p. 16 | Is That Liberty? by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 7, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 19.

Is That Liberty?

By Editor

A despatch in the San Francisco Examiner of April 5, dated the day before, tells the story of one hundred Industrial Workers of the World, "almost all of whom admitted they were anarchists," who "knelt on the ground and kissed the folds of an American flag at early dawn to-day near San Onofre," a small village near the Orange County line. These men were forced to do this by "deputies and armed citizens" from San Diego. Then the men were marched back to the tune of the "Star Spangled Banner," and "compelled to make a show at least of joining in singing." And this in free America! The lawless deputies and lawless citizens of San Diego who thus used the flag, did more to foster the spirit of anarchy and disrespect for the national colors than all the Emma Goldmans and her ilk that ever spoke.

San Diego is sowing to the wind; she will reap the whirlwind. We do not know as we are at all in sympathy with the principles of the I. W. W.; for we do not know them. But we are not in sympathy, we do not see how any lover of human liberty can be, with the illegal, high-handed methods of San Diego's city government.