The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1922-09-07
Ward Co. Fair-sept. 1915 =
A SUCCESSFUL MASSACRE

A SUCCESSFUL MASSACRE
Outlook: Herrin, until lately OBJ
scure, has achieved infamy. That
southern Illinois mining town has be-
come known as the place where MUIR
der pays. Turks or Kurds who tor
ture to death defenseless Armenians
in order to rule the surviving popula-
ton with rod Of terror can now en-
JOY the f1attery of successful imita-
will have added a word to the LAM
guage. Nobody hereafter need to-
mistake the meaning of the verb "to
herrin".
1t was on June % that mob of
strikers at Herrin murdered in cold
blood score or so Of nonunion min
ers. For fendish cruelty that mob
has had, according to unrefuted re-
ports few equals. The strikers in
that mob were determined that no
body in that region should exercise
the liberty of working while they ex-
ercised the liberty Of refusing to
work. So they proceeded to prove
that anyone who tried to work would
be in peril Of suffering, not merely
death, but also agony. A strike is
a form of war, but this was worse
than war. The men who the strikers
killed with torture had surrendered.
They were not the vanquished in an
open though unjustifable fight; they
were the victims of worse than
british crime.
And that crime, after more than
SIX weeks, appears now to have been
complete success.
The issue raised at Herrin has
nothing whatever to do with the mer-
its of the strike. No matter what
any American may think of the
strikers cause he cannot, if he is an
intelligent and decent citizen, be Ito
use William Allen Whites phrase)
so per cent" for these strikers Of
Herrin; he must be 100 per cent
against them. There are means so
evil that they can render any cause
on behalf of which they are used
wholly negligible, for they constitute
in themselves an utterly evil cause.
Such a cause is that Of deliberate
terrorizing, murderous torture of the
defenseless. And it is that evil cause
that has apparently triumphed at
Herrin.
If free government is to endure, it
must provide means, not merely Of
Furnishing those who commit such a
massacre, but of preventing, by con-
stituted authority, such massacre
from taking place.
Do the people of Illinois propose to
do anything about it? If not, do the
people Of the United States?
This case is test of the American
system Of government.
Ordinarily a crime of violence, ac-
cording to the American theory, is
the concern of the community in
which it occurs. But when the whole
community is so tainted with the
crime that the individuals in the COM
munity by shielding the criminals
whether through sympathy or through
fear-become accomplices, shall JUS
tice go by default? If SO, govern
ment itself to that degree abdicates
and in its place rises anarchy.
The failure Of the county authori-
ties at Herrin, the failure Of the state
authorities in Illinois, to establish the
reign of law is not merely the failure
of county or state; it is the fail
ure of the nation. Where men can
rule by massacre, there is the end,
not only of liberty, but Of all that is
worthy to be called government.
| Ward Co. Fair-Sept. 1915 81
Dress has moral effect upon the
conduct of mankind. Let any gen
tleman find himself with dirty boots.
old surtout, soiled neckcloth, and a
general negligence of dress, and he
will, in all probability, find a CORE
spending disposition in negligence of
address.-Sir j. Darlington.