Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1920-03-11

The boys in Khaki dragged down
the weary French roads and rail-
ways to Brest and other ports.
Long, lean transports sped across
the Atlantic. westward. Washing
ton hummed with paper work in
Cident to the enormous task of dis
charging an army of four million.
The four million went back to
| their work-mOst of them.
AT home here the nation was re-
ruted to be at peace. Yet all over
the country there was unrest. An
Iarchists and other believers in the
eternal isms of life had seized the
unsettled times 10 make progress
and their diseased brains spread
their propaganda throughout the
nation.
Too, there was considerable le-
climate unrest among labor. fear
full that concessions it had gained
during the war would be taken
away, or that future demands
V ould be lost for want of the pres
sure of necessity caused by the re-
cent shortage of man power. ..
Leonard Wood. in his own way
did as much as possible to mitigate
this unrest. His great, soldier,
sailor and marine bureau in Chi
cago got good jobs for boys all
through the central west. He
preached the gospel of loyalty and
sanity all over the district, and
boldly declared personal and ag-
gressive warfare on the nefarious,
snake headed traitor who seeks to
turn America into the shambles of
ia Russia.
He did more than that. He
went into the field, as he had often
done before for America. An ugly
strife broke out in Omaha late in
1919. There was a race riot. The
mayor of Omaha, trying to dis
'Eerse mob after the arrest of a
negro. had been hanged and nearly
killed.
Leonard Wood, as commander
of the Central department. was or
Gered to take troops into Omaha,
Seventeen minutes later he was on
the way He went into Nebraska
and promptly began to function
through the military authorities.
He made no attempt to usurp their
power. just back them UP.
AS in all recent disturbances of
this kind in the United States the
Reds were simply awaiting a
chance to make big trouble out of
comparatively minor melees. They
lad plotted in Omaha to blow up
the city hall and police stations and
to make chaos generally. They
famed race prejudices into flame.
Woods solution was simple. He
called on the BOYS of the American
Legion, as the most valuable aides
he could find. They had training
in defense and he knew they would
defend their homes and their laws
to the last ditch. Four hundred
of them patrolled Omaha. Grad
TALLY law and order reigned
And Woods men had not dubbed
q head or fired a bullet.
Similar tactics had been used
previously by Wood when he was
ordered to Gary during the great
steel strike.
He placed himself and his men
ct the disposal of the civil author
tiles and worked through them. In
ether words Wood made military
Eutt dS tllCGtiNt cts pbs0ibIN buN 10
little irksome to civilian populaces
as possible, too.
His first announcement in Gary
was that he was not there to help
the steel capitalists or the strikers
nor to hinder either. He was there
to represent law and order, to
block all violation Of either by
either side. He said that if a man
didn't want to go to work he
shouldn't be forced to do so. If a
man did want to go to work he was
tc be allowed to do so.
The strikers asked him If pick
citing was to be barred. The COM
mander declared it was to be al
lowed If done peacefully and with
respect to the rights of others. But
there were to be no meetings al
lowed to plot treason to the United
States. The country must come.
first-and it did,
Civil authorities, backed and
aided by Woods boys" as they
call themselves, raided Red head
quarters and whiskey stills. They
Grove the anarchists out of Gary
and all good laboring men there
were satisfied to have it so, and
were glad to have the help of the
civil authorities and Woods forces
- :.