THE RED FLAG AND THE HUN PEACE DRIVE
November 14, 1918
The war is won. A twofold duty is now incumbent on us. We must strive to make the peace one of justice and righteousness and to throw out such safeguards around it as will give us the greatest possible chance of permanency. Then we must turn to setting aright the affairs of our own household. But before we set ourselves to the performance of these two tasks we should thoroughly enlighten our enemies at home and abroad on one or two points.
Let all anti-Americans stand aside. Let them understand that we are not merely against some enemies of the country—we are against all enemies of the country. This week in New York there was a red flag of Anarchy or Socialistic meeting which was the cause of a riot. It was perfectly natural that it should be the cause of a riot. The red flag is as much an enemy as the flag of the Hohenzollerns. The internationalist of the red flag or black flag type is an enemy to this Nation just exactly as much as Hindenburg or Ludendorff was an enemy only a week ago. He is an even more treacherous enemy and equally brutal. Congress should pass a law without waiting a day prohibiting the use of the red flag or the black flag or any other flag of the kind here in America. We have universal suffrage in America. The majority of our people can have what they wish in the way of industrial and political change, if they seriously desire it. There isn’t any excuse in this country for any paltering with revolutionary movements. A riot is riot, without reference to what the people rioting claim to be for. When a mob gets started, it always acts the same way, no matter what the theoretical cause of the outbreak may have been. A Bolshevist mob in New York in all essentials resembles the anti-draft mob of 1863, although the arguments of the parlor Bolsheviki of to-day would be totally different from those of the constitutional copperheads of fifty-five years ago.
When the Romanoffs were overthrown the Russian people lacked self-control and they permitted the dominion of a Bolshevist gang, which has brought wholesale robbery, murder, and starvation in its trail. The overthrow of the Hohenzollerns in Germany has been accompanied by Bolshevist uprising in that country also. There is some excuse for excesses in a revolution against a despotism, but in this country there is no more excuse for Bolshevism in any form than there is for despotism itself. Any foreign-born man who parades with or backs up a red flag or black flag organization ought to be instantly deported to the country from which he came. Appropriate punishment should be devised for the even more guilty native-born.
Our National Government should take the most vigorous action and have it understood that America is a bulwark of order no less than of liberty. We must make it evident that we will stamp out Bolshevism within our borders just as quickly as Kaiserism.
Moreover, let us realize the nonsense of the pretense that the German people have not been behind the German Government. They were behind their Government with hearty enthusiasm until the Government was smashed by the military powers of General Foch. The effort now being made by the German Government to bring dissensions between the Allies by appealing to the United States against the Allies proper should be spurned by our Government. The French, English, Italians, and Belgians have been fighting side by side with our men under Foch. They have acted as comrades under Foch, and we could not have done anything if we had not acted as comrades like the rest. Now let’s play the game when the effort is made to divide us by the German peace drive.
Senator Poindexter was entirely right in his proposed bill. The United States must make absolutely common cause with the Allies. We regret that the German and Russian people should suffer; the fault lies solely with the past or present governments. To the very minute of the closing of the war the hideous German brutalities continued unabated, and apparently the Turks are still slaughtering Armenians. We will do our best to help even our enemies now that they have been stricken down, but we will not do so at the cost of doing injustice to our friends. We will not permit Hun hypocrisy to succeed where Hun violence has failed. And we are equally uncompromising foes of Bolshevism and Kaiserism at home and abroad.