The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1919-02-14
GOVERNMENT BY LAW VERSUS
BOLSHEvISM, DIRECT ACTION
American People AS Whole Are Law
Abiding and Law Loving-Believers
In Force Are Few

fundamentally, there are two
schools of political thought in the
United States-one composed of peo
pie who believe in government by law
and the other of people who believe
in government by men. In the class
of people who believe in government
by men we find the advocates of au
tocracy and the |. w. w. The advo-
Gates of autocracy include not only
those persons in governmental posi-
tions who assume to place their own
judgment and whims above the law,
but also those few leaders of industry
on the one hand and those few leaders
of organized labor on the other who
set out to achieve their selfish ends
because they have the power and in
disregard of the rights and welfare
of the rest of the people of the
country.
"The anarchist, otherwise known as
| the /. w. W., or Bolshevik, is an advo-
| cate of direct action'-that is, the
enforcement of his own individual
opinion and desire regardless of the
will of the majority. The advocate of
| direct action is not always identified
with the l. w. w. organization, for he
sometimes gets into official position
and proceeds with his direct action
| principles in the enforcement of his
individual will regardless of the will
of the people as expressed in form of
law. No man who has been observing
has failed to recognize acts performed
! by the government officials in the last
few months bearing all the character
istics of direct action 1t is true that
they did not drive spikes in saw-logs
or put emery dust in the lubricating
oil of mills, but they none the less
effectively set their own personal
judgments above the spirit if not the
letter of the law, to the injury of
property rights just as valuable and
just as sacred as the property right
in a saw mill or an iron working
plant.
at makes little difference what
badge man may wear upon his coat
or what title he may acquire or as
sumo; if he is believer in direct
action he is in all essential respects
an anarchist and an I. w. w.
Fortunately for the future of the
American republic, the bolshevists are
relatively few. The great mass of the
American people are law loving and
law abiding. They recognize that our
governmental system is not perfect
and that many ills remain to be re-
moved; but they believe in going about
the curing of i'll in an orderly, lawful,
sane and intelligent manner. They
deplore direct action as certain to
lead to greater injustices than policy
of bearing with ills we have until a
remedy can be found and admins
tered.
/" Direct action in the seizure and
partial destruction or injury of prop
erty, or interests therein, has been eX-
cused upon the plea that it was neces-
sary as war measure, but the more
the people of the country study the
facts the more they are coming to
realize that the explanation is an eX-
cuse rather than a reason. Having
made known their condemnation of
direct action when exercised by the
more ignorant, and, therefore, less
responsible portion of our people, the
sober, thoughtful, and truly patriotic
citizens should now express in every
way in their power, and at every OPP
portunity, their condemnation of 'di-
rect action when exercised by men
in high places. The l. w. w. are few
the advocates of government by law
are many. And the many are on the
side of right and justice.
OF course everybody knows that