Imperial Valley press., 1919-06-07
THE FOE IN THE HOUSEHOLD.

The development CT q widespread cdllll)dlSl
of dynamite as set forth in the Associated Press
dispatches late Monday night, which recorded
simultaneous bomb 0utrages IN numerous cites OF
the East has a deeper significance than many
will be inclined to give it. The Wantonness and
the futility of such crimS5 is beyond question:
but this does not alter the fact that they are
symptomatic of conditions that exist, and that
in one form or another they will continue until
these conditions are altered for the better.
Two tasks that confront the United States
are the stern repression of these mtlmldat1onS
and reprisals, and removal Of their underlying
causes, so far as those causes are found remed-
liable
Not so many years ago when there was an
out break Of typhoid in q community, 1t was
held to be despensatiOn Of Providence and the
funerals went on until the epidemic had run its
course. Now we inspect the sewage conditions
and boil the water.
But in these epldemcs Of moral and spiritual
tvDhOid there is still an almost universal ten
dencv to apply the old theory that they are mTs-
terious orderings Of higher power acting upon
the fallen nature of man, and that We PERSONAL
w. have no relation to them except as gullteSS
vctims OF undeserVng sufferers.
These men who are planting bonlIseand COM
hitting other crimes believe themselves in most
cases to be engaged in righteous war OF liberia
ton against an entrenched enemy lhey may oe
insane; they may be morally incapable OF any
distinction between right and wrong, but Such
is their belief and nothing is to be gained by
blinking at the fact. When the faith that IS IN
man is strong enough to array nm shgle-
handed against all social organization, 1t mas 10
be reckOned with and when there are some thou-
sands of him. the problem becomes very Serious
indeed
There has grown up, here in the United
States since the railroad wars OF the |OS an
underground power that may, unless checked and
disruDted by policies at once firm, wise and uSt,
come in the near future to approximate the Neh-
megerecht that flourished in the Middle Ages IN
parts of Germany, and that was at once above
and below the law, having its secret tribunals,
nassnp its judgments and executing the despite
the baron in his castle and the bishop III his pal
ace Up to the present this power, so Tar as we
know, has been potential rather than actual, but
it is here. It comprises the radical agltator, the
l. W. W., the direct actlOnSt, the proponeht Oh
soviet rule. the anarchist, as its active forces;
behind it are the unsettled, the dlscontented, the
embittered and the dTeamers Of lt0pan dreams
What we have to do is to teach more fully
the meaning of American citizenship, not only
to the prospective citizen, but to the natlVe-born
and we have got to make it mean more than it
has meant in the pastt. If America cannot, by
Justice and appeals to the common sense OF all
men, save herself from class wars and bolsheV-
ism, then civilization is doomed.
We have got to recognize that the Gay OF
shams and Subterfuges and high sounding gen
eraities is done The underlying fact that the
world faces is this That four and d half years
of war showed civilization capable at this stage
Of IFS progress, of taking 10000 600 men from
fields Of constructive to those Of destructive en-
ployment and of feeding and clothing them
while they were thus engaged. This underlying
fact has been seized on and dig2sted by the mil
lions of Europe and of America and whatever
future there is for mankind must be built on it,
rather than on the economic sophiStries and doe
trincS Of the pre-War period, which 1t shattered
forever.
While they arc talking at Paris over political
balances and adjustments prodicated on con-
tinIancc of conditions as abS0letc as those which
ruled at ThcbeS returned soldiers are invading
the house of parliament at Winnipeg and de-
manding resignation Of the provincial officials;
British policemen are striking or preparing 10
strike throughout the tight little island; and bcrc
in America there are also increasing signs Of un-
rest and imratiCncc with. delay.
While it is true that the world has never be-
fore faced crisis in which there was such need
of wise and far~Sightod leaderShjp it is clualIy
true that there has never before been such need
on the part of the common people Of America Of
patience, Of good will. and mvincibe faith in
the destiny Of the republic, backed by detormj-