The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1920-12-28
MOST ~DESPICABLE
OF CRIMES

treason, SayS WebsterS New In
ternational Dictionary, is I'm general,
the offense of attempting by overt
acts to overthrow the government of
the state to which the offender owes
allegiance There are some other
definitions, of course, but that n is
sufficient for now
Not long ago The Silver State
talked with a Justice of the Supreme
Court of Nevada, who remarked in
the course of a general conversation:
I'VE shall have to depend on the
the country press of Nevada to a
great extent during the coming year
to educate the people to a realization
of what a serious thing defiance of
the Constitution of the United States
really is. The people do not realize
what they are doing. 1t would be
bad to have to prosecute any con
siderable number of citizens for trea-
son. yet hat is what many of them
are ignorantly committing when they
speak Of defying the liquor law
They do o realize that prohibition
Is a part of the Constitution and that
no Legislature, nor Congress, nor
President has one iota of power to
change it. In law, there is no dis
tinction between principal and ac-
c~essories or abettors when the crime
of treason is committed. The man,
or woman, who c~onceals a defiance
of the Constitution is equally guilty
with the one who defies."
The Justice undoubtedly spoke the
truth when he said ignorance was
responsible for a great part OF the
talk against prohibition. But ignor-
ance excuses no man, or woman in
law. The Constitution of the United
States is not to be tempered with by
citizens of his country, or any other
country. There are a few persons in
Winnemucca who need to take that
lesson home to themselves before 1t
is too late.
Citizens of the United States, en-
crossed in a great presidential cam
paign, have overlooked the alarming
spread and meaning of prohibition
violations. Now that the excitement
of election time is over. a blaze of
intelligent indignation is sweeping
the land, directed in the first instance
against officers who do not perform
their duties. 1t is a startling thing
to contemplate, that in this state, as
in others, men are to be found who
have held up their right hands before
their fellow citizens and before AL
mighty God, and said Il do solemnly
promise and swear to uphold the Con-
stitution of the United States. and the
Constitution and laws of the State OF
Nevada, so help me Cod" and who
then openly and b%raZenly defy that
Constitution-the most righteous doc
ument in this world.
Almost untold thousands of brave
Americans have given their lives in
support of this Constitution. Twice
as man women and children have
suffered all that human beings a
suffer In their moral defense of it,
Humboldt county and Winnemucca
have erected a splendid high school
and filled it with an able corps of
instructors, wherein loyalty is n
" tuO plliIC tilISo ouSnt. iiQ CT
the young folk-future citizens-who
attend that school to receive educa-
tion in theory, are confronted by
that more able instructor-example-
day by day, on their way to and from
school, which teaches them that while
they are in theory taught consecra-
ton to this free government and its
institutions, in reality their fathers
are c~Ondoning OF even abetting
open violations of a provision of the
Constitution. If children are to be
brought up with that idea in their
heads. they do not need a high school
education to fit them for the lives
they will lead.
We find occasionally the amazing
exhibition of a citizen who says that
because law is defied in other places
it may be safely defed in Winnie
mucca. Which is the same as saying
that n murder makes another one
justifiable. San Francisco is frequent
ly held up as an example of how
people do in other places. News from
the Coast is to the effect that in FIVE
days more than twenty thousand sig
natures were voluntarily affixed to
petitions for the recall of two judges,
Oppenheim and Sullivan. who were
taking sides with ~violators of the law
and protecting them. More than four
thousand names every working day.
Approximately ten names a minute
for each day! And reports from the
Coast are that people were crowded
about the petitions in such throngs.
that but a relatively small number
could get a chance to sign! And yet
some men remain blind to the signs
of the times. that the people are
awake and mean to see their Consti-
tuition upheld % as much as they
meant it in any war!
Another illumination of the spirit
of the people comes from the incident
nj Santa Rosa frinIp lynching he