New-York tribune., 1919-04-02
LittletOn Sees
PeopleatWa ar
With the Mob
In Speech at Luncheon of
Merchants Association.
Urges Americans to Fight
the Spread of Bolshevism

War between the mob and the peo-
pie confronts the world to-day, Mar
tin W. Littleton told 1000 members
and guests of the Merchants Asso-
ciation, at a record breaking luncheon
at the Hotel Astor yesterday.
Mr.. Littleton urged true Americans.
including soldiers returning from dis
tant battlefelds. to oppose the spread
ing plague of Bolshevik absolutism as
fercely as they had the absolutsm of
the German military machine.
Major General John F. O'Ryan said
the men tried in battle were return
ing home the strongest force of the
country for law and order He said
they had witnessed the disorganization
of the retreating Germans and were
determined that similar results shall
not reach the United States with the
ansrchistic ideas OF Lcninc, Trotzy
and their followers.
Colonel William Hayward. com
mander OF the 369th (colored} 1nfan-
try, Joined General O'Ryan in asking
that soldiers discharged from the ser
vice be given back their old 3obs. or
better ones.
They Won Ambition
Colonel Hayward said the men cs
back with increased ambition. COZ
dence and dependability. and th,er
business value was thua increased
II do believe i cannot escape
the conclusion-that we have to front
in the world to-day that which was
described by Victor Hugo as the war
between democracy and the mass, be
tween tho mob and the people" said
Mr.. Littleton. at is not war be
tween the people and the privileged
classes. 1t is war between the alb
solutism Of the mob and the free de-
of q free people.
"Thc doctrine OF the absolutist is that
he has the absolute truth, that there is
no doubt about his position, and that
everybody opposed to him must either
be silenced or exterminated Whether
IT was the absolutism of a Kaiser, or
the absolutism of a mob, it's still the
same thing, and still to be met.
1t is absolutism just the same, and
the onoly answer, after you have shot
1T to pieces if it can't DC disposed Of in
any other way, is found in the ideals of
Constitutional republic for which
these men fought aud to which these
boys arc returning.
A Fluid Huma nitarianism
IL there have been in this country
and there have been, to some cxtent--
those who would translate our concrete
nationalism into sort of a fluid hu
n1anitarianism that would flow out over
the world and mean nothing and achieve
nothing: and if there have been those
who would translate the concrete con
stitutional government for which our
fathers died and our brothers have now
died; IL there are those who would
translate that into a sort Of disgolution
OF powersif there arc those here. the
answer TO them will be given by the
four million men, who, in one service or
another, went to sustain this contest
on Europe's battlcfelds.
And If we at home have been Iu1led
into some sort of security that seeks
20 preach pacifism ind socialism and
communism, that seeks to compromise
with it.; IL we have been lullcd into
the idea that constitutional govern
mcnt can ever strike hands with any
Of thcse plaques which have infested
the world, thcae boys who arc return
ing to thia country will help give the
snawer, because they have seen with
their cyess they have felt the sensa-
tons, they have experienced the terror
and fear and the agony of war and
have known the anguish and suffering
They have known what nbsoutism
means turned loose in the world.
Il claim, my friends, that we are not
bold enough in defense Of our own