104 THE CLASS STRUGGLE CURRENT AFFAIRS 105 States shall be engaged in war it shall be unlawful for any person or persons in the presence or hearing of others to utter any disloyal, threatening, profane, violent, scurrilous, contemptuous, slurring, abusive, or seditious language about the Government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the President of the United States, of the Army or Navy or soldiers or sailors of the United States, or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or Navy of the United States, or the good and welfare of the United States, or any other language calculated to bring the United States or the United States Government, or the President of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the Army or Navy or soldiers or sailors of the United States, or the flag of the United States, or the good and welfare of the United States into contempt, scorn, contumely, or disrepute; or any language calculated to incite or inflame resistance to any duly constituted Federal or State authority in connection with the prosecution of war; or to threaten the good or welfare of the United States or the United States Government; or to advise, urge, or incite any curtailment of production in this country of any thing or things, product or products, necessary or essential to the prosecution of the war in which the United States may be engaged, with intent by such curtailment to cripple or hinder the United States in the prosecution of such war.
SEC. That any person duly convicted of any such foregoing offense shall be for each such offense punished by a fine of not less than 500 nor more than 5, 000 or by imprisonment for not less than six months nor more than five years, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
Now, Mr. Myers is by no means a negligible figure in American politics. More than twenty years ago he evinced an active interest in the National Senate of which he became a member only four years ago. That was at the time when the multi millionaire Clark was seized with the ambition to represent the state, four fifths of which he owned. Myers was then a member of the State Senate of Montana. In this capacity, he received from the aforementioned gentleman as he himself was forced to admit, under oath, before the Montana Supreme Court, in the course of an investigation of the manager of Clark campaign, Ira Welcome, 10, 000 in cold cash as a recompense for his vote in favor of the copper king. When, in 1889, Clark was impeached by the United States Senate, Mr. Myers found himself obliged to travel to Washington, where he was placed under the painful necessity of relating once more, before a committee consisting, among others, of the Senators Chandler, Hoar, McComas, Pritchard, Harris and McCafferty, at how high a figure his vote was generally valued. Never before has a witness been so mercilessly condemned and discredited or shown to be so absolutely unworthy of trust and responsibility, as was the gentleman who is now the Hon. Henry Myers.
How unselfishly patriotic a man must be who is willing, with such a past, to pose as the warning conscience of the whole country!
Germany Stands Pat Amidst the many changes that the Great War has brought about, changes which follow each other with almost lightning rapidity before our eyes from day to day, there is one resting point for the eye and mind one thing that seems immovable and unchangeable Germany. In contemplating this firm and immovable rock of Gibraltar in the midst of the world of continual flux and change which surrounds it, one gets an uncanny feeling that the Germans were not ordinary human beings like the rest of us. They seem to be set apart from the rest of mankind, and somehow not subject to the psychic laws and influences which govern and influence ordinary humans.
One is almost ready to accept the racial theory of history.
This was never brought home to us as forcibly as during the recent German crisis. For weeks and months together the thing was brewing, and the world was on edge with expectation. The atmosphere seemed to be surcharged with explosives; the air was pregnant with the great changes that were impending. good many people hoped or feared that some such catastrophic eruption like that which shook Russia was about to take place. And even the most skeptical felt that something big was going to happen: If not a Revolution, at least a great Reform. The German people were going to say or do something that would startle the world; they were going to take their destiny into their own hand s, or at least try to, and their rulers would have to take notice of this change of mood or there would be something doing.
And then the crisis came to a head. The German People spoke. And they said: We stand where we stood on August 4, 1914.