The Redwood gazette., 1918-03-27
THE REDWOOD GAZETTE REDWOOD FALLS, MINNESOTA

While this death dealing brute is loose upon
the earth there is no safety for anyone.
And that is just in line with the point that
we started out to make.
The only safety lies in travelling along the
line of law and order.
When one individual presumes to pronounce
the acts of another criminal, and proceeds to
punish accordingly, then we have state of an
arehy, a state of lawlessness, a state of bar
barrie savagery.
Law and order builds up prosperous commu-
mites Lawlessness destroys all that which is
the most dear to civilized man.
That is why every form of violence must be
crushed no matter what is the purpose of it or
what form it takes.
| The man who thinks that he has license to
| beat up another, because the latter's brand of
loyalty does not square with his, is mistaken.
| There is law to take care OF those who are
disloyal and there courts to determine wheth-
er or not they are.
The staggering bully, who goes about salts
| fying his desire for a fight by attempting to
beat up those whom he thinks not quite right
in the matter of their loyalty, has hole in his
own armor of patriotism that he might well put
in little time mending.
Patriotism is doing for ones country not mere
ly shouting for it.
When it comes to doing physical fighting for
your country you better leave that to the SOL
diers-they are fully capable of doing it.
The duty of the civilian is to help keep law
and order in the community where he lives.
To stir UP mob violence, to set people fighting
each other to substitute the force Of the fist for
the might Of the law at this time, is to be guilty
of conduct that instead of helping this country
helps is enemies.
All troubles, all riots, all mobs are instruments
that work for the benefit Of the enemies of our
country.
This is time to keep level head and let
things move along the line of least resistance,
as long as that line is running in the right di-
rection.
Il is the duty of every citizen to take firm
stand for the orderly conduct of affairs. Every
man who wants to take the law into his own
hands should be dealt with like any other law
breaker. Sherffs and the police should not tol-
crate any violence even if the same is done un-
der some pretense Of loyalty. The United States
has commissioned no man to go about punish
ing disloyaty, any other crime. But there
are laws that will take care of all offenders, and
there is ample machinery to put those laws in
motion.
But in order that the occasions for any trou-
BILE along the line mentioned may be lessened
there should be a more strict watch placed up
on those who show signs of dsloyalty.
| Disloyalty should not be tolerated for any
moment. The man who does not stand squarely
for the government and the country should be
reported and dealt with according to +he laws
governing the case.
A little more reporting and little less of the
spirit of 'hell-whang" would get better results.
If there is anything that will throw the fear of
God into the dsloyal migrate, who lives in this
country, it is to find that your Uncle Samuel
has laid his hand on his shoulder.
The disloyal person does not care anything
about your opinion, and as to the physical vio-
lence that you offer, it will have but the effect
of driving him still further into the mire Of
disoyalty.
! You as an individual, have not the right 70
deal with any of these matters alone If you
! find case, of what seems to you to be disloyal-
ty, it is your duty to report the same to the au-
| thorities and to assist them in bringing to JUS
tice the guilty party
| What this country needs is more prosecutions
of disoyal citizens and less of the spirit that
would beat them up kill them as matter
of patriotism or private enterprise
Trust your country to take care of it's enc
mies.-Gunnar Bjornson.