The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-02-22

Emil Coffin. who attempted to assassinate Premier C1emen-
eeau in Paris, belongs to a breed OF Vipers that ought to be
exterminated. This class should not be permitted TO live in any
country that claims to be civilized. Humanity must defend
itself.
We have destroyed the larger animals and nearly all ferne
animals, excepting in Russia, where wolves are still predatory,
and continue taking a toll of human life, and these are on a par
with anarchists and Bolshevists, who believe in taking human
life for the mere joy Of b%loodletting. They are worse, because
the wolves are urged on by pangs of hunger, and are seeking
food in the only way they know how to get it They are follow
ing the bent of their natures.
The human vipers are loafers and idlers who will not accept
the blessings of civilization and human society, and do their
part of the labor necessary to %perpetuate these things, They are
at war with their kind, and their only purpose is to kill, murder,
lassassinste, by any means in their power, and they pick out tor
their victims the most conspicuous individuals in order to spread
terror, and show what they can do, and how insecure lite is tor
those who displease them in any way.
They would like to make the fate OF Cemenceau the fate of
every member of the peace conference, and if they had their way
they would destroy every man who conforms to the rules and
customs of civilized life to the extent Of taking a bath occasion
ally and wearing a clean shirt. Such people have forfeited the
right to live, and they should be driven into some remote last
ness, where they will have opportunity to kill only their own
kind, or they should be exterminated and put where they can DO
no harm, The bloody-handed culprts and all their ~apologsts
and defenders deserve the same fate. These aghators and dis
turbers, some OF them men Of intelligence. and education. nerve
the assassins arm, and are accessories before the TACT OF every
killing. Their guilt is equal, if not greater, and they are entitled
to the same punishment,
Men who harbor murderous designs against their fellows,
and who give expression to these thoughts, are the instigators
OF crime, and the aiders and abettors of assassination, Thought
and expression precede action, and every act may be called
thought coarsened and made concrete I
In olden times in England to imagine the death OF the king
was regarded as high treason, and punished accordingly, This
on the ground that the thought harbored or expressed is the
birth and genesis OF the act, The act is the iuhillment or
capitalization of the thought, and the eviLminded are partiei-
pants in the act and are equally c~ulpabe,
Congressman Victor L. Berger and his associates-one OF
them a college professor~have been given t~wentyyear sentences
in the pentertiary. Severe? They deserved greater punish
nent, Their crimes are more f~lagitious than the act OF the
assassin, Because Of their positions they WELD a greater
influence for evil, and, being intelligent, they know better, and
can differentiate between right and wrong,
Society owes to its own safety and w~ell-being to exter-
~ - r. L-.l JHn EMA ADO. - .a~,akw l. A. $4,000
its members, and whenever a nest of vpers is found It ought
to be broken up and destroyed, T%emporizing and lsniency
give encouragement and make matters worse. To insure pub
lie safety the head of the serpent must be crushed, the breed Of
vipers exterminated.