OCR Text |
Show -s " v THE MOB SPIRIT IF anyone has any doubt as to President Presi-dent Wilson's position on mobs and violence and necktie parties, he has only to read the following from his Buffalo address: I have been very much distressed, distress-ed, my fellow citizens, by some of the things that have happened recently. re-cently. The mob spirit is displaying display-ing itself here and there in this country. I have sympathy with what some men are saying, but I have no sym- pathy with the men that take their' punishment into their own hands; and I want to say to every man who . does join such a mob that I do not-recognize not-recognize him as worthy of the free institutions of the United States. There are some organizations in this country whose object is anarchy anar-chy and the destruction of law, .but I would not meet their efforts by making myself a partner in destroying de-stroying the law. I despise- and hate their purposes as much as any man, but respect the ancient processes pro-cesses of justice and I would be too proud not to see them done justice, however wrong they are. So I want to utter my earnest potest against any manifestation of the spirit of lawlessness anywhere any-where or in any cause. Why, gentlemen, look what it means : We claim to be the greatest democratic people in the world, and democracy means, first of all, that we can govern ourselves. If our men have not self-control - they are not capable of that' great thing which we call democratic government. A man who takes the law into his own hands is not the right man to co-operate in any . form or development of law and in- stitution. n |