The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-01-15
VICTOR BERGER

Cannot some w:y be devised to deport Victor Berger, con-
gressman-elect, and his Milwaukee German associates, along
with the other fnterned alien enemies? If This cannot be done,
Berger should be snenced, even though it takes his own weapon
TO do it.
Now Berger, as an American citizen, has the plain right
to propose and support any change in law or constitution, pro-
vided it is to be effected in the regular manner, for this coun-
try is founded and supported upon the principle that a majority
can and should have its way-the only qualification being that
the majority must assert itself in given channels, where there
is opportunity to determine that it is a real majority. That
channel with us is the ballot, and the ballot is the safety valve
that prevents the revolution. We can make any change that the
majority wants without having any trouble.
But up comes Victor Berger with the avowed doctrine that
the ballot cannot effect the change that he and his co-soiaists
want lie cries tor the loaded rifle, openly declaring that the
ballot alone will not suffice, that it must be supplemented by
the bullet He lays no claim to a miscount of ballots as necessity
for the rifle to insure a free deposit and a fair count. He gets
away from the majority rule and goes to the despotsm of a
minority rule, confessed by him as such, and any minority rule
is necessarily a ~dcspoisnl, and all d~espotisms are bad, whether
by the old tyrants@under the Grecian or Syracusian democracies,
or the late Prussian or tapsburg war lords.
I And in these United States, between the date Of the sign
ing OF the armisticc and the signing of the peace treaty, when
Berger appeared before his Milwaukee constituents for a vim
dication after his conviction, he was heralded by a convention
which sang songs in the German language. II these people
have no more sense Of the eternal fitness of things, no more
cQnceptCo Of what is due to the country in which they live and
which has given them a freedom for which they fled from Ger
many, the government should step in with its strong arm and
intern every one Of them, and keep them interned until the con-
greSs can pass a deportation act to cover their case
Germany was whipped, but she used far more sense in quit
ring than in beginning the fight. She quit when she saw that
She would be beaten to the ground, but before she was beaten
to it. She fought to no such point OF exhaustion in men and
supplies as, for instance, did the South in 1865, She quit cold
when she saw that she could not win. Her quitting then was,
like her entering the war, for what she thought to be her best
commercial interests, and her chance for future domination.
Not yet is there apparent, either in Germany or among the
pro-Germans in this country, the least sign OF repentance. The
only feature of repentance that the German, either at home or
on this side, seems to have remembered is the fatted calf, and
he wanted to append to the terms Of armstce a twoyear-old
corn-fed black Angus steer for each family in the Vaterland.
Indications are that the peace conference at Versailles will
convince the Germans of Europe that they were and are beaten,
and we ought to take steps in this country to convince Berger
and his like of the same thing; and, further, that while this is a
free country, it is free only along the lines laid down by the
constitution for the expression OF malorities, and not tree tor
any minority rule.