Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1920-01-23
Oar Loud Mouthed Radicals,
The May7ower and the Declaration

rsgArdsd - pubic n0isancss and dan
gers 70 the state,
That their doctrines were not - lib-
erai az those OF lator and happier ages
doem't count Tho twentieth century
has the same duty. The nftisth oen-
fury, with constitutions and dokmas
and forms Of social life which We can't
now oonceiva will DO the same A
burglar win always ps punished II
we can gst ut him. A destructionist
win DO put out ar destroyed by what.
ever government men have. The duty
Of self preservation = the most im-
perious duty Of the state
So whom the rev pN Grant tallus
lightly Of very different New EngS
landefs, James Otis and John Adams
and Sam Adams, Ralph waldo Elmer
son and Wendell Phillips and William
Lloyd Garrison and John A. Andrew,
he seems TO be attempting, unoon-
sciously, a sort Of historical rnystinca-
tion that will deceive nobody VINO
doesn't want to be duped. John Adams
and Sam Adams we're very d!sstmilar
men. Phillips. the urbans and violent
patrician, and William Lloyd Garrison
were disun,onists disoryanizers, dis
rupters OF the state. They have no
authority now In history. It was the
union idea, not their abolition idea,
that united the north and won the war
To appeal carelessly to an accidental
collection OF illustrious men gives no
strength to the appeal. Here, as elso-
where. for centuries there were injus-
tice. intolerance. q deficient idea Of free
nASta ~
more rigorous in doctrine and practice
than we Is the least of all reasons TO
use their names as sponsors for the
gospel of overthrow, murder, social
tyranny. II they erred-and they often
erred-they were not wrong, accord
ing to their lights. They were not OVER
here to have their system destroyed.
There is something utterly unintelli-
gible to the ordinary American in all
this palaver of the radicals about the
Mayflower and the Declaration of indie
pendence. The forms and names Of
our own history of growing freedom are
used, carelessly and untustly to boil
ster UP the cause of men who wish alb
selutely to subvert freedom. Because
the men Of Massachusetts bay had the
severity and narrowness Of their time.
as they had many noble and strong
qualities that will maintain their
memory always; because they were
prejudiced and bitter in matters of re-
ligion, some of their descendants are
good enough to tell us that the disci-
pies of murder must be allowed to stay
with US. Because Christmas mince pie
and the Maypole stirred the wrath OF
choleric Miles Standish; because the
Puritans deported members OF sects
whom everybody respects nowadays,
why. murderers, bomb-throwers. or
ganizers Of massacre. deliberate enc
mies of this government and OF any
government where orderly freedom and
social justice exist, must not be driven
away and Debs must be set free. Be-
cause certain Puritans eeported per-
sons harmless. from the modern point
Of view. We must not deport rank as
sassins. Members Of ancient New
England families" who labor under
that great illusion are entitled. doubt
less, to all their genealogical distinc-
ton; but the majority Ct US, hearing
them. are divided between aston!sh-
ment and wrath.-New York Times.