Hide Article Text (OCR)
‘thg I bodies of voting men.■ith' exists to defend his country nndg Q fight its enemies. That duty does not con-I j10 sist simply cf repelling foreign invaders, or of keeping rebels from taking Washington, or of stopping the activity of anarchist bomb throwers. It consists of supporting the constituted authority, whether in a school district or a state, in the lawful discharge of its duty against h11 forcible interference, either by the “first citizens” or by a drunken rabble. And it is the soldier’s business to support that authority, at no matter what cost. If people do not want to be hurt or killed, they should not go rioting.This seems a hard doctrine to some sentimental people and to some civil officers dependent for re-election upon the votes of citizens who are likely to get hurt if order is enforced with such rigor. But really it need bo feared by no man who is even moderately desirous of orderly existence. Nobody need ever be hurt by a national guardsman unless he deliberately and after full warning in a time of notorious publio danger persists in violent law-breaking. The militia is never called out until the ordinary instruments of law fail. Then there is a crisis which forbids toleration of disorder, and every citizen knows it. He knows that violence at that time is not simply disorderly conduct, but an act of war against the state. If ho continues in a mob, he makes himself a public enemy, and he has no reason to complain if ho is treated os a publio enemy.The man who takes the oath and puts on a militia uniform assumes the obligt -tion of a soldier to defend the state again tho attacks even of his own household. The dispatches tell of the Urbnna guardsmen hesitating and even refusing to fire on the mob because it was composed of thoir friends—and perhaps also because
Newspaper Details
Terre Haute Semi Weekly Express
Terre Haute, Indiana, US
Fri, Jun 25, 1897
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Tim C.
USA 22 Jan 2018
Other Publications Near Terre Haute, Indiana
Western Register and Terre Haute Advertiser
Terre Haute Wabash Courier
Terre Haute Tribune Star
Terre Haute Tribune
Terre Haute Star
