Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-08-08
GETTING HYSTERICAL.

One thing should be clearly under
stood. Thomas E. Watson or any other
citizen of Georgia, or of any other
state, has perfect right to seek to
test the constitutionality of the selec-
tive draft law in the courts of the
land It is the right of any citizen to
bring about a test of any new law, to
tie end that its constitutionality may
be passed upon by tribunals clothed
with authority to so determine
But neither Thomas E. Watson nor
any other citizen has the shadow of
right to stir up opposition to the gov
ernment's military activities as that
deposition is finding expression in
some parts of the country. 1t is one
thing to secure Interpretation of law
iby orderly process in the courts. 1t is
quite another to tell credulous people
THAT they have right to resist the law
with physical force, if necessary, even
before the question of the laws con-
stitutionality has been determined.
A Waycross dispatch under yester-
days date says there is prospect of
armed resistance to the draft law in
Pierce county. The dispatch sets
forth that
-Four farmers who have boys within
the draft age, and whose boys are
among those to appear for examination
either tomorrow or Tuesday, are alleg-
ed to have purchased arms and am
munition for the express purpose of
resisting any attempt to force their
sons to serve in the new army. The
farmers reside in a community where
lit is said Tom Watson has always had
staunch followers and their attitude is
almost wholly blamed on his articles
declaring the draft law was unconsti-
ltutional and that the citizens did not
haev to obey it,
The man who is responsible for any
such spirit of lawlessness as that
which this Waycross dispatch indicates
as existing in Pierce county deserves
the unsparing condemnation of all
good citizens Not on any ground is
the encouragement of a spirit of open
rebellion to governmental authority to
be justified, and particularly in times
like the present are such activities to
b unsparingly condemned.
But we think the federal authorities
are making the mistake of unduly ex-
aggerating the Importance of anti
draft sentiment save in widely scatter
ed localities. In Oklahoma, for in
stance, and in certain states where the
baleful influence of the l. w. w. has
made itself felt, it has been necessary
to employ force in compelling respect
fer governmental authority In such
cases force is justified.
But it is poor policy, we think, to at
tach much importance to the wild talk
of few individuals who wave Tom
Watsons Jeffersonian in the face or
the public sentiment and predict the
failure of the draft. Even an anti-draft
meeting is not particularly menacing
affair, and if all such convocations had
been completely ignored by the public
we would be hearing nothing of them
now.
Let the followers of MIR. Watson
raise as big an attorneys fee as they
please AS long as the contributions
continue to come in the list will re-
main open. Let the test case be
brought 1t will be decided in due
season, and the fellows who are MAX
! ing so much noise over the selective
draft will be no worse off than they are
now, except for what they gave to pay
/ their lawyers.
The draft is going to stick 1t is
constitutional, ii is right, it is fair, and
/ it has behind it the moral sentiment Of
/ the nation. Those who oppose it are
either honestly mistaken or wholly
/ lacking in patriotism. The one class