Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-02-10
- ex~. a1ternoonI ill., % !. :. - -sreenn Front
'sThe seat of goyerlfl4s.s is at the chy uaii, deciefcd

"a lnDA merican mayor, and he refused to bulge.
@%. No wonder that on Mayor Hanson $ desk stand great bouquets of
flowers, gifts of Seattle citizens who II eourageously behind this
brand of Americanism. On the mayors blottcr are hundreds of let
tiers and kilograms, not alone from the Pacific northwest, but from
New York and other eastern cities They are all Of one tenor. All de-
clare that they rejoice in the fact that an American mayor has met a
formidable issue squarely and punched it in the jaw.
And in the Seattle affair we note the usual sequence. The man
Who did the most to stir up all the trouble and arouse the local work
crs to strike has fed the city leaving those who were fooled by HIM
TO get out of the mess the best way they can.
That is usually the case. The ordinary workers of a city, who
have their homes established, whose children are in school and who
are struggling along, perhaps, feeling the pinch of the high cost of
living along with everyone else, is preycd upon by some outside ai-
tator who suddenly appears in their midst and tells them that all they
have to do is to assert themselves, take control of all industry
and the government, too, if necessary, and their hardships r at an
snd,
1t is not surprising that the fellow who started things in Seattle
Is a Russian who had been in this country only nine months. He is
Leon Rkowsky, alias Leon Green. Such scamps always have any
quantity of names, a new one for each community they enter. When
Rikowsky went up against a real American mayor he found things
different from what they had been in Russia. lie has yet to learn,
probably, that the American people have not been oppressed for GEN.
turtles as the people of Russia have and therefore, while the working,
man here may have his complaints, he is not IS susceptible to upris-
Ing and revolutions as are those who have been subjected to the dom
nation of the czars.
Everything may not be a we would have it here, but conditions
are so far better than anywhere else o N earth today that the least we
can do ii to sit tight and rejoice in our good fortune at being in a land
where conditions NJ as they are.
II is right and proper that We should strive to improve conditions
In every way possible, and they re being improved, but il must be
done in an orderly manner. We must respect the government and
stand behind the authority, as we ourselves have chosen it,
There is no group in the United States so powerful that it cannot
be overthrown through the ballot box if the people really want it
oyerthrown. No matter how strongly a boss or a eoterie of men may
be enirenched in power, that power is broken when the people elect
men who re opposed TO that boss or group of men.
1t is for us in America to study the great problems that have been
forced upon us a a result of recent world events and work out our so
luton in a peaceful and orderly fashion, as BELTS a great democracy.
And when any set of men attempt to place themselves above the gov
ernnent, as has Just been done in Seattle, every loyal American will
take the same attitude that Mayor Hanson took and declare that there
will be no eompromise-that the seat of government is at the city hall.
All honor to Mayor Hanson, of Seattle, for his true AmerieaniSn.
BY his fearless courage he has established a precedent that cannot fail
tohave its effect anywhere in this country where BOlsheysm may show
It's head hereafter.