Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1918-11-29
A Cure for the Red Flag.

Victor Berger, of Milwaukee, who
spoke insultingly against the United
States under and for the red flag
at Chicago the other day, and who,
among other things, in his defense
of BOlshevism to which all the So
called German-American Socialists
seem to have turned for consolation
in this, our glad hour, is certain that
it represents his views of higher
civilization. This is a case where
Mr.. Berger should speak for himself
since the absurdity of himself and
his small group of followers over the
country speaking for America is
manifest on the face of it. Fortu-
nately for America, the great mass
OF the people have no stomach for the
kind of internationalism which Ber-
ger stands for, which plots against
capacity and sees in anarchy and dis
order an Ideal state.
America, however, having success
fully tried out representative gov
ernmert for over a century, is not
being stampeded by those who base
their argument for change on what
Russia has accomplished on an empty
stomach. It is impossible for any
one to misrepresent Russia, save in
SO far as it is impossible to print the
actualities over there by reason of
the nature of the real horrors. For
the published facts do not tell all that
Bolshevism has attempted in its at
tack on the family, the home, pub
lie life and on all those things that
make even savage civilization possi-
BILE. 1t is very apparent, as the red
flag THAT Berger flaunts is being
publicly forbidden in New York, and
that the peculiar sedition that marks
the meeting of these pro-Bolshevik-
Americans is being looked into, that
the great cure is a thorough course
in Americanization.
For the amazing thing about this
American-Bolshevik braggadocio is
that it assumes that a country that
has revealed political, social, indus
rial and personal control for several
hundred years is to learn wisdom at
this late day from those who have re-
duced their own country to welter
of suspicion, with every mans hand
against every others and where the
stomach is indeed in rebellion since
the things produced and the men who
are capable of producing them have
been wantonly destroyed in farm and
factory. If Berger and Hillpuit and
their followers will really get at the
facts about America instead of fana-
tically misleading their more igno-
rant associates, they may get over
their madness, even if in their yearn-
ings for internationalism they can
never reach that heartfelt attitude
of devotion toward a grea country
that has been victorious in a great
cause and be able to repeat ferv-
emily today, as almost all the one
hundred million Americans n,these
lines of lowell:
o Beautiful my country ours once more
Smoothing thy gold of war-disheveled hair |
Ger such sweet brows as never ohter wore,
And letting thy set lips,
Freed from wrath's pale eclipse
The rosy edges of their smile lay bare,
What word divine Of love or of poet
Could tell our love and make thee know it,
Among the nations bright beyond compare
What were our lives without thee7
What all our lives 10 save thee?
We rocked not what we gave thee
We will not dare TO doubt thee,
But ask whatever else, and we will darei
Exchange