The Kadoka press and Kadoka reporter. [volume] (Kadoka, S.D.) 1910-1923, 1919-10-17
Cleaning Up A
Rotten Sore

Sioux Falls Journal: A decision
rendered last week by Judge Alva
! +. TavlOr of the state circuit
court, seems to be a preliminary
hperation for removal of a cancer
from the BODY polite of South
| Dakota. The decision involved
the Mennonite colony which has
tcnaCleS reaching into the couu-
ties OF Bon omme, Douglas,
Yankton, Hutchinson, Turner,
Beadle and MCFherSon counties,
with small groWthS being devel.
Oped in other portions of the
state. The case grew out of pro
Ceedln2S instituted by the state
OF South Dakota against the col
OnV, with proceedings Centered
In Beadle county, and was the re-
suit OF Investigations commenced
IA year and a half ago by the
! South Dakota council of defence,
when MANY disloyal acts on the
part OF the colony were disclosed.
! The cancer fastened itself onto
South Dakota in 1873 when 500
members of the colony drifted
into Bon Homme county from
southern Russia, a German speak
ing province of that country.
, They broughr with them the Gus
toms OF their native land, they
e recognized no law but that Of the
y church, spoke no language but
the German and read only Ger
! man publications, rearing their
children as they had been reared.
Ehe colony dritted along and
grew and prOSpered, and no one
eudeaVOrInp 10 teach them the
ways of AmerlCaiSm, and none
apparently caring how they hved
! or what they did SO long as they
did not treSpass on the rights of
J others The war brought out
y their true character and showed
TO the world the menace which
South Dakota had been harbor-
ing for tOrtvfive wears. They
refused to render financial aid 10
the Government, would not give
up their sons to perform the or
diOary camp duties of soldiers,
many being sent to the peniten.
tiary tor INSTRUMENTATION. Draft
boards and army officers were in
hot water from the day of the
first draft, as the ColOnlStS dCk-
nOWled2ed no allc9iOnCe except
that of the church. 1t beC2me
J necessary to make them do SO by
force what could not get accom-
pllShed IN any other way. Their
livestock was COnhSCdtcd and
converted into liberty bonds.
Threats of bodily harm made in
dividuals see a light of patriotism
which would not be seen in any
other way. and ultimately court
proceedings were started to dis
solve the society and scatter it to
the four winds. The decision OF
Judge Taylor Is one of the pro
CeedinQS t that end. Still the
Mennonite colony is not wholly
; to blame for what it is. Our ed-
uCauOnal system up 10 the pres
ent has permitted the society t.
teach only German in It's schools.
There is no record that any poll
tiCldn OF the past iOrty-tIve wears
has gone among them and en-
deaVOred 10 SOW the seeds Of
patriotism. Business men have
catered to them and their beliefs
q by bidding for their trade through
n liberal advertising in their favor
h tie papers, and there is no eyi-
o denCe that any one of those ad-
vertlSementS ever breathed line
OF patriotism IN the interest of
e America and her institutions.
e Tee Mennonites under those cir
I CumStanCeS naturally believed
4 they were the chosen, for did not
= politicians and business men ca.
i ter to them without a word as tO
II their customs and Clanishness
" Ii is pretty late in the dav to
If commence TO clean up this rotten
= sore, but had 1t not been for the
y war it would doubtless have con.
I tinued to thrive and spread il,
n nefariouS practices of disloyalty
over the land.