Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1917 — LAWLESSNESS [ARTICLE]

LAWLESSNESS

There is much food for thought in the acts of lawlessness in different parts of the . country. Are we as a people losing respect for the law? Are we losing sight of the fine ideals we have cherished for a century and a half? Or is the unrest so prevalent in other parts of the world commuincating itself to us? The most disquieting feature of these outbreaks of lawlessness is not that they should have .occurred, but that they should occur just at this time, when the country needs to be united in heart and soul as never before. In times of peace and calm the good sense and ordiliness of the people would not have tolerated the causes which led up to the disturbances. With the minds of the people on other matters these causes have been permitted to grow and flourish. While we are proposing to make great sacrifices for freedom, let us not permit a growth within our body politic that is calculated to nullify and make impotent that freedom, Let us set our own house in order.

best girl if you feel so inclined. One lie is as good as another. Many a fellow who is paying alimony will have to dig up another excuse when the whiskey is gone. Crops are reasonably good this year, including that of inventive geniuses who can end the war by the pressing of a button. We heard of a young skinflint the other day who loosened up for the first time in his life. He bought a liberty bond in hopes it would keep him out of war. Some of these reformers are becoming terribly worried- over the possibility of women donning trousers. But, then, we never were a reformer—so do the don. What a jolt it would be to us paragraphers if some slacker, forced into service, should suddenly develop the genius of a Grant, of a Joffre, or a Hindenburg! But he won’t. He’ll be pareing spuds in the kitchen.