Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-02-21

and everywhere. in countless a v
In countless places, to kill the Ameri.
car enthusiasm for It's war and the
American confidence In our ability to
win this war.
This propaganda is an enormous
thing and a tremendously dangerous
thing. Any man who countenances
1t. any man who apologies for these
traitors. is himself worse than a
traitor to his country today. He sides
with the mlrderers, of innocent wom-
ell and children. He Endorses the
German submarine. the German
bombing of non%.con1batant towns,
the use Of liquid. fire in war, and gas
in war-all those abominable contriv-
many has attempted to impose her
will upon the civilized portion Of the
Copperheads? Ely comparison the
.Copperheads of the. Civil war were
as nothing. We Americans don't
know how many American troops
there are on French soil today--but
Germany knows; be sure OF that.
There is no great move made here,
nor any small move Of military prep
aration. which Germany does, not
know as we'll as we do, or better.
There has never been in the history
of the world so complete a campaign
OF perfdy and ~treachery and UNDER
handed faithlessness as Germany has
shown to the civilized world in this
war. Why he patient with it? Why
not roo it. out? Why not call a
spade a spade IL Copperhead a Cop
pcrhead: And why not give 10 the
Copperheads the things that we owe
to Copperheads, ilst as We did in the
Civil war betimes?
Declare war against Germany?
How can any man, no matter Of
what milk-hued .paeiSsm he may
have come, doubt for a minute that
we had any option in declaring war?
II we had not declared. war we would
have. been Beaten inst as badly as
though we had. We had to fight.
We've got to fight now-and fight on
time to let that conviction sink home.
My father was one Of the old
Know-pothing party which died be-
fore the Civil war. He used to show
me some of the old grips and counter
signs Of that old party, which had u
certain secrecy and mulnmery about
it--possibly cause for its early de-
cline. It, was In thc; basic principle
of the know-nothing party that only
the American born should hold office
AS l look over the roster of munich
pal and county and state officials IN
my own vicinity l am inclined to
think we might have had difficulty
in having any government at all had
it not been for the foreign born! The
hyphen rules in politics in more than
one city.
I have heard the mayor OF Il very
big c%ity--and a. mayor for more than
one term, too-sit. laughing at table
and say, Just before n OF his CAM
sos~r~r tXEyHok 40 I NJ fnS tho
American vote? To ------- with IL:
l want the German vote!"
Well. he got the German vote. He
was elected He could be elected
again by the German vote. But l
fancy that by and by |. is going to he
the question OF n good many of our
nnoMAnclnines. What is the Amer
lean vote? Does that really need TO
include the Copperhead vote?
Now, all these things will come UP
for settling one time or another. |
try, and in Jul rude frontier creed it
was always considered a wise thing
for a man who heard that a fellow
citizen was looking for him with a
gun to put or his own gun and get
in the middle Of the street at once
and have it over with. The man
who evaded the issue never got eth
err the fOre1En-born or native vote IN
our neck. OF the woods. / am not
sure but what the old creed was fair
W. sensible. We are going to have
trouble with the Copperhead element
one time or another--we are having
it now secretly. 1t teens to me that
tthe wise and practical thing to do is
TO dig out all the Copperheads on
our soil and deal with them as they
ought to be dealt with, and do it now
Hyphens should permanently he x
tracted from the system, OF our pop
ulation. What we want or this side
is Americans. Americans who believe
in this war, who think that we ought
10 win this war, and who know that
we are going to win it--and Ameri-
cans who will help in all those things.
To be sure. there has been and will
he considern BILE political and business
risk in a~ntagonizing a. lar~c voting
and buyin~ population. There were
one or two merchants in eur village
in the Civil war who used to think
that the Copperhead trade was worth
retaininR--until they were persuaded
otherwise. The pacifists. the strad-
dlers. the trinrers who try to keep
on both sides of the fence in a time
like this ought to sit down and COM
nun with themselves for just one
half of one minute.