The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-08-01
Class Against Class.
Courier News)

tcour1er-News)
In his charge to the Federal jury at Bismarck
which sat in the Brinton case, Judge Amidon
made some statements that should be pasted
in the hats Of a considerable number OF peo-
pie who are so boisterous in their own patriot
ism that they>seem to think it a part OF their
patriotic duty to cast suspicion on q great
many others.
Judge Amidon referred at considerable
length to the manner in which the charge OF
stirring up class against elias" had been m
jected into the case where it had no proper
place.. The portion Of his charge is OF general
interest, because it is such q stock argument
that the comment is worth reading and re-read-
ing.
hasmuch as the forces Of good and the fore
es Of evil are bound to clash, the lowly Nazarlne
stirred up GLASS against classyV
1t is necessary to stir up class against clas
in order to clean up the slums Of 9 great city.
And it is necessary to a certain extent to STIR
up class against class to bring about any re-
form. The class favoring the reform is certain
to be opposed by the class that is against it,
A struggle for what is right does not Imply that
it is necessary to hate those Of q different opin-
ion. $50
Some of the great statesmen Of this, country
have been warm personal friends but bitter po-
litical opponents. They stirred class against
class to action Q some political issue, but not
class hatred.
People may be stirred to hate a wrong prin-
ciple, and that hatred is born of the love Of
right. It does not by any means include the
people who view the situation from q different
standpoint.
Because Of its application in so many instanc-
es at this time, a portion Of Judge Amidon's
charge is reproduced as follows:
II have been on this earth quite q spell
E v,oxyco1f I 7 ox,o Il ox7o Lrnru1n nf INV or.0qf &
reform being carried thru where the peo-
pie whose established condition would be
disturbed by the carrying out Of the re-
form did not say that the people who were
trying to bring about the reform were stir
ring up class against class.
THAT is an argument that / know to be
at least thirty-ive hundred years old from
my knowledge of history, and it is repeat
ed in every effort to change an existing
condition. The people who are benefited
by an existing condition always say that
the. victims who suffer from it and want
to change it are stirring up class against
class. That is the stock argument. If it
could prevail we never would get any
change in any existing condition. The
people who are enjoying the existing condi-
dition would enjoy it ~eternally because the
only way you can produce a change in any
political or economic condition is for the
people who suffer from that condition to
III 0dy LI1CI CllO PVOplC- WIN Il JIG T
suffering are doing wrong and speak right
out plainly on that subject.
"A through the great agitation for the
abolition of slavery it was claimed that
the abolitionists were stirring up class
against class. | have not, even standing to
one side as I do, seen a single campaign
carried thru that that argument has not
been used in the thirty years that / have
been upon earth with sufficient maturity
of mind to know what was going on.
'Now the defendant is not charged in
this Indictment with stirring up class
against the law. We have not come to the
stir up class against class, is forbidden in
when we do then we will simply pass into
the Crustacean stage. There would never
be any change if such a law were in force"
1--WE have not come to the time that the dis
cussion ofrevils is forbidden in the United
States" neither have we come to the time
when people should 'sleep upon their reforms"
The reactionaries who do not want the pres
ent order of things disturbed continually clam
or that during the period of. the war nothing
else should be thought Of.
Why then should elections not be suspend-
ed entirely?
If elections are held, why not discharge the
full duties Of citizenship and vote for men who
represent the best conception Of democracy?
With the appeal Of President Wilson to dis
countenance mob violence, the announcement
Of the political aides to our enemies who have
injected loyalty into politics, by Secretary Of
War Baker, and the statement of Judge Ami