The Washington times., 1918-04-09

AhPVA Idlt COplCS. ne SPOKE SIrOnS-
ly and we'll on nearly ell-including
the recent Collinsville lynching, and
the atrocious massacre at East st
Louis, which preceded it-a crime as
black in its barbarism as any which
ever illustrated the meaning of the
! spirit of bullying domination in the
"Unspeaksble Turk"
Senator Sherman is neither "ob-
scurantist" nor "idealist." He does
not hold the idealist theory that by
thinking ourselves the most highly
civilized people in the world and saw
ing so often enough We can make it
so. He deals with facts.
AS he used facts they defined this
issue:
If government is used to enable
quiet people to remain quiet, defend
ing them against all who for any
cause would drag them into the
courts; if it secures them in their
rights, under the law, without fore
ing them, man by man, to the per-
sonal wager of battle with the state
then such a government is as free
as any government on earth is ever
likely to be-and as just and as dem
ocratic.
But under another theory of gov
ernment, illustrated in university
lectures since the beginning of this
century, we must apply the Darwin
ian view. And the onlv right of the
citizen who objects to that view, as
applied by an oficeholder, is to de-
fend himself in the courts if he can.
Under that theory, as Sherman
showed, millionaires may be able to
afford justice. The average man."
with no means but his labor, can
not hope it.
In the House, Mr.. Dent, of the
Military Committee, secured the
right Of way for War Department
bills, all except one unanimously ap-
proved by the committee. The
House passed them as rapidly as
possible. They were intended to i'm
prove the service, rather than to in
timidate or penalize the public. One
of them authorizes an increase in
the number of army chaplains until
there is a chaplain for every 1,2OO
men; Others provide for detailing
officers as instructors in colleges
needing military science; for reim-
bursting the travelling expenses of
enlisted men; for the sale of ma
chinery or anything else no longer
needed in Government work, and for
the correction of mistakes by courts
martial.
Congressman L. C. Dyer of st.
Louis introduced a bill yesterday
which has been long needed for the
protection of citizens of the United
States against murder and mob vio-
lence due to the connivance or laxity
OF local authorities. 1t applies the
old "AnglO-Saxon" principle, under
which, when the law is violated by
unknown criminals, the hundred"
or local community which shields
them is held responsible for them in
damages. In the case of murders
or other outrages by mobs against
citizens of the United States, the
al NOoi 70 arc gwen yuTlSulCJlOn
and local officials, criminally con-
niving in the murder or other out
rage, are made liable also in the
Federal courts. Such a law has
been long needed. No other law is
worse needed now. II any law can
stop burning at the stake and other
atrocities this may. The massacre
in East St. Louis was preceded if
not superinduced by a burning at
the stake near Memphis. According
to Senator Sherman, the Collins
vile lynching was the act Of a
drunken mob Of workmen. The
Memphis burning at the stake, as re-
ported at the time, lined the, roads
around the stake with automobiles.
Members of the labor unions Sena-
tor Sherman often disapproves, do
not usually order out their cars when
engaged in mobbing their fellow
men. AS a Tennessee Democrat,
with a Missouri finish, the writer of
this column begs to congratulate Mr..
Dyer on his bill