That this was not done gently is clearly disclosed by
subsequent official evidence. Culprits were loaded into auto
trucks at night, taken to the county line, made to kiss the flag,
sing the national anthem, run the gauntlet between rows of
vigilantes provided with cudgels and, after thus proving their
patriotism under duress, were told never to return.
"There is an unwritten law," one of the local papers at this time
remarked, "that permits a citizen to avenge his outraged honor.
There is an unwritten law that permits a community to defend
itself by any means in its power, lawful or unlawful, against any
evil which the operation of the written law is inadequate to
oppose or must oppose by slow, tedious, and unnecessarily
expensive proceeding." So this municipal homeopathy of curing
lawlessness with lawlessness received public sanction.
With the declaration of war against Germany in April, 1917,
hostility to the I.W.W. on the part of the American public was
intensified. The members of the organization opposed war. Their
leaflet "War and the Workers," bore this legend:
GENERAL SHERMAN SAID
"WAR IS HELL"
DON'T GO TO HELL
IN ORDER TO GIVE A BUNCH OF
PIRATICAL
PLUTOCRATIC
PARASITES
A BIGGER SLICE OF HEAVEN.
Soon rumors abounded that German money was being used to aid the
I.W.W. in their plots. In Oklahoma, Texas, Illinois, Kansas, and
other States, members of the organization were arrested for
failure to comply with the draft law.
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