The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-05-16
Other Mems Views
An Editorial That May or May Not Square
With The Views Of The Forum

The Christian Science Monitor Readers in
other parts of the country, and in other parts
Of the world have cause to wonder now and
then. over certain occurrences of a somewhat
extraordinary nature in the Pacific Northwest
Of the United States. AS recounted in the press
dispatches these occurrences assume such
forms as tarrng and feathering, rail-riding.
hogging. and sometimes even lynching, and are
generally attributed, by people in the more set
tied regions, to disregard Of law and order in
the section referred to. Such acts however,
should properly be attributed to attempts in a.
crude way, to maintain law and order in dis
tricts in many cases far removed from estab-
Lshed agencies of authority. 1t is impossible to
made in that direction by thoughtful students
Of the conditions which give rise to Them but
they can be explained; and because such occur
rences are likely to be repeated, even with
greater violence and frequency. they ought to
be explained.
In the vast lumber regions Of the Pacific
Northwest, at the present time, many highly
capitalized corporations and many thousands Of
Wooden ship constructon Scattered throuSh
the camps are members of the Industrial Work
ers of the World. anarchistic organization
These latter work secretly and silently. and
bent upon destruction, apparently for its own
sake. They at war with society. They are.
at war with government. They are possessed
with an antipathy to honest industry. They are
obsessed with a hatred Of fellow beings who
refuse to accept their social and industrial
methods.
They drive railroad spikes and steel drift bolts
into logs destined for the mills, in order that
rasps and knife blades into spruce timber espe-
cially designed for government use. They drain
donkey engines In order that the crown plates
may be burned out. They introduce emery into
oil that is intended for the fabrication Of ma
chinery. They start fires. They subject those
employed with them to all manner of risk. They
are apparently without feeling, without consid-
Grafton, without conscience. They seem to be
imperVious to gratitude oblivious of moral obli-
cation.
Many men working with them lose limb or life
by reason Of their calculated treachery. The
news columns of this paper have recently con-
tanned, among many similar items, one going to
show the sort of sabotage which the l. w. w.
affects in the numbering camps. It seems that
a steel rasp sunk into aeroplane spruce by
apparatus valued at about $1,000 The ma
chinery was ruined, but the manner of it's ruin
alton was peculiar. Instead of being merely de-
prtVed OF teeth, or shattered into pieces, the
saw torn into ribbons, which flew in all
directions strip encircling a man without
touching him. Usually, there is quite different
result to record.
No less than so different cases of sabotage
have been reported in one OF the great camps
near Aberdeen Wash, within the last three
months. and concerted action has now been taken
all members Of the /. W. w. If in the driving
OF them violence shall be resorted to- it will
be regrettable, but in the light Of the known
facts it can hardly be surprising.
But the most regrettable thing about the whole
matter is that, owing to the failure OF the
state and federal courts to deal adequately with
the problem private citizens are left in self
to take the law into their own hands
The proceedings in the !. w. w. case at Chicago
are having a tendency rather to provoke tho
violence complained of than to give outraged
citizenship confidence in established authority
The I. w. w. is quite as determinedly hostile
to the United States as the Germans or
the AHstrians, and il resort to lynch law is
to be avoided in the defensive against this
under some other than the ordinary processes
Of law.