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Show SHOTGUN OWNERS II Would Organize to Police Cities and Towns With Little Expense. By R. B. HURST. The German answer to President Wilson's speech was: "It will be answered by the sword, and that a hard blow would come sooner than expected. ex-pected. ' ' To the people of the United States, this can have but one meaning, and that is that our country will be invaded bv the enemy, not as invasion has been defined iu the past, but in the German way. This invasion does not mean that a hostile fleet will attack our shores, nor that an army will invade the country, as they invaded France and Belgium, but it "does mean that the Germans and pro-Germans in our own country, masking mask-ing under the guise of loyal Americans, yj. make a concerted attack upon our rjiistries. food supply, crops, ra.il-Vfroails, ra.il-Vfroails, waterways and shipping. Jt means that unless there is organization of all our resources and that every one realizes the serious situation and pledges himself to the protection of his country against the enemy, we will be j subjected to the same treatment as the Belgians. The enemy has disregarded all rules of humane warfare and have proven themselves to bo the most treacherous race in the world. They will stop at nothing to gain their end, and, as the past four years have shown us, they stoop to unheard-of horrors, destroy foodstuffs, burn manufacturing plants, ravage our fields, destroy our shipping facilities, wreck our trains, plant bombs under bridges and anything else they eyo. think of. They would even go further, as they have done in the invaded in-vaded territory of Europe, and commit the lowest of crimes, even to violating the chastity of our homes. Germans are taught from childhood to cultivate hate, as shown by former Ambassador Gerard in his book, "My Four Years in Germany." Must Be Prepared. There are hundreds of thousands of Germans in this country who mingle with us every day. Many of them have realized the advantage of living in a tree country, where they are not held down under an iron hand, and have become be-come citizens of the United States. A large majority of these men have proved themselves good citizens and many are now fighting with our forces against the German oppression, but there are many more who have not forsworn their allegiance to the land that gave them birth and nothing else, and feel that they are bound to uphold the Terlaud, ' even at the sacrifice of iTheir own lives. These are the ones we must look out for and keep passive. , It is the duty of every American citizen to exhaust every resource iu de- jtnding his home and country, and, 'Sjle we cannot all join the army, every ev-ery man can show his patriotism in one way or another. Wo must provide sufficient protection protec-tion against mobs, riots and invasion by these enemy alieus who are still at liberty, and the plan of the National Association of Shotgun Owners will do more to solve this question thau any so far submitted. Tn the United- States it is estimated there are 10,000,000 shotguns. The shotgun is recognized as the' most powerful pow-erful weapon in case of mobs or riots and has been adopted in most municipalities munici-palities as riot guns. Even today enthusiastic en-thusiastic shooters have a feeling that, were our soldiers in the first-line trenches supplies with modern pump guns, loaded with good old American buckshot, there would be a great many Roches less in the world and less ammunition am-munition wa.sted. Protect Every City. The object of the National Aesoeia-lion Aesoeia-lion of Shotgun Owners is to organize as many of these shotgun owners as possible into a national home defense association, with local companies in each and every city and town in the country. Bv doing this wo provide a home guard" for each locality, composed of their own citizens, who have their own interests and homes to protect. In short, we are furnishing a state guard for each state without expense to them, as our members are already armed and will furnish thoir own ammunition. am-munition. There will be no expense for movement move-ment of troops, for each local town and county will have its owu company, which will take care, of its own locality. lo-cality. These local companies, which are being organized, will elect their own officers front their members. Tho nfficers will keep in touch with the lo-l lo-l authorities, and, in case of trouble, wi mobilize the members on short notice no-tice for first aid in the protection of tlmjr lives, home and property. To cover the expenses of this organization, or-ganization, a membership fee of 50 cents is charged. Should there be a surplus over and above the necessary expenses, this money will be used for the purchase of magazines and other things that will interest the soldiers iu the cantonments and in the trenches. Patriotism and home defense is the keynote of tho association, and we will have done a great good for the country when wo cover this broad land with local organizations of shotgun owners who have the courage to use their shotgun, if need be, against the enemies of our country. There is no plausible reason why every shotgun owner should not be a member of this association, for the only qualifications arc that you owu a shotgun shot-gun and are a loyal American citizen. The national offices of the association associa-tion are located at, 17 East Eleventh street, New York. |