The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1920-04-30
LET THE OPTIMIST COME FOR
WARD NOW!
Manufacturers Record.)


Strikes are in evidence every
where, but these strikes do not mean
that the country is going to the dogs
or. that business is going to be halt
ed. They are the natural outcome OF
the spirit of uncertainty and turmoil
and nerve tension through which the
world has been passing for the last
six years. But they should not be
taken as a sign of national decay or
of any breakdown of business.
For the last FIVE years or more the
= seeds of discomfort have been 5oWn
throughout the land. Germany did its
utmost to turn America into hell in
order that we might not be a power
for good against it's evil designs. Pro-
Germanism in all it's vilest forms did
its utmost to give aid to the devil in
his work, and the devil was probably
never so active in human history as
he has been for the last five years,
in co operation with the ablest agent
he has ever had, namely, Germany.
Bolshevism, with all of it's accurs-
ed doctrines, has been preached to
almost every workman in the land.
Millions of aliens, foreign 20 Ameri-
canism in thought as In birth, have
fallen an easy prey to radical labor
? teachings, and American business
men, preachers and teachers have
fallen short of their duty in working
to counteract these evil teachings.
We should not be surprised, there
i, fore. that out of all these conditions
there has come a spirit of unrest and
of strikes. Men have been made to
believe by the Government itself and
by many publications, sccurar and
religious and by some ministers, that
all the business interests of the coun-
: try were engaged in d great profit
eering campaign, seeking. to rob
each other and everybody else. The
effect of this campaign of evil has
been widespread, but It has not de-
stroyed the genuine Americansm Of
the genuine working people Of the
country. Many of them have been
misled. and at this we need not be
surprised. They have seen the mount
inc cost Of living. and have been
made to believe that it was due 10
the work Of highway robbers, known
as profiteers, instead Of being most
ly due to growing scarcity of food
stuffs and of other things which en-
ter into life and to the world infla
ton which alone would have created
a large part Of the hign prices now
prevailing.
Three years ago the edlC0r OF the
Manufacturers Record begged Presi
dent Wilson to use his official author
ity 20 impress upon the country the
danger Of a great food shortage
and the consequent high prices, say
ing to Mr.. Wilson that if he did not
do so there would certainly come
socialistic and anarchistic unrest, by
people being misled and made to be-
lieve a lie. But President Wilson,
while recognizing the facts we gave
him as to the food supply, preferred
that they should not be mace public,
= believing that they would create a
$, food panic.
The socialistic and anarchistic un-
:. rest of the hour is the natural out
come of the suppression of the truth
in the past. But this unrest does not
spell disaster. Sooner or later men
will learn the facts for themselves,
and then there will be return to
sanity and to safety for the country
With all of our boundless resourc.
es; with a country more richly en-
dowed than any other land in the
world; with a population of more
than 1OO,OOO,OOO, unvexed by diff
fering languages and the arbitrar!
dividing lines of Europe; with /
large degree of homogeneity among
our people; with more active, vlr
lie population than any other land il