The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1920-10-06
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1920
BOLSHEVISM(?)

Some days ago the papers carried
the news that certain storekeepers in
Alabama had been served with notice
to close their stores and keep them
closed until cotton went up. The pa
pers yesterday stated that notice had
been served on ginners in Anderson
county to close down their ginning
plants until cotton went to 35 cents
per pound, the notice being given by
a typewriter paper, with a match
stuck into the paper indicating the
means to be employed in enforcing
the order.
We cannot bring ourselves to be-
lieve that any band of people in this
section would undertake to enforce
such an order. We prefer to think
that all this work is the work of a
crank, or of practical joker. We
hope it is.
But at the same time, it must be
remembered that there is spirit of
anarchy in the land. Two weeks ago
an effort was made to blow up the
offices of J. P. Morgan & Co., in New
York. A man was arrested yesterday
in Pittsburg loaded with dynamite
under circumstances indicating that
he had the explosive for an unlawful
purpose. Men have been quitting their
employment in various sections of the
country these many years, as they
had a perfect right to do, and then
have undertaken to keep their en-
ployers from obtaining other labor,
which the employers had a perfect
right to do, and in order to circum-
vent the employment of others resort
has been had to assault, murder and
other crimes. 1t all spells anarchy.
And we need not fool ourselves into
thinking that there is no such thing
as anarchy in the land.
1t behooves all of US to be on the
watch. Constitutional government
and the inalienable rights of the peo-
pie may only be preserved by the
government being strong enough to
protect these rights, and by electing
men to office with nerve enough to
enforce the law. For crimes growing
cut of spirit of this kind, the law
should be ruthlessly enforced, so as
to speak a warning to other evil
doers. We have been comparatively )
free from the ills which have beset
other sections of the country, large
ly because our people are for the
most part native Americans, but
"eternal vigilance is the price of lib
erty," whether of the nation or of
the individual, who has a right to
control his own.
Whether the notices served in An
derson County are the work of mis-
chief makers, practical jokers, or
what not, the officers of the law
should apprehend those who have
given the notice, and the people
should know what kind of people they
are. They should be made to know
that they are tampering with dyna-
mite and not with cheap cotton.
On the other hand, if it shall ap-
pear that some misguided persons
have decided that the proper thing to
do is to take the matter of regulating
the country into their own hands, the
sooner they are given proper instruc-
ton at the hands of the law the bet
ter. South Carolina is no more the
place for the night rider and the
house-but tner than it. is for. the-4ynch:
er, the murderer or any other crimi-
nal. Arson is crime against the law,
as is the burning of a gin-house and
if property be destroyed in this state
as has been done in Alabama by an
outlaw mob, the perpetrators of the
deed should be hunted down and
punished to the extent of the law,
and no mercy be shown. To that end
let every law-abiding citizen lend his
efforts.