Daily Kennebec journal., 1919-12-27
"Plaaues and faminss and wars are
iortuitous and not q part Of the reg
utar order like health, or growth, or
devslopmsnt."
To An Unknown Contributor.

We would respectfully acknowledge
receipt Of an envelope with hand
printed address containing news
paper clippings accompanied by no
signature Of sender or name of pub
lications from which the excerpts
were made. The reason for dim
dence is not apparent as the matter
contributed is not such as we would
suppose calculated to call for the CEN
sorship of Mr.. Burleson or exclusion
from polite society, although in our
opinion the ideas intended to be con-
veyed while not conflicting with
statute laws, in some instances are
not in accord with common sense.
Apparently the clippings were
made from labor union publications,
and on the whole temperate in tone.
though in some instances We believe
calculated to mislead. There is an
excellent one on THE Need Of Edu-
cation" announcing that "The great
EST foe to civilization today is ignor-
ance" but the inference to be had of
the editorial is that it is useless to
deport the reds" as we cannot de-
port their ideas. Well we may i'm
prison a murderer but We may not
with him imprison the spirit Of muir
der. For our. part we would i'm
prison him, nevertheless, also deport
the reds" And We would here men
tion the fact that some Of the lead
ers Of the reds" in this country, as
abroad, are among the brightest in
tellects Of the day, some of them
with education and without princi-
pie or . sense Of fair play is the
worst menace civilization is called on
to face. There must be something
besides education in man before he
becomes a good citizen, but educa-
tion Is coming to be one essential.
Another clipping purports to be a
news report Of "Cossacks" riding
their horses into the hall Of the strik-
ing steel workers at Donora, Penn
sylvania, and intimidating the strik-
ers. 1t doesn't say just what the
strikers were doing there. BY the
way, the clippings contain, among
them all, no evidence that the steel
strike was right. So far as we know
no such evidence exists anywhere.
Such a condition of things is an in
centive to capitalistic greed, the ex-
istence Of which no one doubts; it is
always ready to take advantage when
the worker is led by his own greed
into an indefensible position.
Another clipping has big head
lines: "Cummins working for Invol-
untary Servitude" because he has
been trying to incorporate into the
laws of this country some regulation
such that few thousand railroad
employees may not be able to starve a
hundred millions Of people into sub
mission
Presumably our contributor thinks
involuntary servitude of hundred
million innocent people is preferable
10 any law to prevent few thousand
playing the tryants. He may not be
conscious of so thinking but that in
ference is fair under the circum-
stances, if he approves the article
referred to.
We do not know Of any body of
men more representative of the
American citizen than are railroad
employees, but their common sense
. appears to have slept at the switch
or been stupefied by spirit Of grab
while the grabbing is good: other
wise they would not have been mis-
led into approval OF the Plumb bill
with the trade mark of Lenine &
Trorsky plainly on it; otherwise
they would not suppose a people that
threw the spectators clutch from
The throat of the railroads, that
raised an army of four million men
to preserve the American ideal, will
permit a few thousand men to say
whether or not the food Of this coun-
try shall be sidetracked until their
personal or union grievances may be
adjusted. That sort Of thing. Mr..
Contributor, will not be tolerated in
this country-not yet-and II ever it
is then you and those for whom you
appear will repent in sackcloth and
ashes.
Voluntary Servitude.
Another editorial comment argues
that because Russia had no strong
labor union she became swamped in
Bolshevism. No: Messrs. Lenine &
Trotsky and the German tntrtguers
back Of them have no use for the
labor union in Russia, but they have
a use for the labor union in Amer.
ica-and have been. are. using It.
The steel strike. the coal strike and
a proposed railroad strike were pre-