The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1935-01-31

happen in country of some supposed culture passes
comprehension.
And then the Administrator of the MIRA voiced the
feeling that had been growing in all thoughtful mems
minds Il know the normal reaction of this MIRA
efforts is that If power of kind be seized there
is limit to its application For long time thought
sincerely that the newspaper nsstence upon writing into
their code clause saving their constitutional rights
pure surplusage. now see more clearly why these
gentlemen were apprehenslve
Forceful words words that brought home to millions
who had not fully realized what occurring under
their clearer vision of where the of events
in our own land might lead us.
considerable sector of the American mind has been
purged of many illusions. We wish it possible to
record that it has also been purged of fear that others
authority besides General Johnson had been frank and
forceul in public recognition of the folly Of the at
tempt rule the American people by edcts handed down
from seat of authority
Whatever the effect upon those who would place
halter about the necks of all of great and growing
number of Americans awakened fuller realiza-
ton that no interference by any Government with the
customs the habits. the traditions and the fokways of
people can be Uniformed except by of two means.
One of these means is the common consent of the
governed from which source alone democracy draws
its power; and then, unless public opinion be
whelmingy aligned against minority trivial as to be
negligible, Governmental edict which transgresses
what free hold to be their naenabe rights be
enforced by the orderly processes of law.
The other means at the command of Government
which seeks rule rather than discover and
the will of the people is the blood purge.
To say that no such ultimate horror is possible in
America is to beg the question Who would have dared
to predict three years age that it possible in
Germany? 1t is possible wherever and whenever any
people be cajoed bullied into placing supreme
power their ordinary ways of living and conducting
their affairs in the hands of small hand
full of men.
Edicts must be enforced or they are mere jokes and
their promulgators public laughing stocks Once the
principle of government by edict is accepted, those who
accept it must abide the consequences We have
in free America free deprived of their liberty sent
prison. for offense which in all history has
been held crime We have deprived of their
of livelihood for failure to obey rules of conduct
which they have subscribed consented.
What is to happen when men refuse to- obey these
edcts How they be enforced other than by machine
guns in such event? There way to enforce them
but by the of force. Those who, resist must be
"liquidaed" Otherwise the whole theory of the super
iory of Government to its citizens fails utterly and its
proponents must resign or be dethroned.
We believe that the realization Of those possible
ultimate consequences of any system of government by
edict brought home to the people of America by the
Of June &c. 1884 and that the tide of public sen
ment began them away from supne acceptance Of
dogma handed down from above toward the reasserton
oil the ancient right of all men to regulate their lives
and rule their affairs