Bonners Ferry Herald

ORGANIZATION IS NECESSARY

E. M. FLOOD TELLS OF REASONS FOR UNITED AMERICANS ORGANIZATION IN THE U. S.

MUST OVERCOME RADICALISMS

Constitutional Government of the U. S. Must Be Protected Now

It will be remembered that a couple of weeks ago a unit of the Idaho United Americans was organized in Bonners Ferry.

E. M. Flood was the chairman of the meeting and his remarks touching on the need of just such an organization as the United Americans in our country today were pertinent and give food for thought to such an extent that they are being printed in part as follows:

The United Americans being an organization designed to emphasize the loyalty of its members to the American constitution and to unite them in battling destructive radicalism and all open or insidious enemies of constitutional government, it may perhaps be asked: Why, after the great war is gloriously ended should we now again be called upon to demonstrate our loyalty? Why, after giving liberally of our substance in support of constitutional government in those days of stress, should we now, when its enemies are crushed and vanquished, be again called upon to furnish the sinews of war in defense of the principles of democratic government? Is there any real danger to our constitution in these days of peace and is there any real necessity for our banding ourselves together for its protection?

Instead of answering these questions directly, let us consider a few facts which have occurred, and let those facts speak for themselves.

As is well known, for some two years past a form of communistic government known as the soviet system has been in operation in the greater part of what was formerly the Russian empire. It is also known from recent newspaper reports that the allied powers in Europe are now negotiating for the resumption of trade relations between those powers and the country controlled by this soviet government. Formal recognition of that government is not involved in these negotiations at present, it is inevitable that, if trade and commerce between soviet Russia and the allied countries is once re-established, the recognition of that government will sooner or later follow. Such recognition, from the standpoint of the bolsheviki of Russia and of their adherents and admirers elsewhere, will be a glorious moral and material victory for the principles represented by soviet government. It will mean that a nation of probably some 1,000,000,000 people has established itself under a form of government hitherto unknown to civilized history, a form of government which but a few years ago would have been deemed absolutely impossible of establishment. For a few of the principal features of this soviet system are the following: The abolishment of religion of all kinds; the authorization of only civil marriages, which can be dissolved by either party upon proof alone that divorce is desired; the abolishment of private ownership of land or property of any kind, including the inheritance of property by law or will; the repudiation of debts, private and public; the virtual disfranchisement of farmers and of other persons living outside of towns or cities, of all persons who employ hired labor and of all merchants and clergy. In other words, the soviet system is a system of government founded on the communistic principle and operated by and for the benefit only of workmen, soldiers and sailors. The establishment

ment of so large a territory under such an ultra-radical form of government would alone be a matter of grave concern for other nations. In this instance the gravity becomes threatening because of the openly avowed intention of those at the head of the Russian soviet government to extend by every means in their power the soviet form of government to every other nation in the world. The Russian bolshevists have proved themselves to be past masters in the art of propaganda, and when peace is established in their country and they are free to devote themselves to the conversion of the rest of the world to their way of thinking, the threat of their existence becomes a menace to the very existence of our institutions and form of government.

This is one reason why we should prepare in time, but it is not the only one. The menace is not only from without. Observe the case of the election of Victor Berger to congress recently from the state of Wisconsin. After his record had been examined by a congressional committee he was held on vote of the house to be unfit to occupy a seat in that body, by reason of his disloyalty to the government of his country. A new election was ordered, and his American constituents thereupon once more returned him as their choice for congressman. Further, observe that one of the political parties of this country, a party which at the last general election polled over a half million votes for its candidate for president, has endorsed as its presidential choice at the next election a man who is now under a ten year sentence for disloyalty to this government. Observe further that at a convention of this political party held in Chicago in October last, the delegates to that convention, presumably American citizens, by a rising vote and with enthusiasm endorsed and approved the soviet government of Russia. Observe also the Plumb railroad bill introduced into congress not long since, by the terms of which the people at large were to be taxed to purchase the railroads of the country, these then to be turned over to the railroad workers and the public as joint shareholders, but the workers to control and manage their operation. Observe the happenings with reference to the Cummins railroad bill recently enacted into law by congress. This bill, when it left the senate, had in it a clause providing for compulsory arbitration of labor disputes and declaring unlawful strikes of railroad employes, this being based on the broad ground of public policy and welfare. However, under the vigorous protests of the railway brotherhoods who, it was stated, control some 2,000,000 votes, this clause was stricken from the bill as passed.

These are cold facts and speak for themselves. Is it time for those who believe in the maintenance of our institutions to bestir themselves? Is there a real threat of any real necessity for those who believe in our form of government to come to a realization of the direction in which we are moving? The hand writing is on the wall, and now before it is too late, is the time to take advantage of the warning! Now is the time for every person who is loyal to our constitution and who is determined that it shall endure, to unite in one organization, regardless of all political differences, and oppose the further progress of communism and bolshevism in this country. We propose through the means of this organization only to use peaceful and constitutional methods to oppose the propaganda of the American bolsheviki and their foreign confederates, but we do propose that the rights for which we have fought shall not be surrendered without a struggle, and we further propose that the property which we as individuals have earned with the sweat of our brows shall not be taken from us to be distributed among the idle and worthless of all nations who are the rank and file of modern communism.