The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1918-01-05

and passion and prejudice in these
critical times?
/ am asking you, your honor, judg-
! ing from my appearance In the courl
room, judging from all that / have
| said, judging from all that you have
| read that have written-and have
/ provided you everything that 1t was
within my power to provide-judging
/ from these things. your honor, win
| be more dangerous outside, follow
| ing the work l have been doing for
the last six months-and my work
| for the last six months is this: ]
represent the socaIled Minority Wing
Of the Socialist party. We are
counselling patience, counselling
observation-disclosures and tolerance. l
have gone about at a great sacrifice
to myself, and endless WEAKNESS, in
to every corner of the United States.
and have said to the Socialists every
where, This is not a. time for bit
terness, this is not time for pas
sion or prejudice; this is a time for
calm, careful, clear thinking. This
Is a time when we must wait, as the
mother waits for the pangs Of ira
vail. We cannot stop the coming Of
this new order that is about to be
born any more than the mother can
stop the coming Of the new life whose
time is full. And so we must be
patient, and tolerant, and long suf-
fering, and leVelheaded, during this
time. We must give this nation the
opportunity to prove its statement
that this war shall be the last Of
wars, that this war is being fought
in order that all wars may end. / do
not know whether IL is true or not,
your honor. / cannot look down into
the motives Of mems hearts in Wash
ington, as the judge and jury looked
down into the motives of my heart
and read them. do not know, say,
whether the motives of these men is
that this war shall end war. But I
say this: ! want this shall be the
supreme test of war; want every
thing on the face Of Gods earth to
work together to make this the
supreme test, to decide this now and
for everlasting; that it shall go on
at this time, when the bloodshed and
suffering is on, until it is decided
forever, and not be put aside until
some other time. So l want you to
decide the question whether, in the
months to come, these struggling
months that are coming, to demand
the service of every intelligent, loyal
citizen of the United States, / can
serve my country best in prison, or
whether / can serve it best doing the
work that 1 have been doing, going
about among the people that believe
in me, and have faith in me, and ask
ing for their patience, and their
tolerance, and their assistance to set
tie this question once and for all. l
ask you to decide this question for
yourself your honor, and IL you de-
eide that can serve my country bet
ter in prison than anywhere else, 1
am satisfied. 1t may be true, your
honor, that God works in myster-
ious way, His wonders to perform"
It may be that down in the dark,
noisome, loathsome hells we call
prisons, under our modern prison
system, there may be a bigger work
for me to do than out on the lecture
platform. 1t may be that down there
are the things have sought for all
my life. All my life has been de-
voted TO taking light into dark places,
to ministering to sick souls, to lift
ing up degraded humanity; and God
knows down there in the prisons,
perhaps more than any other place on
earth, there is need for that kind Of
work So it, as it was necessary that
Jesus should come down and live
among men in order that he might
serve them. it is necessary for me to
become a convict among criminals in
order that ! may serve my country
there, then am perfectly willing TO
perform my service there. will do
it without a CULVER. / will face sthe
prison, / will face the things that go
with prison life just as calmly and
serenely as faced court and Judge
and jury, and will do the thing that
it seems necessary for me to do.