The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-08-01
A APPEAL

President Wilson makes a personal
appeal to his fellow c%ountrymen to re-
frain from all acts of violence in con
nection with treatment toward those
who are believed to be unpatriotic,
and whose acts might be considered
dislOyal. He says as follows:
Fellow Countrymen: | take the
liberty of addressing you upon a sub
ject which so vitality affects the honor
of the nation and the very character
and integrity of our institutions that
| trust you will think me justified in
speaking very plainly about it.
Il allude to the mob spirit which
has recently here and there very fire.
quently shown it's head amongst us,
not in any single region but in many
and widely separated parts of the
country. There have been many
lynchings and every one of them has
law and humane justice. No mar
who loves America; no man who real
ly cares for her fame and honor and
character, or who is truly loyal to her
institutions, can justify mob action
while the courts of justice are open
and the governments of the states and
the nation are ready and able to do
their duty.
1--WE are at this very moment fight
ing lawless passion. Germany has
outlawed herself among the nations
because she has disregarded the sac
red obligations of law and has made
lynchers of her armies. Lynchers
emulate her disgraceful example. |,
for my part, am anxious to see every
community in America rise above that
level with pride and a fixed resolu-
ton which no man or set of men can
afford to despise.
1--WE proudly claim to be the cham
pions of democracy. If we really are,
in deed and in truth, let us see to it
that we do not discredit our own. |
say plainly that every American who
takes part in the action of a mob or
gives any sort of c~ountenance is no
true son of this great democracy, but
its b%etrayer, and does more to discred-
it her by that single disloyalty to her
standards of law and of right than the
words of her statesmen or the sacri-
ices of her heroic boys in the trenches
can do to make suffering peoples be-
lieve her to be their saviors. How
shall we commend democracy to the
acceptance of other peoples if we dis
grace our own by proving that it is,
after all, no protection to the weak?
Every mob contributes to German lies
about the United States what her
most gifted liars cannot improve upon
by the way of calumny. They can at
least say that such things cannot hap
pen in Germany except in times of
revolutions when law is swept away!
81, therefore, very earnestly and
solemnly beg that the governors of all
the states, the law officers of every
community and, above all, the men
and women of every community in the
United States, all who revere Ameri.
ca and wish to keep her name with.
out stain or %reproach, will cooperate
not ~passively merely, but actively and
watchfully, to make an end of this
disgraceful evil. It cannot live where
the community does not c%ountenance
it.
81 have called upon the nation to
put its great energy into this war and
it has acknowledgements with a
spirit and a genius for action that has
thrilled the world. l now call upon
it, upon its men and women every
where, TO see to it that its laws are
kept i%nviolate, its fame u~ntarnished
Let us show our utter contempt fol-
the things that have made this wal
hideous among the wars of history