Imperial Valley press., 1919-03-13
THOSE WHO DEFY AMERICA.

agree with it. he has discovered how powerless
and puny he is.
u Twenty years in Leavenworth prison will af-
ford him ample time to secure a fairer view
! point of his crime against the nation. Possibly
! his mind is not constructed that he can stake
off the prejudice against, and msconception of,
free government under which he is laboring.
Tears "streamed down his face" as he read
/ his written statement to the court before SEN
! tence was passed. Ambition and law defiance
| should be made of sterner stuff Martyrs go
to the gallows with smile upon their faces,
not with their eyes bathed in womansh tears.
The only thing of consequence that Berger
expressed was his disinclination to retract 4.
thing he has said or written. It makes no diff
ference to Berger that he has broken the law
of the land that a jury of his peers in trial
in open court have found him guilty He in
siSts that in his weak, feeble way he shall be the
Judge of what is right and wrong. And having
been advised by the formal processes of law that
he had criminally advocated resistance against
the laws of the country in time of war; he looks
with contempt upon the power of the country
that has given him shelter and says he intends to
persist in his position.
Berger has been surrounded in Milwaukee
by a large, important and influential body OF
Germans. The country knows what many OF
these men thought. We can guess what their
attitude has been in the privacy of their homes
and clubs away from the eyes and ears of agents
of the Department of Justice Had men like
Berger had their way, the laws of the country
would have broken down like frail pipestems and
we should have been unable to have drafted an
army and gone about the business of defending
democracy.
Preaching the idea of the brotherhood of
ann, Berger and his kind would have assisted
Germany to win this war They would have
made possible the success of autocracy. If Wv
tor Berger's influence had been strong, inSj":
of inconsequential, we would have been unable
to place a soldier upon the high seas headed for
France. Berger would have thrown the coun-
try into turmoil of riot and intercencine war
fare with various factions struggling to make
their own ideas prevail.
Law would have become impotent and use
less. Personal opinions would have held swap
IN a land where the government was unstable
and ineffective. In the place of strong, vlgor-
Gus nation acting one man with the tremen-
dous power of its gigantic strength, we should
have doubled up and collapsed. The Teutonic
outlaws and pirates who sent our own flesh and
blood 70 the bottom of the Atlantic because they
thought il served their purpose, in defiance OF /
the laws of God and man, would have triumped
over the forces of Right that were battling to
Danish autocracy from the earth
Victor Bergers hand was raised against the
land that sheltered him and provided him with
his living. II was in effect raised in behalf of
a great military machine on the other side that
threatened the safety of every man. woman and
child in the world
But, thank Cod the nations was impatient
with the Bergers and the Debs and the Hay
woods and other preachers of seditiOn. 1t was
enough that we should struggle with foe whose
enmity was known and whose desire 10 annihl
late US was plainly written in the record. But
enemies at home among those who posed as
friends. who secured from our people their bread
and raiment were more difficult to deal with.
When Berntsorff and Boy Ed and Won Papen
and that whole aggregation of German official
snakesin- grass were posing in Washington
at their command 20 render that nation power
less and to stranqe any possible military actiV
ity, their source, Of cooperation were men writ
ing and talking a Victor Berger wrote and
talked
But the nation failed 10 follow this false
teaching. Loyal men detected quickly the IL
tanic danger that attended lack Of prompt &C !
ordination or any lack Of national cohesion.
Lawbreakers like Victor Berger would have
provoked civil war had they Deen powerful in
stead of weak That the men Of America sensed
this danger al the very outset was shown Dy
the strong evidences Of Americansm that were
everywhere to be observed in thought, action
and word.
In selecting Berger as their representative
in Congress the voters Of Milwaukee have CIV
en- full evidence Of their state Of mind. This
man, who stands convicted of crime against
the nation, this law-breaker, represents their
ideas Of aw-maker.
Those who incite 10 resistance Of the Law
| and who attempt 70 block the military actions
| of a nation are among.its worst enemies. They
| as friends" and employing every known mean,
strike at the very root Of self government. Their
| prompt conviction and sentence 10 prison b. al
| evidence of the trend Of thought and Of the fun