The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1918-12-18
Wipe Out the PrOfteer.

(By Mark Swan of The vigilantes.)
From the lowest, to the super low
est, we loathe the obscene Beast who
browns women and children on un-
warned vessels-who burns villages,
destroys orchards-outrag women
!! and bombs hospitals. We ransack
the dictionary, and exhaust the vo-
cabulary, endeavoring to select adjec-
tives which will fifty describe him,
and his works and finally we sum ey-
| erything up in the descriptive word
| Hun"
Now what shameful word is left us
to apply to the men-who are among
US yet are not Of us-who use the war
as means of extorting bloated profits
from those whose brothers they pre-
tend to be?
The Prussian, at least, is an open
enemy. He warned us, for forty years,
that he would do what he has done
he has never tried to conceal his bes-
TALLY, in fact seems rather proud of
it.
The spy, the propagandist-the
dynamiter who blows up munitions
works-for all of these there can be
found some shred of excuse; being
Prussian, it is their business to do
what frightful thing they can-and
ours to hang them, if we can catch
them doing it.
But for the profteer, the briber,
the apostle of the filthy creed, "Get
it-no matter how-just get 1.-THE
men of our own nation, of our own
blood-pretending to be our own kind
l-hypocritically calling us fellow cit
liens, while they pick our pockets,
4 there is no excuse-and there is no
1 appropriate adjective-to call them
"Huns" would be complimentary.
Here we are, a hundred million Of
us-drawn into a world nightmare,
trying to do our best, to help, trying
/ to bring the colossal disaster to an
4 end; some of us Treating 'em
Rough" most of us skinning the lay
ers off the old bank roll for Liberty
bonds; boosting the Red Cross-plug-
ging for the Z. M. C. A.-and what
is he-the profteer doing?
Why just lining his greedy pockets
]-wallowing in illegitimate profits
which in the last analysis resolve
themselves into the blood of brave
men and the lives of little children.
And even in this deviltry there are
grades. The man who extorts for
his boarded food-or his boarded coal
is low enough, in all conscience, but
he may only be a creature without a
soul, so that the vast agony has not
touched him. Not being a victim, he
cannot realize there is such thing as
war His penalty should be merely
confiscation and banishment.
But for the debased scoundrel, who
bribes some other loathsome creature
! to help him foist counterfeit clothing
or ammunition-or poisonous food, on
the army-on the very men who are
fighting for him-tl1ere is no punish
ment outside the ultimate depths of
the Seventh He'll.
We could stand them up against a
wall and shoot thena--but it would be
a shame to desecrate a decent wall
we have a, myriad lamp-posts, but
why shame honest rope?- Just as we
lack words to describe them-we lack
punishment to infict. We can only
recall with regret the passing Of the
rack and the wheel.
What would happen to a cook who
fed his company poisonous food?
What would happen to an officer
who sent his men forward to meet
the enemy-equipped with blank
cartridges, or to a quartermaster who
for his own profit dealt out shoes
with paper soles? Is the crime less,
because it is committed 5000 miles
away?
We owe our boys protection. We
owe ourselves protection. Punish the
profiteer. Kill every man who gives
such a bribe-kill every man who
takes such a bribe. Do it legally and
in the proper way. Before an angry