Norwich bulletin., 1918-07-01
Pee Flour and Barley Flour cboco.
Views of the Vigilantes
DON'T PET A RAT

By Henry Oven of The Vigilantes.
 1t took a war to show us what a fine lot of rats we have been betting in this country. For some urfathonn- able reason we have created for our own self -delusion a national myth which we have called "The Melting Pot" It was beautiful thing. We talked about 1t, we wrote about it. We believed in 1t. We said-and we actually believed we were talking like reasoning beings: Drop a rat in The Melting Pot and it comes out an Am erican."
 So we dropped them in-the rats along with the stock that makes good Americans. And the rats came ont rats, They are showing their breed now. Uncle Sam goes to war, and the rats nibble at his heels. There fore, we have one course to adopt toward them
 DON'T PET A RAT;. TRAP IT.
 The rats are of various types. Let us label them;
 The pro German Rat: The one from Germany itself. He Is the most obyi- ous of all. Usually he Is a big. fat. gray fellow. Most Americans of Ger man antesedents are good Americans. The rat is still a German. Before the war he marched boldly around the country snif1ng at our national in stitutions, sneering consistently and preaching the superiority Of German efficiency. He Is still with us, but since we entered the war he has be- ing g rat, run for cover. He tries to align himself with the loyal Ameri- cans of German decent. But he is still a rat, still pro- German In the event of a German victory he would be out in droves, jeering our defeat. He buys Liberty bonds, but the only req son he does it is to make us think he is not rat. It is the particular duty and privilege of all loyal Arneri- cans of German breeding to help put him out of business.
 The I. ". w Rat: Darker and thinner than his pro- German brother but of the same species. More active. Having been allowed to run wild he has exaggerated ideas of his own i'm portance. His idea of Liberty is Li- cense He squirnls piteously when trapped, and he is being trapped in considerable numbers.
 The Foreign Agitator Rat: A fuzzy ] sort of rat. Trotzky is his ideal; Am erican ideals his favorite target. He comes to America only to sheer and to try to wreck. His strongest char acteristic is a contempt for the true American. For the present his soap box is in storage-until after the war The Intellectual Rat: In this species the sexes are about equally divided | Of many nationalties, sometimes even American. At college they learned SC much that they've never been good for anything since. They smile pity ingly when anyone displays an emo ton so common as patriotism, talli much of InteTnationalism, and are really, dangerous because clever enough 1 to fool a lot of people
 The Pacif1st Rat: A rare species Willing to take everything and give nothing. A product/of congenitaI and racial causes. Must be watched close 1 ly when it comes time to talk peace At the bottom of the list because he Is the most pitiable; but not to be petted any more than the others.
 There are other rats than these, but
 for an example this will suffice. We must stop betting them. We must re- member our boys in France-lnete out
 to them war time treatment.
 DON'T PET A RAT: TRAP IT.