"for being unnaturalized and as not having a right to carry firearms...."

[Pike County Press, Milford, Pike County, PA., Friday, May 20, 1904. Vol. IX. No. 29. Pg. 1]


"the Government encouraged young men to familiarize themselves with firearms...."

[Willmar Tribune, Willmar, Minnesota, Wednesday, December 9, 1914. Volume 20. Number 42 Pg. 12]

"Grasping a revolver and a flashlight the doctor threw open the window...."

[The Washington Times, Washington [D.C.], July 19, 1913. Number 7880. Pg. 1]

"We do not wait till a boy is eighteen years old . . . before we give him a rifle..."

KIPLING AS A STATESMAN

By L.L.

"There is nothing which the dear public will forgive less easily than being made fun of."

   The thing which ruins Mr Kipling as a statesman is his sense of humor. This is distinctly proved by the performances which he has gone through in that line since the beginning of the Boer war. One may contend that a sense of humor is not fatal to statesmanship but it must be remembered that the Hon. Thomas B. Reed's definition of a statesman as a politician who dead has never been invalidated and that Mr. Reed is himself a shining and conspicuous example of the truth that a keen wit punctures political ambitions. If a man is truly ambitious to serve his country in prominent places he had better make up a serene but unsmiling visage and wear it reserving all eye-twinkles for other people's jokes. There is nothing which the dear public will forgive less easily than being made fun of.

   The sense of humor which is one of the salient characteristics of Rudyard Kipling crops out in his latest speech. He made the speech in opening a rifle range at Sydenham and took occasion to have a little gentle fun with those who violently oppose the idea of having boys taught to handle firearms. He says:

   "We do not wait till a boy is eighteen years old and thinks he would like to be lord chancellor before teaching him the alphabet. Similarly we ought not to wait till a boy is eighteen and thinks he would like to die for his country before we give him a rifle and teach him to stand straight in a line. We should catch the boy bright and early, when he is about twelve. The man who can read and write does not persecute his neighbors by immediately writing a book. Similarly a man does not run about the streets firing his rifle because he is a volunteer; nor does he fall into military formation whenever he wants to get on an omnibus."

   And he remarked in closing:

   "So we may hope that the next time the nations see fit to love us with the love which has found such perfect expression during the last thirty months, we may not be wholly ignorant of one or two of those less spiritual accomplishments, which, if they do not secure affection, at least command respect."

   For something over a hundred and fifty years the great British nation has gone on in the solemn conviction that pretty uniforms, "formation," style social prestige, and absolute obedience to system would take the place of marksmanship and brains in the British army; and if there had been half as much of a fallacy in its diplomacy as in its military system the nations of Europe would long ago have given Britain "what for." The British nation might have forgiven Mr. Kipling for being practically the first man to state bluntly that there is a hole in its military conviction, if he only had been straight faced about it, but it never will forgive him for his grin.

   The great British nation does not insist on being thought perfect, but it violently objects to being represented as ridiculous, even when it is. Mr. Kipling has not only shown his superiors their failings, but has sharpened his criticisms with an impertinent colonial satire which makes them felt. Despite itself, the British nation is going to remember the things he has said, and think about them, and act upon them. The pith of the matter is that if you want to guide the policy of a large country from the position of figurehead it is wise not to be facetious, but if your desire is satisfied with having it do as you wish and kick yon for your pains, there is no better road than that of wit.

[The Washington Times, Washington, Tuesday, August 19, 1902. Number 2990. Pg. 6]

"Anybody can get any kind of a gun who has the price..."

[The Omaha Daily Bee, Friday Morning, April 7, 1911. Vol. XL--No. 251. Pg. 11]

  

   And here we have yet another example of how the treasonous press utilized fear in order to accomplish their agenda to have our Constitutionally secured right infringed upon.



"Dope and Gun Sellers...."

[The Omaha Daily Bee, Omaha, Friday Morning, June 26, 1914. Vol. XLIV--No. 7. Pg. 4]

"with old Springfield rifles, Krag-Jorgensens, carbines or whatever type of firearms they could get their hands on...."

HIGH SCHOOL CADETS
TO GIVE EXHIBITION
DRILLS ON THURSDAY

   The first exhibition drill given by the Bisbee high school cadets will take place next Thursday afternoon at 3 o'clock on the tennis courts in back of the new Bisbee junior high on Quality Hill. This event will be in the nature of an annual inspection as well. The military law provides that the cadet organizations shall be inspected at least once a year and the board of education will be on hand at this time to give the boys a thorough examination.

   After the inspection a review will be held for the benefit of the visitors. Following the review the different squads will have a competitive squad drill in movements taken from the "school of the soldier" and the "school of the squad." The following corporals will have charge of squads in the competition: Corporals Ralph Powell, King, Kroloff, Sutcliffe, Visalia and Ojeda. The squad putting up the classiest exhibition will be presented with a large loving cup which has been donated for the occasion by Watkins & Bergquist, the local jewelers.

   Following the squad drill a competitive drill in the manual of arms will be held for all the cadets wishing to enter the event. The regular rifles that are to be issued by the adjutant general to the cadets have not yet arrived, but the boys have been learning the manual of arms with old Springfield rifles, Krag-Jorgensens, carbines or whatever type of firearms they could get their hands on, and this event promises to be a lively one in spite of the lack of uniform arms. This contest will be what is some times known as a knock-out drill; that is, a boy is eliminated from the contest as soon as he makes a mistake, and the cadet remaining after all the rest have been "knocked out" is the winner. The winner of this event will receive a sterling silver cup that has been engraved and donated by L.L. Gilman of the Gilman jewelry store.

   The Judges of the military contests will be Captain Goode and Lieut. Zewadski, officers attached to Company L, Thirty-Fifth Infantry, stationed at Lowell.

   This is the first opportunity that the public has had to see the local cadets' drill, and it is expected that a large number of parents and others interested in the boys will turn out to see what they have learned during the year. Admission will be free.

   The cups to be given as prizes will be on exhibition in the windows of the jewelry stores in a few days.

[The Bisbee Daily Review, April 28, 1918, Vol. 20. No. 277. Mining/Society Section Pg. 3]

"While it will be a difficult proposition for the city council to stop the small boy and firearms...."

[Stark County Democrat, Canton, Ohio, Tuesday, June 13, 1905. Vol. 72. No. 1. Pg. 4]

"Bank Instructs Employes In The Use Of Firearms...."

[El Paso Herald, El Paso, Texas, February 7, 1920. Home Edition, Cable News, Sport and Classified Section, Pg. 21]

"Weapons are returned to Trinidad Citizens...."

[El Paso Herald, El Paso, Texas, Wednesday Evening, April 21, 1915. Home Edition, Pg. 3]

"Rope or hanging is the means most commonly resorted to, drowning next, then firearms and then stabbing."

Curious Facts on Self-Destruction

   Professor Marselli, the eminent Italian authority on suicide, gives, in a lately revised edition of his work on that subject, some curious facts. He says that suicides are increasing in frequency in all parts of Europe where statistics have been taken. The only exceptions to this rule, as applied to quinquennial periods, are Norway in 1851-53, and Denmark 1866-80. Since 1865 more suicides have been committed in the Kingdom of Saxony, in proportion to population, than in any other country, the proportion during the decade 1866-75 being 298 per 1,000,000 inhabitants yearly. Italy and the Slavs of the south show the lowest proportion of suicides, with 35 and 20 respectively per million. In England, during the last forty years, the ratio has been ranging from 63 to 66 per million of population. He says what will surprise many people that suicides are more frequent in higher latitudes, the maximum occurring at 50 north latitude. They are also more frequent in the lowlands and in the region of great rivers. June is the favorite month, and December that in which there are the fewest suicides. In France they are most frequent during the first ten days of each month. Although the Professor does not say so, that peculiar fact may possibly be attributed to unrelenting landlords who insist on their rent. Among the days of the week, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday appear to be the favorite days for self-murder among men, while women prefer Sunday. The months of May, June and July show the largest number of suicides.

   While Slavism, he says, tends to lower the average of suicides Germanism elevates it. Among religious denominations he gives the relative proportions as follows: In Protestant countries 190, in Catholic countries 58, and in Greek countries 40 per million respectively. In Italy the married men and the unmarried women commit suicide the least frequently, the widows and the widowers the oftenest. In all countries the proportion of suicides is three and a fraction of men to one of women. From the age of fifty to sixty-five the tendency to self-destruction is the strongest. Rope or hanging is the means most commonly resorted to, drowning next, then firearms and then stabbing.

[The Daily Astorian, Astoria, Oregon, Saturday Morning, February 11, 1882. Vol. XVI. No. 112. Pg. 1]

"the pistol was developed solely as a weapon of defence at very short distance...."

PISTOL NOW USED FOR PRACTICE

INSTEAD OF SETTLING DISPUTES

SELDOM do we hear nowadays of the debt of honor that has been canceled by the use of a brace of pistols in the hands of outwardly calm but inwardly excited gentlemen of the purple.

   For 300 years previous to the last half of the 19th century the pistol was developed solely as a weapon of defence at very short distance, and, as already stated, principally for dueling purposes. It Is on record that the first pistols were made about 1540 by an Italian, Caminelleo Vitelli, at Pistoja. Italy.

Pistol Has Changed.

   During the last half-century, however, the pistol has undergone many rapid and wonderful changes. This has been due principally to the fact that pistol shooting has become a legitimate sport, as target shooting requires a weapon of great precision and capable of accuracy at distances, considered quite impossible in the early history of firearms.

   The term "pistol" should not be confused with "revolver," for there is nothing very similar in the mechanism of either.

   A pistol is either single shot or automatic. A single shot pistol must be loaded for each shot. The automatic Is fed from a magazine, and several shots may be fired as fast as the trigger can be worked each time by the trigger finger.

   The revolver Is so named because the cartridges are contained in a cylinder which revolves as each shot is fired. Pressing the trigger each time fires the cartridges and also turns the cylinder.

Used for Target Shooting.

   Both the pistol and revolver are used for target shooting: the pistol, however, is considered the more accurate.

   Shooting is done indoors and outdoors. The standard distance for indoor shooting is 20 yards; for outdoor shooting 50 yards, although various intermediate distances are also used.

   Championship contests are held in the spring and fall under the supervision of the United States Revolver association, the governing body for the sport. These contests bring together many of the country's foremost shots.

   Pistol and revolver clubs are constantly being organized, which is an indication that the sport has taken a firm hold with the pleasure and competition loving American.

[El Paso Herald, El Paso, Texas, Saturday Evening, December 29, 1917. Home Edition, Pg. 9]

"Every woman is trained in the use of firearms...."

[The Appeal, St. Paul And Minneapolis, Minn., Saturday, November 24, 1906. Vol. 22. No. 47. Pg. 2]

"Federal Government Provides Arms and Ammunition...."

[El Paso Herald, El Paso, Texas, Tuesday Evening, April 18, 1916. Home Edition. Pg. 10]

"Every American woman should learn to use a gun and be familiar with its workings,"

 

All Women Should Learn To Use Fire Arms

   "Every American woman should learn to use a gun and be familiar with its workings," said Mrs. J.A. Potter. "While we are all sincerely hoping that nothing serious will come, women as well as the men should be prepared. No woman has the right to be a milstone around a man's neck when he may be needed for the service of his country. The women should be able to defend themselves and their homes and children in case the men should be called away for service and for this I believe that immediate training should be started by American women. In Columbus, the women were all assembled in the school house, and then it was guarded by armed men. Now these men might have been needed for active fighting and how much better it would have been if the women were familiar enough with firearms to be able to have gathered together in that school house, barricaded it and been prepared to defend themselves rather than to be a drag on the men."

[El Paso Herald, El Paso, Texas, Monday Evening, April 10, 1916. Home Edition. Pg. 6]

"the United States is doing less than any other nation to instruct its boys and young men in the use and knowledge of firearms....."

TO TRAIN BOYS FOR WAR.

Will Ask Congress to Arm Rifle
Clubs-334,000 Krags on Hand.

(Washington Post.)

   With the reassembling of Congress a concerted effort will be made by friends of rifle practice to secure the enactment of a law to permit the Secretary of War to issue old "Krag" rifles, with ammunition, for use by rifle clubs organized throughout the country under the rules of the national board for the promotion of rifle practice. The proposed law also will be designed to permit the issuance of similar ordnance supplies, not of the existing service model, and, therefore, not necessary for the maintenance of the proper army reserve supply, to schools having a uniformed corps of cadets and carrying on military training.

   War Department officials are agreed that the training of the youth of the country is a fundamental principle of national defense.

No Expense to the United States.

   They declare that although this principle is universally recognized, the United States is doing less than any other nation to instruct its boys and young men in the use and knowledge of firearms.

   No expense to the Federal Treasury will he incurred if the proposed plan is carried out, as the arms and ammunition to be issued are already owned by the United States, and, being no longer used in the regular army, are held in armories, where they are passing into the stage described by ordnance officers as obsolete.

   Under the proposed statute 40 rounds of ball cartridges suitable for the rifles issued would be allotted for each range at which target practice is had, the total not to exceed 120 rounds a year for each man participating in the practice. All supplies would be issued subject to regulations prescribed by the Secretary of War, insuring the desired use of the property as well as its proper care, and its ultimate return to the Federal government.

[Keowee Courier, Walhalla, South Carolina, Wednesday, January 14, 1914. New Series No. 821.--Volume LXV.--No. 2. Pg. 3]

"The white people, in self-defense, have armed and made ready for the alternative you present...."

THREATENED DISTURBANCES IN
ARKANSAS.

   The APPEAL deprecates any and all a appeals to arms for a settlement of political differences. When Radicalism was rampant in the adjoining State of Arkansas, we steadily denounced the pretence of a militia kept under arms for the purpose of intimidation, robbery and murder. We do not wish to see a revival of the scenes of those days, when white men, if Democrat, had no rights that Radicals were bound to respect. We do not want a recurrence of the terrible trials of a period the remembrance of which is sufficient to stir np the bitterest memories of insult and wrong such as few people have ever been called upon to endure. We cannot afford neighborhood strife or political turmoil. We want peace and must have it. Entering upon a career of prosperity that promises unexampled result in permanent improvements, accessions of population and large profits for our crops, we must have peace--peace at any price short of dishonor and total loss of manhood. We, therefore, appeal to the leaders of the negro Radical of Crittenden, Lee and Phillip counties, Arkansas, to abandon the armed organizations which we understand they have formed for the purpose of carrying the elections in September by force. We appeal to them to confine themselves to peaceful organizations, and to give up the intentions they have expressed to elect their candidates, if necessary, at the end of rifles or shotguns. Already these movements have produced legitimate fruits. The white people, in self-defense, have armed and made ready for the alternative you present. Like begets like. Force begets force, and peace peace. Do not listen to the paid hirelings of the Radical party, who are prompting you to bloody strife. Their purpose is a plain one. They want to have you murder or be murdered in order that the bloody shirt may again become the banner of the vindictive partisans who have ruled the Union for eighteen years. In Crittenden county you have unfortunately broken the peace and violated a cardinal principle of American law--free speech. This you did with arms in your hands, justifying the precautions the white people of Lee and Phillips counties have taken in arming and organizing. The white or black emissaries of Radicalism who are encouraging you to this, and the newspapers who aid and abet you by browbeating, unjust and incendiary articles against the whites, will desert you in your hour of peril. They have no other use for you than to have you shot like dogs, or have you shoot your neighbors like dogs, that they may raise the cry of southern proscription and excite ignorant voters at the north to the belief that the south is in a chronic state of rebellion, that a strong government is necessary, and that Democratic rule means anarchy, confusion and bloodshed. You have doubtless been promised the support of the Hayes administration and the money of the Radical party. These will be of no help to you. Hayes cannot interfere for or against you, and all the money the Radicals may promise to pay you, though it were counted by millions, will not compensate for the loss of life and property which your course, if persisted in, will bring about. Surrender the emissaries of the Radical party now among you to the proper authorities that they may be dealt with as they deserve, pledge yourselves to peace and to a fair election, and your white fellow-citizens will abandon the organizations your past conduct and present threats have rendered necessary to their safety. You have enjoyed under Democratic rule four or five years of peace, good will and industry, such as was impossible under Radical government. Under Democratic administrations you have enjoyed in peace, with none to mock or make you afraid, every right that belong to freemen. You still enjoy these rights, and in a State with fifty or sixty thousand Democratic majority. Let your white neighbors enjoy the same right in peace. The incendiary and partisan articles which appear in the Hayes organs, and which illy conceal the Radical hate of the white people whom you attacked in Crittenden and threaten in Phillips and Lee counties--these may give you present hope and stimulate you to go on with the murder and riot you have begun, but they will be poor comfort when, after the battle, you come to count the cost. We appeal to you to lay down your arms and resolve on peace. And we appeal to the white voters of Lee, Crittenden and Phillips counties to leave to the justly constituted authorities of the State the duty of preserving the peace. If riot threatens, appeal to Governor Miller. He will, no doubt, call out the militia, if necessary, and compel obedience to the laws. Let us have peace. Let every good man, no matter what his politics, determine that the priceless boon of peace shall be a special care. Civil commotion now would be fatal to the industries ot every class, and, as we have said, would furnish to the Radicals of the north an excuse for hoisting the bloody shirt and reviving the sectional hates and animosities by which they maintained themselves in power, and under cover of which for so long they robbed the State and Federal governments and increased the tax burdens of the workingmen of the country.

[The Memphis Daily Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., Sunday, August 11, 1878. Vol XXXVII.---Number 200. Pg. 2]

"nor would it prevent men from arming themselves in their own self-defense...."

   To amend section 4747 of the Code so as to make it a misdemeanor to buy or sell a dirk, Bowie knife, pocket pistol, etc., etc.

   Mr. Hodges hoped the Senate would not pass this bill, which proposed to interfere with the rights of trade, as recognized throughout the country. The object of the author of the bill was the suppression of the use of the articles.

   It was here ascertained that the bill had been passed on its third reading yesterday, and on motion of Mr. Jones, the vote passing the bill was reconsidered.

   Mr. Hodges, resuming, said this bill was an impracticable way to reach the object had in view. It could not prevent the desperado from procuring and using arms, nor would it prevent men from arming themselves in their own self-defense. He thought the punishment of the illegal use of weapons would reach the case.

   Mr. Logan. could see no objection to the bill. It was not in conflict with the Constitution. The Legislature in 1837 enacted a somewhat similar law, and the Supreme Court has sustained that law. The good of society and the safety of life demanded the suppression of the free use of deadly weapons, as the records of our criminal courts show to be the case. Remove the means of committing these crimes, and the evil would be remedied.

   Mr. Wade was opposed to the bill. Such laws did not accomplish the object sought, and their tendency was to make the people law-breakers. He could see no good to result from the passage of the bill, while it would be attended with evil. He did not question the power of the Legislature to enact such a law, but it was a question of policy. We have a law preventing the sale of playing cards, but they are sold everywhere. Such laws beget in the people a disregard for law, which should not be encouraged. We have laws already preventing the sale or carrying of deadly weapons, and its enforcement would certainly reach the evils complained of.

   Mr. Marye called attention to the fact that our present laws prohibited the sale of all the weapons mentioned in the bill under consideration, except the pocket pistol and the revolver.

   Mr. Marchbanks suggested that it would be better to close those "hell-holes" which inflamed men to commit murder. The pistol was not the guilty party, but the man who used it. The reform must begin with him.

   The bill was then passed, ayes 16, noes 7, as follows:

   Ayes--Messrs. Aden, Blizzard, Boyd, Emmert, Haynes, Jones, Jordan, Logan, Mosley. Overton, Polk. Quarles, Trotter, Turley, Wilson, and Speaker--Paine 16.

   Noes--Messrs. Butler, Ellis, Hodges, Marchbanks, Marye, Smith and Wade--7.

[Nashville Union and American, Nashville, Tenn. Thursday, January 14, 1875. New Series--No. 1,971. Pg. 3 - Excerpted from the article titled; "Tennessee Legislature", under the Subheadings "Senate", "Senate Resolutions".]

"The citizens are quietly arming for the purpose of self-defense...."

An Unwholesome Locality for Roughs.

   Olympia, January 18th.--The reported murder of Reynolds yesterday in Seattle has caused quite an excitement here, and strangers are looked on with suspicion. The citizens are quietly arming for the purpose of self-defense, so that if San Francisco roughs should contemplate visiting this locality they will find a warm reception awaiting them. It is thought that Vigilance Committees will be organized all along the Sound, to protect life and property.

[Sacramento Daily Record-Union, Sacramento, Thursday Morning, January 19, 1882. Daily Union Series--Vol. LVI.--No. 9610. Pg. 3]

"they would then know why the settlers of Kansas took up arms to defend themselves and their families...."

   The Rev. Ephraim Nute, pastor of the First Church (Unitarian) in Lawrence, Kansas, in his discourse on Sunday, in the Rev. Mr. Fuller's Church in Hanover street, appealing for aid of $1,500 to complete the Church already begun at Lawrence, but suspended on account of border invasion, took occasion to refer to those who object to arming settlers for self defense. They should witness, he said, what he had witnessed. They "should see a neighbor and friend, the most "peaceful of men, brutally murdered; should witness "the grief of the mother, the wife, the sister, all dependent on his arm, and now left alone in the wilderness; and they would then know why the settlers of "Kansas took up arms to defend themselves and their "families from the worse than savage bands from the "borders of Missouri." He had seen timid and refined women, who, at the East, would have shrank from the presence of an instrument of war, courageously and firmly grasp the implements of death in the days of their siege. Were he to select the most eloquent and decided words is condemnation of the tyranny attempted to be imposed on the settlers, they would be from the lips of men from Virginia and Kentucky; who were in the ranks to defend Lawrence. [Boston Atlas. 



[New-York Daily Tribune, New-York, Thursday, May 15, 1856. Vol. XVI.....No. 4,703. Pg. 6]

"The union miners, in self-defense, returned the fire..."

WHERE TROUBLE WAS

H.L. Hughes Tells About the Coeur
d'Alene Strikes.

HIS ADDRESS LAST NIGHT

He Spoke Before an Audience of
Workingmen and Sympathizers
in Foskett's Hall--He is on a
Tour of the Northwest.

     A large audience of workingmen and the friends of labor gathered last evening in Foskett's hall to hear the story of the Coeur d'Alene labor situation from 1892 to the present time. The lecturer was Hon. H.L. Hughes, a bright newspaper man from Wallace, who last winter represented the people from Shoshone county in the Idaho legislature. At this time he is touring the Northwest with the purpose of presenting the situation to miners from the union's standpoint, in the hope that a thorough understanding of it will keep experienced men out of the country. This policy, he states, has been heretofore very successful.

   "Many suppose." said Senator Hughes. "that the troubles in the Coeur d'Alenes have been adjusted, but this is true only in part. A strike is still on at Wardner and at Mullan the one that began a year ago last November, and which we hope will result in ultimate victory.

   "A very strong contrast exists between the situation on Canyon creek where the mine-owners are paying the union rate of wages and at Wardner and Mullan, where they are trying to force a reduction of $1 per day. The former case presents a wholesome lesson for both capital and labor. The mine-owners are working their property with the most satisfactory results; the miners are contented with the good wages they receive; all cause for friction has been removed and all are satisfied and prosperous.

   "The non-union mines present quite a different state of affairs. The operation of their properties is far from satisfactory, even aside from the vast sums of money they are expending in fighting the union. In the case of these mines the union is using the same methods in vogue heretofore, and by purely moral persuasion have kept experienced miners from entering the employ of the companies. The results are that these miners are struggling along with incompetent workmen, the force now employed by the Bunker Hill & Sullivan mine at Wardner being unused to mining, is producing not more than one-third the former output of the mine, and a careful estimate shows he company to be losing somewhere !rom $250 to $300 a day. Just how long this company will care to go on losing thousands of dollars monthly to defeat organised labor is hard to say, but loubtless, when it gets tired of this unequal warfare it will be glad enough to pay the wages, and by that time the union hopes to win a grand and honrable victory.

   "In the matter of this strike, Governor William J. McConnell, the republican chief magistrate of Idaho, has played a most disreputable part; in fact, he has done that which has perhaps never before been done by any other governor in the history of the American republic. He has organized two militia companies at the request of these companies, who compelled their employes to join them, to hold their places. He has time and again assisted these companies in their nefarious shemes to reduce wages, and in return expects them to assist him into the United States senate. For this reason He has tried to make it appear that the Labor unions in the Coeur d'Alenes were a lawless class, and he himself a 'bold, fearless, law-and-order governor.' But the working people of that country are not g[o]ing to fall into his trap so easily; they have no intention of committing any lawlessness, but propose to win the strike strictly on the merits of their cause."

   Of the former troubles Mr. Hughes said:

   "The strike had its beginning on Jan. 20, 1892, when the Mine Owners' association met and closed down all the producing mines that would consent to go into the scheme with them. Information was given out that this meeting was for the purpose of discussing freight rates, and that the mines were closed down to force concessions from the railroad companies. Subsequent developments had, however, shown that it was for no other purpose than that of breaking the backbone of the Miners' union by forcing a few months of idleness upon its members and then resuming operations at a reduced rate of wages.

   "March 17, 1892, the Mine Owners' association met and issued a lengthy manifesto setting forth the conditions affecting them; silver was 90 cents an ounce and lead was $4.20 per hundred, and they proposed resuming operation April 1 at $3.10 a day for miners and $3 for carmen and shovelers, being a reduction of 60 cents a day on the wages of the latter. These they claimed were not skilled labor and should not receive the same wages as miners. On the other hand the union claimed that carmen sad shovelers did equal service, ran fully as much risk to loss of health, life and limb and were entitled to the wages of $3.50 per day. Now the question would naturally arise: Were the men justified in demanding than their former wage rate of $3.50 a day for all men working under ground be maintained? The facts in the case would certainly demand an alternative answer. At the time these mines were closed down lead was 4.17-1/2 and silver 92-3/4 cents. Since then these same mines have been able to operate under the same rate of wages, the same freight rates, and with the prices of lead as low as $2.90 ad silver 59 cents. Still, these mines seem to be prosperous; they are making extenslve improvements, seem anxious to run and certainly they musthe paying their owners handsomely or else this would not be so."

   In discussing the riot of July 11 at Gem, the speaker charged that it was caused by the tools and servants of the Mine Owners' association, who were made desperate by the failure of their attempt to import men to work the mines.

   "As some union miners were going to their work in the morning they were fired upon by one of the association's armed guards. The union miners, in self-defense, returned the fire, and the fight was soon raging in all its fury; the union men were fighting in the open, while the association guards were barricaded behind the machinery in the Frisco mill and behind long ricks of cord wood at the Gem mine. In order to dislodge their enemies the Frisco mill was blown up. With this the guards surrendered, their arms were stacked and they were quietly shipped out of the camp. Three union and three non-union men were killed in this fight and the Frisco mill was damaged $20,000 by the explosion.

   "The non-union forces and armed guards at Wardner surrendered without offering any resistance. Martial law was hastily declared, and the leaders of the union surrendered themselves to the authorities. The United States court for Idaho sentenced 12 of them to imprisonment in the Ada county jail from terms varying from six to eight months. Four were sent to the reformatory at Detroit. Web, Leisure was tried before the district court to the murder of Ivory Beane, one of the non-union men. This trial brought up the issue of the great trouble. Leisure was acquitted, and the result of the trial was taken as a thorough vindication of the Miners' union. In the meantime the cases of the men who had been sentenced by Judge Beatty of the United Statee district court for Idaho, had been appealed to the United States supreme court, and on March 6, 18[8?]3. the court decided in favor of the imprisoned miners and ordered them released.

   "Now." said Mr. Hughes. "while the great strike of 1892. and especially the ill-fitted 11th of July. must ever be recalled with feelings of deepest regret, yet the members of the union can always feel that they were in the right; and although the plutocratic press and tools of corporations may cry anarchy, red-handed murder and advance their false and damnable accusations by such malicious innuendo, we have the satisfaction of knowing that the supreme court--the highest tribunal of justice in the land--was compelled to turn these persecuted miners loose from the Ada county Jail and from the filth-reeking reformatory at Detroit."

   In addition to the lecture William Fitspatrick sang two solos, which were received with hearty applause as appropriate to the occasion, entitled "The Homestead Strike" and "The Miner's Wife."

   At the conclusion of Senator Hughes address impromptu speeches were called for from Judge J.M. Kennedy, George M. Dallas of Butte and ex-President W.J. Weeks of the Butte Miners' union. The gentlemen responded with brief but appropriate and timely remarks.

   If possible Senator Hughes will address a meeting to-night In Carroll.

[The Anaconda Standard, Anaconda, Montana, Tuesday Morning, March 24, 1896. Vol. VII.--No. 183. Pg. 2]

"the pioneer settlers went to their daily toil, to church, everywhere, armed to resist attacks...."

STOP THIS.

   A great office building is being constructed in Chicago. Last October the contractor disagreed with his men on some point, it is immaterial what. The men belonged to a union, the building trades council. The whole force struck. The contractor immediately and without difficulty found men capable and willing to go on with the work, and employed them. The walking delegate appeared and ordered them out. They refused. Since that time the non-union men engaged on the building have been assaulted. Bodies of men attacked them at their work. The workingmen were made special constables and authorized to arrest anyone interfering with them. They armed themselves in self-defense. The spectacle, a strange one indeed, was seen of men going armed to their labor in a great city maintaining a great police force, just as a century and a half ago, the pioneer settlers went to their daily toil, to church, everywhere, armed to resist attacks of the Indians.

   Two men have been killed thus far, and thirty of the workmen have been assaulted at points remote from the building by members of the union. The position of the union in this case, as it has been in too many others, is that, if their terms are not accepted, they will neither work nor permit others to. This has been the feature of numerous strikes, and has resulted in bloodshed often, and always in a tyranny that cannot be permitted in any free country. The gorge rises in every American when men declare that other men, willing and anxious to work, shall not work, either because they do not belong to the union, or because the union decides that its members shall not work on the terms offered.

   The Globe's sympathies are with the men who earn their daily wage. In their behalf it has denounced the combinations of capital that oppress their men. Its plain speaking has incurred for it the reputation of being socialistic, while it has been only intensely Democratic. It is just as ready to denounce the tyranny of labor unions as of railway unions. It sees no difference between them when either adopts the element of force in any form to oppress or to deny to all the equal rights of American freemen.

   There is no right of man so sacred as the right to work, and to the fullest enjoyment of his earnings. The government that denies this is a despotism, by whatever name known. The man or combination of men, the corporation or the combination of corporations that denies this right, is a tyrant, and the hand and voice of every freeman must be against him or them. Of all these, labor can least afford to invoke such an evil power. It repels that sympathy of men winch is its stronghold and only support. It shuts the door of justice in its own face; it invites its own destruction.

[St. Paul Daily Globe, St. Paul, Minn., Friday Morning, December 7, 1894. Vol. XVII. No. 341. Pg. 4]

"The result is that our men go armed for self-defense."

[The Morning Call, San Francisco, Friday Morning, June 27, 1890. Volume LXVIII--No. 27. Pg. 2]

"Is it a crime in a people, when their Government, their lives and their property are threatened, to arm in self-defense?"

[Evening Star, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, January 15, 1861. Vol. XVII. No. 2,467. Pg. 3]

"Appleby was armed for self-defense, but so numerous and determined were those who had ordered him to leave...."

[Evening Star, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, August 7, 1860. Vol. XVI. No. 2,330. Pg. 2]

 

   Sounds like We The People used to take matters into our own hands quite effectively, doesn't it?



"By that I do not mean armed aggression, but self-defense...."

MUST DEMAND AND FIGHT
FOR RIGHTS

PAYS TAXES, OBEYS LAW, SHEDS
BLOOD FOR COUNTRY SO MUST
HAVE RIGHTS, SAYS COLORED
SCHOOL TEACHER AT WASH-
INGTON--MUST WIN RESTAU-
RANT, BARBER-SHOP, HOTEL,
TRAVEL RIGHTS OR BE INFE-
RIOR.INFERIORITY INVITES
LYNCHING.

(Washington Star, Washington D. C.)

   The colored man has been in this country as long as the Anglo-Saxon white man. He has helped proportion to his numbers to make it the great and powerful nation that it is. He pays taxes, he obeys laws, he sheds blood to defend it. Yet he is denied his civil rights almost everywhere in the land. He does not enjoy the liberty he has earned. The crisis has come in the United States. He must demand his rights. He must fight for them. He must appeal for aid to the millions of white men in American who love justice enough to give him his due.

   Foregoing is the gist of a speech entitled "Agitation the Social Lever of the World" made by Neville H. Thomas, teacher of Greek and Roman history Dunbar High School, at a meeting in Plymouth Congregational Church.

Discusses President's Attitude.

   The attitude of President Wilson toward the civil status of the colored man citizen was sharply criticized by the speaker, who described Postmaster General Burleson as the "ignorant autocrat of the Post Office Department said to have some interest in a peonage farm in Texas," and who excoriated Attorney General Palmer and Secretary of the Navy Daniels.

   "Discrimination is being practiced against the Colored man in America today by everybody from President Wilson down," said Mr. Thomas "We have got to agitate without thought of personal sacrifice in order to win justice. Remember, freemen throughout history have won no rights without fighting for them.

Underlying Cause of Lynching

   "The business of lynching in this country has got to be stopped, and it is going to be stopped. We must win the rights to patronize the best restaurants, theatres and hotels and to enjoy the best transportation conveniences. Until we do we bear the stamp of inferior beings. And when you are considered an inferior man you invite lynchings.

Quotes Palmer.

   Reading from Senate document No. 153, a communication sent to the Capitol by the Attorney General on the subject of "negro radicalism" the speaker criticised that official for considering as lawless those colored people who agitate, and for failing to prosecute the lawless mobs that lynch colored people.

   "Remember the Attorney General is your servant and mine. He wants to keep the colored man from hollering when he is kicked.

   "We have found a cure for mob violence against us. It is armed resistance. By that I do not mean armed aggression, but self-defense. We will meet mob law with the same vigor our black heroes displayed in storming the heights near Metz in the great war. Every man must make his home his castle and defend it with his life."

   It is the duty of the northern to teach his southern brother to demand and secure the free use of the vote, Mr Thomas asserted. The colored man of the south must be able to enjoy the best of accommodations.

Sees Attempt at Suppression.

   "The Attorney General and the Senate cannot suppress 12,000,000 people determined to get their civil rights," he went on to say. The declaration was rewarded with hearty applause. "Every time the authorities repress one man who agitates they make a thousand converts to the cause. They are deporting men for agitation, but they are not deporting their ideas. Bolshevism can't be suppressed with force, but it can be met successfully with true democracy."

   The speaker repeatedly paid grateful tribute to the French people for their attitude of fraternity toward the colored American soldier. He said America is the only one of twenty-seven nations represented at the peace table that draws the color line.

"The Cruelest Autocracy."

   "While Wilson preached democracy there," he declared, "our 300-odd representatives in the peace conference knew that in America the colored citizen was suffering under the cruelest autocracy that ever cursed the world."

   In conclusion the speaker bitterly assailed race segregation in the government departments. The exclusion from the government navy and military academies was a target for red-hot rhetoric. "Yes, despite President Wilson's bombast on democracy," he finished, "we have none here".

   S.M. Kendrick, a deacon in the church presided and made a brief address supporting the attitude of the principal speaker.

[The Appeal, St. Paul And Minneapolis, Minn., Saturday, February 14, 1920. Vol. 35. No. 7 Pg. 2]

"Have white men no right to carry arms for self-defense...."

[Public Ledger, Memphis, Tennessee, Tuesday Evening, March 17, 1868. Vol. VI. No. 12. Pg. 2]

Rabbi: "declared that the Jews in Russia should be armed for self-defense...."

[The San Francisco Call, San Francisco, Monday, November 20, 1905. Volume XCVIII--No. 173. Pg. 2]

"and that he went armed in self-defense..."

[The San Francisco Call, San Francisco, Sunday Morning, October 13, 1895. Volume LXXVIII.--No. 135. Pg. 4]

"even though they may be armed for self defense...."

[Daily Los Angeles Herald, Los Angeles, Saturday Morning, October 11, 1879. Vol. XII. No. 65 Pg. 1]

"The constant struggle is for liberty."

Who Rules United States?

Industrial Relations Commission Turns Light on How
the Masters of Industry Control Civil and Military
Power.--Rockefeller's Hypocrisy Uncovered.

   Young Rockefeller made the mistake of his life when he undertook thru his press agents, to discredit the Walsh Commission. As usual, when the ruling class cannot control a thing that threatens their power, they seek to discredit or destroy it. About two months ago Rockefeller was before the commission and was let down fairly easy. But, later, when the correspondence between Rocky and his agents in Colorado was made public, showing that Rockefeller was the director-general of affairs in Colorado, Rocky got mad and began to denounce Walsh.

   Ivy Lee is Rockefeller's press agent in Colorado. It will be remembered that, Just after the battle of Ludlow there was a storm of protest. Silent marchers dressed in mourning, paraded in front of the Rockefeller headquarters in New York and the home at Tarry town. As fast as one set of marchers were arrested or jailed, another set took their places.

   Rocky didn't like this. To turn the tide of public opinion young Rockefeller wrote to Ivy Lee suggesting a string of newspapers across the continent. To this Lee replied. "There is no doubt something can be done along these lines. I do not believe, however, that I will come to the point of thinking that you should establish and become responsible for a string of daily newspapers.

   Conditions had reached a point, when the whole truth could no longer be suppressed, and the usual servile capitalist news service balked at longer picturing the young Sunday school teacher with a halo and wings sprouting. Therefore he wanted a string of dally papers of his own. But the plan was abandoned and the puppet governor of Colorado pressed into service to write letters dictated by Rockefeller and his press agent--knowing that these letters because of their official nature would re-appear in the daily press. The correspondence made public reveals that Rockefeller sent Lee an outline, or memorandum, of what he wanted the governor to say, and wrote:

   "several points in my memorandum. however, could well, even more appropriately, be used in the letter from Gov. Ammons to President Wilson, which you are proposing to prepare."

   In reply Lee wrote, "I am inclined to think that, at the moment, the best thing we can do would be to give the letter from Gov. Ammons to President Wilson our attention, and I hope we can accomplish something very soon."

   In a letter dated July 2, 1013. Lee wrote to Rockefeller, "With reference to the letter for Gov. Ammons. I am not entirely satisfied with the draft I prepared and I am making certain amendments to it. I sent out a draft for discussion, but will get it into shape in a day or so and then send you a copy."

   In the early letters Rockefeller discussed the "broad educational campaign of publicity, such as you and I have talked of," and Lee suggested a plan of circulating leaflets and bulletins, sending Rockefeller a bound volume of the material "we issued in connection with the recent campaign to increase freight rates 5 per ct."

   Who rules America anyway? If that Colorado governor had as much self-respect as Judas Icarot had go hang himself. Even President Wilson was deceived as to the source of these letters. But, in the face or all this, Rockefeller kept a tight grip on his religion and wrote to Mr. Bowers, his Colorado manager, "It may be that it would be worth while to consider the establishment in connection with the steel mills. If not in the mining camps, or a Young Men s Christian Association under the management or the Industrial department."

   The exposure or this and much Other correspondence caused Mr. Rockefeller to lose his head. He began to have himself interviewed by newspaper correspondents and, in his interviews, would try to explain. To give him a better chance to be heard, he was again called before the commission on May 21.

   When the young billionaire appealed he read a prepared statement protesting against "sinister reflections," and that he must regard as improper such questions as "reflect upon those who are charged with the administration of Justice." But this little fortification didn't help him any. The Chairman began:

   "If there are any questions I ask that you think should not be answered, you should state the fact, and the commission will consider what should be done. I suppose your high regard for law extends to all officers charged with administration of the laws.?"

   "Yes. It does," Rocky said.

   "You haven't a contempt for officers of the law who do not do your bidding?"

   "I don't undertake to direct the officers of the law."

   "Do you undertake to coerce officers of the law?"

   "We don't undertake to get officers of the law in any position. That is entirely improper."

   Walsh asked if Rockefeller did not think he, as a director of the company, "should take steps to have "criminal saloon - keepers" ousted from mining camps. Rockefeller returned that state officials should enrorce the law.

   Walsh read letters written by Rockefeller promising support to the company officers. "They had your backing and support in everything they did. didn't they?"

   "They had my backing and support, but we had nothing to do with forming the details of the policy pursued."

   Walsh asked if Rockefeller was acquainted with the details of the Ludlow massacre, and gave a graphic description of it. Rocky said he had no knowledge of the details.

   "On the same day as the Ludlow massacre." Walsh asked, "did you not learn that there was a little boy killed?"

   "I heard a boy was shot." Rockefeller answered.

   Walsh then called attention to a Company statement that the women and children at Ludlow were smothered, and then read a postal card addressed to him by a Mr. and Mrs. Snyder at Trinidad, saying: "We wish to Inform you that here is one of the little victims, not smothered, but shot thru the head while Harassing his little sister.'

   "On the back of this card is a photograph of the little boy. Frk Snider." said Walsh. "Do you wish to see it?" Walsh handed the card to a messenger who offered it to Rockefeller.

   "You have described it thoroly" said Rockefeller. He glanced at the card as it was handed to the stenographer.

   Walsh read from letters and reports to show that Troop A. a volunteer organization, was formed of superintendents, clericals, and mine guards of the coal companies. "Do you know that this troop fired into the tents or the women and children at Ludlow, and that they looted the dead and set fire to the tents of the people.' asked Walsh.

   "I do not."

   "As the men of Troop A were paid by the Colorado fuel and Iron Company, do you not feel a moral responsibility for the Ludlow massacre?" asked Walsh.

   "I would have felt much greater responsibility," Rockefeller replied, "if officers or the company had not made an effort to protect life and property,"

   Is it true that Sheriff Jeff Farr had deputized 326 gunmen and allowed your company to arm them and turn them loose in the community?"

   "That is the statement made." Rockefeller answered. "I don't know from personal knowledge."

   "Is it true that these deputized gunmen, before you wrote about your father's unusual satisfaction, had riddled the Forbes tent colony with machine guns and had shot a boy of one of the striking miners nine times through one of his legs?"

   "I cannot say as to that.' was the answer.

   So that the foregoing may be better understood, it may be well to say that some ten years ago an organization known as the Merchants and Manufacturers Association was formed to control politics and destroy organized labor. Col. Mulhall told the Country something about this pirate organization when called before a congressional committee three years ago. Only employers or labor are eligible to membership and I was solicited to become a member. The membership fee is $10 and from this a fund of half million dollars was raised to fight organized labor.

   Since the formation of this employers' union, labor has fared badly. What happened in Colorado also happened In West Virginia. Michigan, Arkansas, Massachusetts, New Jersey and other states. Labor men and their families found no protection under the law, and were shot down or imprisoned. Hundreds or labor leaders are in prison today for no other crime than the mistake of believing they had rights under the constitution.

   The Rockefeller interests are the controlling forte of the employers' union. Rocky is a very pious gentleman who teaches Sunday school, builds churches and hires preachers as he would mules. But, to hold their Jobs, the preachers must be more docile than mules usual are.

   Rocky is strong on law and order and justice, and tells the commission so. The trouble is in his view-point. That is where Rocky and Chairnan Walsh differ. Rockefeller's idea of law and order and justice is to let him run it. He believes it perfectly proper to arrest a troublesome agitator by a company sheriff and convict him before a company judge and a company jury, with company gun-men as the prosecuting witnesses. Rocky has the same high regard for law and order and justice as the Scott county gang that "convicted" the Kicker of Libel.

   The charge against labor men is usually "conspiracy." Nobody knows what that means, and it can easily be made to mean anything. It happens about this way When a strike breaks out there is no trouble until the company gun-men arrive and start something. These are armed by the company and paid by the company. But they act under the color of law because a company-owned sheriff has given them commissions as deputies although they may not even be citizens of the state. In his testimony Jeff Farr, sheriff of Huerfano county. Colo., admitted that of over 300 deputies appointed, he knew none of them, and that he had simply turned the power of his office over to the company.

   When the brutal gun-men begin their lawlessness the strikers appeal to the civil authorities for protection. The leaders, of course know this is useless, but it is done to convince those who suffer from the delusion that all are equal before the law, and after suffering all kinds of insults to themselves and their families by the imported brutes, the strikers begin to arm in self-defense.

   Here is where the conspiracy charge gets on in the Ludlow battle a few of the thugs were killed and the officers of the labor union were arrested charged with conspiracy to murder. John Lawson, who was not near he fight, was the first to be tried and was given a life sentence. Concerning the conviction of Lawson Chairman Walsh put it up to Rockefeller this way:

   "Suppose you were indicted for murder for your responsibility-for your the Ludlow massacre: suppose the president of the United Mine-workers were governor of the state; suppose one of their attorneys was the attorney-general; suppose a state senator from their group should obtain the passage of a bill creating a new judicial district in which to try you; suppose that another attorney of the mine-workers were judge of that district; and suppose that employes or your office, who were really spies or the mine-workers, were called as the witnesses to condemn you--wouldn't you think that the united mine-workers should be compelled to do something for you to guarantee you a fair trial under different circumstances?"

   "Mr. Chairman, I should not think those circumstances the best for a fair trial," said Rocky.

   "And yet you deny having read the proceedings in the Lawson trial, where you are in a position to correct matters?"

   "I have not read them."

   "Well, will you read them, and will you do something?"

   "As I have said before. Mr. Chairman, I believe that nothing should be done to prevent the obtaining justice above suspicion."

   "Well. Mr. Rockefeller, suppose you were in the predicament Of Mr. Lawson, would you feel satisfied if the mine-workers would say that they believed nothing should be done to prevent the obtaining of justice above suspicion and let you go at that to spend the rest or your life in prison?"

   Rockereller's head drooped. His eyes dropped to his lap. Then his hands found his watch-chain, and finally he switched uncomfortably In his chair. There was no answer.

   Rev. E.S. Geiddis, a Methodist minister, was called before the commission and testified that the company officials in touch with the men in the coal camps were brutes and blasphemous bullies.

   "Did you find that generally to be the case?" asked Walsh.

   "Yes, sir, I did."

   Walsh asked if there were no state officers to protect workers against cruelties ut the hands of mine bosses.

   "The state of Colorado is represented in the closed camps and in some of the open ones by justices of the peace who were company men," answered Mr, Geiddis.

   Clarence Darrow, the noted Chicago criminal lawyer, was called before the commission and said he believed the day was not far distant when jails and prisons would be abolished and hospitals would take their places.

   "I don't mean that some people won't be confined," said he, "but they will be treated for their social ills and not punished. Punishment is barbarism, and the people generally are beginning to realize it. Some day we will try to wipe out the causes of crime and doctor criminals, instead of abusing and misjudging them."

   Most folks believe themselves innocent, no matter what they do. said Harrow. "I believe Rockefeller and Standard Oil have a most evil social influence, but Mr. Rockefeller thinks he is as innocent as anyone, and justifies himself unto himself. Everybody thinks himself innocent."

   Resisting of military and other constituted authority, if that authority was abusive, Darrow urged, was justifiable. He urged that liberty had always been maintained by blood-shed. As one of the first steps toward an ideal social community he urged public ownership of lands, mines, forests and railroads.

   "Which form or organization, labor or capital, gives most obedience to law?" asked Commissioner O'Connell,

   "The rich have no trouble obeying the laws because they make them and can change them. It is sometimes necessary for the poor to break the laws. I don't look upon obedience to law as one of the cardinal virtues.

   Commissioner Weinstock questioned Harrow on military operations in strikes.

   "If a constable seeks to arrest a man without authority, the man ought to have a right to resist," said Darrow. "If the militia attacks people brutally and without authority, they should be resisted, if there is a chance to resist and win. The idea that a man who is an officer can do anything is only fit for slaves to harbor."

   "Suppose. in a given case, strikers should form the judgment that acts of the militia were unwarranted; that violence followed in which blood was shed and property destroyed," suggested Commissioner Weinstock, "would you say the strikers should be punished?"

   "Suppose there was bloodshed and destruction of property, and liberty was saved; then what?" countered Darrow "There are things to be considered besides life and property. The liberty of a man is one thing, and must be judged by history. There has been very little improvement in the world without blood-shed. It seems to be the law of nature."

   "Do you believe in bloodshed?"

   "I neither believe nor disbelieve in it. It is nature. We would have no government here were it not for blood-shed. Take blood-shed out of the world and we would still be living in caves."

   "But everything is not justifiable." continued Darrow. "There are  many things in the present war in Europe that are not justifiable by the laws of humanity. But a strike is in the nature of war and employers and employes often do many cruel and unnecessary things."

   "Do you believe our liberty is a delusion, and that we are as much warranted in resisting authority as the people of Russia?" Darrow was asked.

   "Freedom is a relative term." was the reply. "The people of the United States are freer than those of Russia and Germany, but they are not as free as the people of England. They are nowhere near as free as they were 75 and 100 years ago. As to protecting liberty by statutes and the courts they are invoked by the strong and cannot be invoked by the weak. Pretty much all the people in the jails are poor people. The constant struggle is for liberty."

[Scott County Kicker, Benton, MO., June 5, 1915. Vol. XIV No. 19. Pg. 1]

"certain fundamental rights are protected by the Constitution, put outside government’s reach..."

"But on the other side of this case is another feature of government: certain fundamental rights are protected by the Constitution, put outside government’s reach, including the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense under the Second Amendment. This right must also include the right to acquire a firearm . . ."--Judge Edmond E. Chang, UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION, [Illinois Association of Firearms Retailers v. The City of Chicago and Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of the City of Chicago. No. 10 C 04184, Jan. 6, 2014.] (Judge Chang was appointed by Obama!!).







"Is it a crime in a people, where their government, their lives and their property are threatened, to arm in self-defense?"

[The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, December 16, 1902.--Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, Part 5, Pages 1--16. Pg. 8 - Excerpted from the article; "During Civil War", under the sub-heading "War Local for Star"]

"except by standing on their rights of armed self defense..."

   We have more than once bad occasion to call attention to the deceptive and treacherous course of The Commercial Advertiser of this city. That paper may justly be described as the snake in the grass of the New-York press. With great professions of respect for law and decency and right, it devotes all its efforts to perpetuate the Border Ruffians in their present unfortunate possession of our National Government, by seeking to foment jealousies and suspicions among their opponents. Lately, indeed, it did seem to exhibit something of proper sensibility and spirit by admitting into its columns a number of articles on the Kansas outrage evidently emanating from a source which very seldom finds expression in that quarter, and written in a tone quite opposite to its habitual style. Upon reading these articles we began to have some hopes of a remarkable conversion: but The Commercial has already relapsed into its old favorite and easily besetting sin of backbiting the Republicans--an excellent means, no doubt, whether so intended or not, of affording underhand aid and comfort to its Border Ruffian allies.

   Having sought to make a little capital for itself, and to acquire some credit for manly sentiments and proper self-respect, by falling in with a current of popular indignation on the Sumner outrage too strong to be resisted, The Commercial, as if seeking to indemnify itself and its Border Ruffian allies for the words of censure it was constrained to reecho through its columns by repeating after Douglas, The Journal of Commerce, The Union, and The Richmond Enquirer the base, malignant calumny against the Republicans that they have stirred up ans are desirous of keeping up a civil war in Kansas. Are we to understand, then, that The Commercial Advertiser, in spite of all the accumulated evidence lately taken under oath before the Congressional Committee, is prepared to indorse the bogus Kansas Legislature as a duly elected, or as rightfully exercising authority?  Are we to understand that journal to accept as binding the atrocious acts passed by that bogus Legislature, and their appointment of Missouri Postmasters to the office of Kansas Sheriffs? Are we to understand The Commercial Advertiser as accepting for good law the ridiculous charge of Lecompte to the Grand Jury of Douglas county, and the absurd bills for high treason found against Messrs. Robinson, Reeder and others as bona fide judicial proceedings? Does The Commercial indorse. in like manner, the act of that same Grand Jury in assuming to denounce as nuisances the hotel and the printing offices at Lawrence, and does it accept that presentation as in itself alone, and without any notice, even to the parties interested, to appear to show cause against this absurd procedure as lawful warrant for attacking Lawrence with an armed force, battering down and burning the hotel, plundering and destroying the printing offices, and robbing every private house in the city?

   The Bolder Ruffians of Missouri repeatedly invade the Territory of Kansas, drive the legal voters from the polls, and decide the elections to suit themselves. They choose a Legislature, and that Legislature assumes to enact laws and to appoint officers for Kansas. One attempt is made, without success, by a force of Border Ruffians, to destroy Lawrence. A regiment of some four or five hundred armed ruffians is subsequently enlisted in South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, brought to Kansas and armed with United States rifles. They waylay travelers, many of whom they put in danger of their lives, some of whom they kill, and all of whom they rob of their arms and their horses; they steal oxen from the plow, rob farm-houses of their stock and provisions; sack Lawrence, as already described, and make a general plunder of all the houses in the town. All this is done, and The Commercial has not one word to utter against it; but when it is proposed to enable the Free-State men to defend themselves and their families against such robberies, then it raises the cry of treason and civil war! There is evidently a conspiracy, into which even the United States officials of the Territory have entered, to drive the Free-State settlers out of Kansas by means of all kinds of outrages, or to compel them to unconditional silence and submission, and to leave the whole control of the politics of the Territory in the hands of the Slavery party: and when it is proposed to assist these noble-hearted Free-State men who still resolve to stand by and battle for their rights, with arms, money and reinforcements to enable them to maintain themselves against these marauding ruffians, The Commercial rolls up its eyes in affected horror and repeats the cry of treason and civil war! Lawrence may be burned ten times over, and the while Free-State population may be kept in terror of their lives: persons and property in the Territory may be at the mercy of bands of armed and roving desperadoes; the principal Free-State men may be arrested and imprisoned without bail on the most absurd charges, and while they are thus held their houses and furniture may be burned; Gov. Shannon, instead of employing the United States dragoons at his disposal to preserve peace and protect property, may order them away for the very purpose of depriving Lawrence of their protecting presence--and in all that The Commercial sees nothing but the execution of the laws. But the moment the Free-State men propose to protect themselves against being thus robbed and murdered, then it becomes treason and civil war.

   What an insolent and cruel mockery in The Commercial! What a blow on its part at the common heart and common sense of the American people; what a proof of "defective or perverted vision," or both combined; what an evidence of a weak head, prompted by a wicked heart, to speak of the Free-State men of Kansas and their friends in the Northern States as "bent on civil war--on a protracted defiance of "the Territorial laws and authorities!" The Free-State men of Kansas have sacrificed every thing to peace. They have done all that men could to bring the question of the validity of the bogus Legislature to a regular and rightful decision. They have applied to Congress for that purpose, and Congress has a Committee of Investigation in the Territory at this moment. The Border Ruffians have refused to refer the matter to any such arbitration, and have chosen to settle the question in their own favor by force. For the sake of peace, the men of Lawrence consent to give up their arms: and no sooner have they done so than the town is plundered and some of its principal edifices destroyed. Kansas has been repeatedly invaded by armed bands from Missouri and other Southern States, marching in battle array and living at free quarters, and is so at this moment, and The Commercial deems the matter worthy of hardly a passing notice--all these violent and illegal proceedings fail to arouse its indignation or hardly its attention: but the moment it hears that the citizens of Worcester are subscribing money to send bona fide settlers into Kansas, armed and organized in such a way as to enable them to set mobs and ruffianism at defiance, it begins to whine and whimper about civil war, and breaks out into a charge against the Republican party "of subscribing their thousands and tens of thousands of dollars to send armed men into a Territory of the United States to resist the Federal Government in the execution of the laws of the Territory."

   This is a rather serious charge, and, as a humble advocate of the Republican party, we call upon The Commercial Advertiser either to produce proof of it, to retract it, or to stand convicted of deliberate and willful calumny. When and where has the Republican party or any individual member of that party proposed to resist the Federal Government in the execution of the laws of the Territory? When and where has the Republican party or any member of it subscribed a dollar for any such purpose? Because the Republican presses do not quietly submit to the sacking of Lawrence and the domination over the Territory of a Pro-Slavery mob, because they do not imitate the quietistic example of The Commercial in resigning Kansas without a struggle, and suffering all the Free-State men to be driven out of the Territory; because they are not fools enough to believe or knaves enough to pretend to believe that after this is done Kansas will stand just as good a chance as before of becoming a Free-State, The Commercial Advertiser accuses them of unreasonably keeping up the Kansas excitement!

   After The Commercial has relieved itself, if it can, of the charge of a deliberate and malignant calumny against the Republican party, we hope it will employ its profound political wisdom in replying to these two questions--How is Kansas to become a Free State if the friends of the Free-State system in are excluded from settling in it? How can Free-State settlers maintain themselves in Kansas at present, except by standing on their rights of armed self defense against Pro-Slavery ruffians who seek to drive them away?

[New-York Daily Tribune, New-York, Tuesday, June 10, 1856. Vol. XVI......No. 4,725. Pg. 4]

"But a change has come, and now, we hear of the persecuted Jews, arming themselves for protection and self-defense..."

[The Seattle Republican, Seattle, Washington, Friday, June 19, 1903. Vol. X. No. 2 Pg. 4]

"Give him a Winchester, ready for action, and a brace of good six-shooters like the boys outside have...."

  --The Talladega (Ga.) Reporter makes the novel suggestion that when a jail is assailed by a mob intent upon the life of an inmate and when it is apparent that the mob will reach its victim the culprit be armed for self-defense. Give him a Winchester ready for action and a brace of good six-shooters like the boys outside have, and though they are ten to one against him it will in a measure give him a chance. It is easy enough for men to be brave when they are a hundred armed and free to one empty handed and confined. Let it be known that the man inside is ready to meet them on even one chance to a hundred, and the bravery of the midnight law breaker will soon cool off."

[The Hazel Green Herald, Hazel Green, Wolfe County, KY., Friday, August 28, 1891. Seventh Year. Number 23. Pg. 7]

"The law against carrying concealed deadly weapons is a perfect farce...."

[Semi-Weekly South Kentuckian,  Hopkinsville, Christian County, KY., June 13, 1884. Volume VI. Number 48 Pg. 3]