Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1918-06-14
GANG SHOWS TEETH
TO STATE GRANGE

the executive committee of the Wash
ington State Grange, contained in a
memorial to President Wilson, and
printed on another page of this issue
of the Standard. The Grange enters
protest against unlawful acts of
official and private citizens of Walla
Walla with the Grange as target,
while the Grange members were in
vited guests of the city.
That such an occurrence as that
which has taken place in Walla
Walla was to be expected has been
foreseen by thoughtful people, OBJ
serving the campaign of misrepre-
sentation and intolerance which has
been waged ceaselessly by shyster
politicians, financial pirates and edi-
torial sycophants. In spite of repeat
ed warnings by President Wilson
and other high officials of the gov
eminent, sinister interests continue
to insist upon their tools going the
whole hog in the effort to sandbag
into silence any who assume to bat
an eye in protest against the inter-
ests' domination of matters political,
industrial, financial and social.
The occurrence at Walla Walla is
a rather raw example, but it is an
example of what the people may ex-
pect when they allow a certain ele-
ment in a community to seize the
reins of authority and use the power
thus given them wholly for personal
ends.
1t is possible that the ardent pa
triots" of Walla Walla have over
reached themselves. In spite of the
efforts of the subsidized press to
excuse and cover 'up the outrage
against the Grange, the incident &C
tually places before responsible OH
Gals of the state and nation case
of Hobsons choice. In the settle
ment of this complaint of the Grange
the authorities must either fish or
cut bait. And looking at 1T from
this angle, it might be said that the
wrong done the State Grange has its
conversations. 1t will emphasize
the necessity of prompt measures to
snub this wave of Intolerance and
criminality, and thus save our COM
munities from the deluge of reprisals
that are inevitable II mob rule Is to
be touted as exuberant patriotism
and tolerated by public ohicials.
The Grange yet has an important
role to play. There is no excuse Tor
an apologize demeanor on the part
of the Grange. Whether or not the
Grange Endorsed the Non-Partisan
League has absolutely nothing to do
with the case. The only question rs
the deliberate and premedItated IN
vasion OF the plain and unquestioned
rights Of citizens of the common
wealth. For Grange members 10
hem and haw and feeb1y protest That
there was no intent to do what they
had a perfect right to do II they
wished, il but to play the game &C
cording to rules laid down ny the
enemy. The position OF the Grange
seems impregnable and It WIFI prove
,, SO II their cause is not weakened by
Ir~actionaries and policy-players WIN
in the order. And the outrage VIII
have the effect of bringing into the
liuelight the standpatters and trim
mers as well as the worthy members
OF the Grange movement.
Speaking of the acts OF the 10y
atty League mob of Bisbee, Orizona'
Governor Hunt says:
"A mob-I use the word advisediy
"a mob of nearly two thousand men
directed by county authorizes
whose sworn duty it was to suppress
such lawlessneSs-organ not as
mpbs are wont TO do, under the spur
OF justifiable indignation or SELL
righteous anger, but with indian-like
stealth, under the cover OF darkness,
calmly, premeditatedly, deliberately,
and swooped down at dawn upon the
homes of unsuspecting. unofending
miners who had committed no vio-
lence. nay more, who had threatened
no violence, but who had every law
full reason to feel secure as citizens
under the guarantees vouchsafed by
the constitution of the United States
and the state of Arizona. BY sheer
force OF arms this constituencies MOB
of copper company thugs violated, at
one and the same time, the sacred
tenets of our republic and the sane
tity of the American home.
with all the brutal abandon
of the unconscionable Hun. they
dragged husbands out of their wives
embrace. ruthlessly disengaged the
arms of little, terrified children from
about their fathers necks. thrust
mothers and sons apart, and offered
coarse insults to the wives and
daughters of honest wOrkingmen. In
this execrable manner, without
vestige of justification or legality.
nearly twelve hundred unarmed
workingmen were driven at the point
of gun from their homes to the
public square, later to be herded.
like so many beasts of the field. into
freight cars and transported into the
deserts of an adjoining state.
During that enforced journey,
the hapless victims of copper COM
pany vengeance were virtually with
out food or drink, Notwithstanding
the heat of an Arizona summer. and
ctoOd Gu long in ono pOvitiou IN tho