Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-12-19
Il Lesson in La7Cfulness
From the Legionndires

T@HE stand of the American Legion for
orderly justice and stable democracy
found truly heroic illustration at Cen
tralia, Washington, on Armistice Day, when
a parade of ex-service men was fired upon
from Ambush, evidently by I. w. WIS hidden
in building just off the line of march. Four
of the soldiers were killed instantly Imagine
the scene and it's rush of emotions: the
Legionnares bending over their bleeding
comrades; the crowd of onlookers, at first
amazed, then furious as the dastardly crime
dawned upon them; the roar for vengence,
and the instructive surgng of the people to-
ward the place where the anarchists had
their lair.
But the outcome was not what might have
been expected; it was infinitely more won
derful and sou-reaching 1.-THE parade
halted momentarily by the burst of rifle and
pistol fire, eve quote from a soldiers &C
COUNT found itself transformed into a com
bat unit without means of protection as far
as firearms were concerned. But there was
no long hesitation. Men trained in modern
warfare men who had faced hell of machine
gun bullets, gas and high explosive shell,
turned to the task Of officers of the law
rather than the real fighting men they were.
A number of the alleged attackers were taken
in quick raid on the hall of the I. w. w..
from where most of the firing appeared to-
have come and the prisoners WE'RE PRO-
TECTED FROM THE FURY OF THE MOB
BY MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN LEGION
who had seen their buddies' shot down in
colo blood That was power, that was
courage, that was heroism.. Truly does the
Georgia Legionnaire comment:
The action of those former service
men, many of whom had faced death
more than once on French battIefie1ds
not only stands as noble heritage to
pass on to their children and their chill
dren's children, but as a concrete ex
ample that mob law can be curbed as
ehectually throughout this country as
~ was on the eleventh of November in
Centralla. 1t is a lesson to nation
where such flare-ups are becoming ev-
eryday occurrences and placing in peril
hundreds of lives that could be saved
where cooler heads stepped in on the
side of law and order as against quick
mob violence and the so-calIed melting
out of mob Justice Those members
OF the [. w. W. who were taken into
custody at the time of, and since the
attack in Centralia, have been turned
over to the authorities, and properly so.
The law is there and it should function.
At any rate the American Legion is will
ing to give it a chance, and in doing
this it offers to the world the most mag
nificent example of civilization and one
hundred per cent Americanism that has
been witnessed since the menace of Boil
shevism and 1. W. W.'ism appeared on
the horizon of the nation.
This is the sentiment to foster and this the
service to emulate if we would save our be-
1trJTY 11Nr 1oxry
alien breed but also from the lawless i'm
pulses which all to frequently spring up
amongst us ourselves. Weak men can make
mobs, but only strong men can do what those
ex-soldiers did at Centralia. Bolshevists be-
lieve in taking the law into their own hands,
but true Americans stand for we'll ordered
justice. The scurviest criminal can defy gov
eminent, but the good citizen upholds it,
even to the extent of giving that criminal
due trial.