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Show NOT CONVINCING. If Heflin of Alabama had pummelcd Norton of North Dakota to a jeLy not hiug ould have been proved as regards re-gards the Bernstorff $50,000 slush fund. On the other hand, if Norton had walloped wal-loped his southern colleague he would not have, been placed beyond suspicion. Ono noticeable thing occurred during this near fight upon the floor of the house of representatives and that was tho charge down the aisle of Cooper of Wisconsin and Baer of South Dakota with tho intention of mixing in the fight. Cooper has always had the German Ger-man vote in the Badger state and Baer was specifically mentioned by Colonel Roosevelt as one of the congressmen unfit to hold his seat. Physical encounters used to occur quite frequently in congress in the "good old days," but there has been a marked decrease iu the number of such spectacles in recent years. Before the war American statesmen used to meet on the "field of honor," but that method of settling personal quarrels went out of fashion after the killing of Cilley of Maine by Graves of Kentucky, Ken-tucky, which practically amounted to murdeij for Cilley was near-sighted and unused to handling firearms, while Graves was a typical bravo and fire-eater. fire-eater. Rifles were the weapons used and the Maine representative was instantly in-stantly killed. Graves really should have been hanged for murder. The most disgraceful act of violence in either house of congress occurred iu May, 1S36, when Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina, a representative, stepped up behind Senator Charles Sumner and beat the anti-slavery leader with a heavy cane. The injuries of the Massachusetts Massa-chusetts statesman were so severo that he was compelled to absent himself from public duties for nearly four years and they eventually caused his death. Sumner had delivered a speech on "The Crime Against Kansas," and the assault as-sault was due to his vehement denunciation denun-ciation of the methods used to increase the number of slave states. The civil war was then looming up as a probability prob-ability and a little less than five years later the storm broke. But disloyalty charges just now are far more serious than they were sixty years ago. At that time the people of i the country wero divided on the ques-j ques-j Hon of slavery and there had been many j years of fierce discussion. Some of the j early presidents had been slaveholders ! and there was at least some justification I for a difference of opinion. But there i is no justification for a difference of opinion regarding the war with Germany, Ger-many, now that the die has been cast. All the citizens of the United States are either for the flag or against it. Those who are for it are standing up in the broad light of day and showing their devotion, while those who wish to aid the black eagles of Prussia are dotting in secrecy or dropping a hint here and a jibe there and making covert insinuations regarding regard-ing the manner in which the president is conducting the war. These disloyalists are being unmasked, and it is a great pity they cannot all be placed in jail I along with the I. W. YT. leadrs and the j pro-German conspirators who have been trapped by the United States secret service. It is a bad time for congress- men who are under suspicion to run any bluffs. If they want to prove their loyalty and keep their records clear they can do so by. holding up the hands of the president. |