Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1918-08-02
MOB ACTION SCORED
BY NATIONS HEAD
PRESIDENT WILSON DECLARES
VIOLENCE AIDS GERMAN
PROPAGANDA HERE.
Chief Executive Calls Upon Nation to
Show World That While IT Fights
for Democracy Abroad it is Not
Destroying Democracy at Home.

Washington.-Pre Wilson, in a
personal statement issued on July 20
addressed to his fellow countrymen,
denounced mob spirit and mob action,
called upon the nation to show the
world that while it fights for democs
racy on foreign fields, it is not destroy
ing democracy at home.
The president denounced most em4
phatically mob action of all sorts, espe-
cially lynchings, and while he did not
refer specifically to lynchings of ne
groes in the south, it is known that he
included them in his Characterization
of mob spirit as "a blow at the heart
of ordered law and humane justice"
The presidents statement in full
| follows
my fellow countrymen; | take the
| liberty of addressing you upon sub
| ject which so vitality affects the honor
of the nation and the very character
l 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 u.s.
not in any single region, but in many
and widely separated parts of the
country. There have been many lynch
ings, and every one of them has been
a blow at the heart of ordered law and
humane Justice. No man who loves
America, no man who really cares for
her fame and honor and character or
can justify mob action while the courts
of justice are open and the govern
ments 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 out
lawed herself among the nations be-
cause she has disregarded the sacred
obligations of law and has made lynch
ers of her armies Lynchers emulate
her disgraceful example /, for my
part, am anxious to see every commune
ity in America rise above that level,
no man or set of men can afford to de-
spise.
''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. I
say plainly that every American who
takes part in the action of mob or
gives any sort of countenance is no
true son of this great democracy, but
is betrayer, and does more to discredit
ler 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
IAN do to make suffering peoples be-
ieve her to be their saviour. How
hall we commend democracy to the ac-
.eptanee of other peoples if we dis
grace our own by proving that it is,
Ifter all, no protection to the weak?
every mob contributes to German lies
bout the United States what her most
lifted liars cannot improve upon by
he way of calumny.
Il therefore very earnestly and sol
mnly beg that the governors of all the
tates, the law officers of very COM
nunity, and, above all, the men and
7omen of every community in the
Jnited States, all who revere America
nd wish to keep her name without
tain or reproach, will co-operate-nOt
assively merely, but actively and
to make an end of this dis
raceful evil. 1t cannot live where the
~
Il have called upon the nation to
ut its great energy into this war, and
has esponded-responde with
pirit and genius for action that has
lrilled the world. / now call upon it.
pom its men and women everywhere,
see to it that its laws are kept in
olate, its fame untarnished. Let us
now our utter contempt for the things
lat have made this war hideous
nong the wars of history by showing
DIV those who love liberty and right
ld justice and are willing 10 lay down
leir lives for them upon foreign fields
and ready also to illustrate to all
ankind their loyalty to the things at
,me which they wish to see estab-
she'd everywhere as blessing and
to the people who have
'ver known the privilege of liberty
Id self-government.
Il can never accept any man as
Iampion of liberty either for cur
ives or for the world who does not
verence and obey the laws of our
IN beloved land, whose laws we our
Ives have made He has adopted the
andards Of the enemies of his coun-
=, whom ne affects to despise.
WOODROW WILSON,