The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1921-12-23
AMERICANISM
AND WAR
(By Robert Bridges)

You might reply by saying that we
suppress criminals by force. l say
that crime has no principle behind it.
You never heard of the burglars
holding a convention and talking
about the repression of their rights.
NO. They acknowledge they have no
rights.
But it is entirely different when
we are confronted with men and
women who have an idea and believe
in that idea. Then, if you think
they are deluded the only way to dis
illusion them is to show them bet
ter idea. You cannot convert them
by force.
Did the use of force stamp out the
Christian religion? Year in and year
out, for over two hundred years the
Roman government kept burning
them at the stake, throwing them in
the arena to be devoured by wild
beasts, torturing them, rovering
them with the skins of wild beasts
and having them worried to death by
dogs; covering them with tar and
burning them as torches to make
light for noctural picnic. All these
terrible and repressive measures were
used; yet they failed, failed miser-
bly,. Why, if the mere act of estab-
| lishment were the sole measure of
/ recognition the Christian church
, could afford to build monument to
Nero and Diocletian. They helped
in a way to establish the church.
Read if you will the account that
Tacitus, the Roman historian, gives
of these early prosecutions! Read
| the letters exchanged between Pliny
the Younger, Emperor Traian when
Traian sent. Pliny the Younger to the
province of Pontus as proprietor.
| These letters show that even in those
early days force failed.
1t not only failed but it strength
ened the hand against which it was
directed.
If doctrine OF theory is erroneous
the way to kill it is to let the sun
shine on it. Error is like the moth.
1t cannot stand the sunshine. Like
the moth thrives in darkness. Shut
it up, turn the key on it, and it null
tiplies and thrives. AS Thomes JEFF
ferson said, Error is harmless if
| Truth is left free to combat it,"
There is just the difference be-
tween Truth and Error: Truth says,
"Come into my shop; look at my
wares, examine them; pull them,
twist them; see if you can find any
shoddy in them; investigate me, talk
about me, attack me, and if l can't
give you the worse of any argument
| will own the corn" And as a re-
suit Truth always profits by any
attack upon it. By attacking it you
call the attention of others to it.
Yes, talk about the Truth all you
please. But it will always win.
On the other hand. Error says:
"Don't talk about me; believe in me
because | said it was so. | am gen.
uine and it is rank sedition for you
to attack me or to question me. You
are guilty of disloyalty. You are
Bolshevik, an Anarchist. Red, and
are not loyal to the flag; you have
insulted our soldiers and sailors and
you are pro-German."
Yes, Error always talks about ev
erything except the point in issue and
| it always calls vile names and uses
abusive epithets and always wants
to call in the police to put somebody
in Jail.
You never heard in all your life
| VI IIuCil uollS lOlSCs ~ dUONS
force, it scorns it's use.
And you will always find Error
using simply because it has NO
OTHER WEAPON. And it uses the
weapon it has-FORCE.
AS l have said, there is no limit
to the examples that might be cited
to show the utter fallacy and folly
of using force in affairs of thought.
| al, ~,f +l<,
cruel prosecutions of the middle
ages. OF how torture was en-
ployed to convince men that they
were in error. All creeds used it
when in power.x Catholics against
Protestants and Protestants against
| Catholics and in every instance it
failed 1t resulted only in making
believers more firm in their faith.
One of the ships which the English
Continued on page four)