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Show THE COWARDICE OF TREASON By RUTH TAYLOR If you have read any of the many books recently issued which have exposed the work of subversive sub-versive groups and enemy agents in this country, you have wondered, won-dered, as have I, at the mentality mental-ity of these workers against America, and have puzzled over what quirk in their brains drove them into treasonable movements and activities. It is hard for those of us who love America and who believe in the democratic way . of life, who are steeped in the traditions of loyalty and fair-play, to understand under-stand how American men and women of even ordinary intelli. gence could fall for the clap-trap sophistrits of subversion and its absurd theories of racial and religious re-ligious superiority. We laughed at first. Their conspicuous costumes, cos-tumes, their secret societies with the high-sounding names, their rosters in which each member was an officer, all sounded like some game that was a figment of ; a childish imagination. But, in war such games are no longer humorous. According to our temperament, they have angered or amused us. We have called them either traitors, trait-ors, demanding ,: their complete eradication, or fools, regarding them with contemptuous amusement. amuse-ment. "Whom the gods would ed-stroy ed-stroy they first make amd,"- we said in derision. But we have overlooked the one thing they' undeniably are cowards. . Afraid to face life, unable to meet the daily competition com-petition we each of us have to encounter, they have indulged, in the deadly dissipation of self pity, whihe is a more potent drug than any drink or dope known to physical degenerates. . They sought alibis for their own failure in life by condemning wholesale people of different faiths, backgrounds or political affiliations than their own, and they sought to make themselves big in a society of their own making. They could not face the truth, so they made up lies to excuse themselves and called them facts. They surrounded themselves them-selves with parasites, each intent in-tent on praising the other like the apes in the Jungle Book. And some Americans who should have known better have taken advantage advan-tage of those little people, flattering flat-tering them in hopes of getting the political votes they thought these self-styled Feuhrers could command. They are cowards as are all would-be tyrants. There never was a despot yet who was free from fear, who dared to walk unguarded, un-guarded, to face the mob alone. Only a fearless man dare allow I freedom to an opponent. Only a j fearless man dare play fair. Only j a man who is sure of his own strength, of his own ability, dare grant an equal opportunity to his ! neighbor. j Democracy demands much of its citizens in return for the great gift of freedom which it gives them. Only the cowards are afraid to respond. Only the cowards are traitors. |