the program, have
consistently sought to embarrass the government at ev-
cry turn, and presently, when our men are actually in bat
tie: when their exposure to the risks Of war is needlessly
drawn out; when death tinvades their ranks and sorrow
reigns at home, then will American fathers and mothers
have bitter cause to remember the men who are carrying
on a campaign of which the st. Paul meeting Is merely
a part.