Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1919-09-11
OTHER CAUSES"


causes.
"oTHER CAUSES"
"Other causes" aside from the
high cost of living, that has created
SUI much unrest throughout the coun-
try, reminds one that:
'The earth was made so various,
that the mind
3 OF desultoy studious of change
And pleased with novelty, might
be indulged.v
Lieutenant Colonel Samuel t. An
sell, the liable and fearless champion
of the soldiers" says that ethe spirit
Of our soldierly is sore; it is aware
that it has been subjected to a sys-
tenn ill-adapted to the citizen-soldier
and his development, that it has been
subjected to system which is not in
consonance with our institutions,
which is contrary to our traditions
and sentiments, which belongs to an
age and a system of government with
which we insist upon having no other
connection" A brave pioneer in for
mulating this idea is Hugh Jaffries,
who served lover there and came
back with sergeant's chevrons, and a
determination to change some of the
"Roman customs" that prevail in the
management of armies. He is pres
ident of the American Military Re-
form Association, with headquarters
in Washington, and with the Amer
lean Sentry as the organ to put the
case of Americanism before the
people. His voice and pen are enlist
ed for "justice in the army establish
ed under laws enacted by the people
These able champions of reforms in
the court martial and the disciplinary
systems in the army, declare that
"the American soldier is proud, and
justly So" but mot proud of the sys-
tenn of discipline to which for mo-
ment it became subjected; it was not
exalted by its experience; it was not
satisfied with a treatment which was
regarded as unnecessary as it was
harsh and unhelpful."
These spokesman of the soldiers
speak an abundance Of truth when
they assert that "the spirit of SOL
diery is sore" This has been eviden-
ced in many ways, and the fact that
three-fourths of the soldiers insur-
ance policies have been allowed to
lapse is one of the indications.
CLIQUES AND CLASSES
Reconstruction" will have to pro-
coed until Democracy is rediscov-
cred, and that time will come when
the United States returns to sys-
tenn Of rule by the majority of the
whole people Russia swept aside the
autocrats and the landed aristocracy
and then the cropping masses flop
ped out of the frying pan into the
fire by setting up another class dicta-
torship, composed of workmen headed
by professional agitators. In our own
United States we have been approach
ing this same method, in spots! Some
of the cliques got under cover thru
the miscarriages of the Food and Fuel
Administrations and out Of the fog
of war there has peered the visages
of packers, coal barons and sugar re-
finers. Organized propaganda has
set out to defeat the courts and the
laws of the land in order that bad
citizen, doubtless properly jailed for
throwing bombs in San Francisco,
might escape. OF this same type of
Bolshevists who demand supremacy
for the lowest classes of people, there
has been the l. w. W., and the rev.
olutionists who were defeated when
Ole Hanson issued his famous proc
lamation headed: Omitted States of
America, City of Seattle"
!! So far the classes and the cliques
have won on substantial victories, but
they are very much on the job in this
fall of 1919. And the Seattle story
shows that the good old ship of state
may be depended to sail true course
despite disturbing gusts and squalls.
All Of which dissertation leads up
to the point. of the story, that classes
and cliques must give way in the
period of Reconstruction" to healthy
Americanism, which should be invig-
grated by the notice the President is