Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1922-07-20
PLEA FOR WAR PRISONERS.
Ford's Paper Urges Amnesty for
Men Still in Jail.


that the shame of it might burn,
the insistent statement is made
that the United States lags be-
hind the whole world in giving
amnesty to political prisoners,
says the Dearborn Independent.
The enemy agents who blew up
our factories and docks have
been released: Military spies Of
the enemy, taken in the very act
of espionage, have been released.
Suspect aliens OF every degree
have been released. But Ameri-
cans, whose chief fault was that
they held certain economic the
ory, are still in Jail. Of all the
nations joined in the war on Ell
ther side, only Russia and the
United States continue to use
prisons for the punishment Of
differences of political opinion.
Since the facts have forced Il
public hearing it is no longer
possible to quiet the conscience
with the notion THAT our political
prisoners are reds" and are,
therefore, just as well in Jail as
out. The facts are that the ma
jority of these men are Ameri-
cans, supposedly possessing tho
guarantees OF American citizen
ship, and that in very many cases
their arrest had nothing to do
with the war at all, not even
with the passions incident to war,
but were victims Of a plan, pro-
ceeding under cover OF the war
excitement, to terrorize certain
labor movements.
Men were arrested, thrown in
tn jail, railroaded TO prison under
long sentences, because they had
ideas about industry with which
others did not agree. Men were
arrested because they had ideas
about wages which were incon-
venient for the moment, and the
easiest way to suppress the idea
was to have the men hauled off
70 Jail. In no case was disloyalty
Proved m many cases it was not
even charged. Some of the men
had not even expressed their dis
taste for war, distaste shared
by millions of us whom no gov
ernment would dare touch.
But, aside from that, as politi-
cal prisoners, they are entitled to
the enlightened treatment which
ali the enlightened nations have
meted out to their political pris-
olers, namely, release and llber-
ty. Mot of these men are actu-
ally entitled to governmental
apology and reparation-but to
suggest it would be millenial.
The friends of these men and
the believers of liberty every.
where are making one last effort
to get American decency into ac-
tion. Their fear it that few of
the more favored men may be re-
leased as a sop to public opinion
and the rest forgotten. The very
possibility Of such an occurrence,
The very possibility OF such fear
under any system of Justice, is
significant in the extreme. Ii
Justice has become subject to
mass movements of opinion, it is
because of the extreme possibili-
ties for injustice in the hands of
everybody, from town marshals
upward, during the war. What
the friends of the prisoners want
is their liberty, but what we as
citizens shouia also desire is an
exposure of the methods by
which these men lost their lib
erty.
We know of the great lawless-
ness which today characterizes
official departments of the gov
ernment. There is robbery of the
United States mails; there is
thievery among private papers;
there is actual kidnapping of peo-
pie by the agents Of the govern
ment -eyen now, in these post,
armistice days! But even so, the
official lawlessness of war days.
was greater in extent. Worst of
all was the deliberate and diabol-
ical use Of the war passion and
the wartime power to satisfy pri-
svEte grudges. There is mo doubt
now that under cover of the war