The Socialist Antidote (Granite, Okla.), Vol. 1, No. 3, Ed. 1 Saturday, January 15, 1916 Page: 2 of 8
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Pagt Two
THE SOCIALIST ANTIDOTE
January 1916
PREPAREDNESS
Logan Stone
Much is being said and written anent
National Preparedness. Some are opposed
to preparedness but it is my opinion that \
biff majority of those who are well inform-
ed in regard to the condition of our army
and navy, are in favor of preparedness.
There is nothing like guarding against dar-
ger and make "safety first" the policy.
This is not only true with reference to in-
dividuals but to nations as well. All admit
that so far as war itself is concerned, it is
cruel and all would like to see it done away
with, but while this is true it would bo
foolish for one nation to disarm and refuse
to prepare itself for defense while other
nations are up in arms or maintain a stand-
ing army and navy in preparation for war.
Should there be an international agreement
between all countries of the world to grad-
ually disarm themselves and gradually re-
duce their armies and navies instead of in-
creasing them; it would be proper for the
United States to do likewise but so long as
there is no such an agreement it would cer-
tainly be unwise for our nation to remain
unprepared for an emergency.
Some say preparedness would be but a
challenge for War. This is a mistake. Be-
cause ohe piits i strong lock on his door it
is no sign that he challenges thieves to
break into his home is it? When a man em-
ploys a watchman to guard his property it
is not a challenge to marauders is it? The
best prepared nation has the best chance
for victory in case of war and especially so
in case of foreign invasion. Jesus said:
"When a strong man, armed, keepth his
.palace his goods are in peace, but when a
stronger than he shall come upon him and
overcome him, he taketh from him all his
armor wherein he trusted and divideth his
spirits." (Luke 11:21-22.) So it is with
a nation, and the nation unprepared to de-
fend itself against the invasion of enemies
may be defeated and conquered.
Preparedness is the watch-word of the
world. If a man has some valuable goods
which he wishes to protect and would place
two or three men to guard them with old
fashioned "muzzle-loading" guns they
might be taken by even a less number out-
laws arm edwith more efficient revolvers or
rifles. But should he have a hundred men
with good repeating "Winchesters" they
would be more than a hundred times safer.
A few guards, poorly armed, might have to
fight but a larger number, well prepare 1
would prcpablv not have to fire a shot for
their display of strength would cause the
intruders to stand off. A strong natior
like ours, well prepared could prevent war
simply by being strongly prepared to de-
fend itself, otherwise if we were unprepared
we would have to make an attempt at de-
fense and a war would without a doubt be
more expensive in the end than prepared-
ness today, besides the loss of life that
would bf Inenrfd.
Our able-bodied men should be drilled—
a large per centage of them—and kept m
readiness for service in case of war. It
should be so systematized that an army o'
millions could be ready to defend our
country on short notice.
Socialists pretent to be opposed to war
and continously howl for "peace," but in
reality are the most bloodthirsty revolu
tions than any other set of people. When
socialists correspond with socialists they
usually begin with the salutation: "Dear
Comrade" and finish with "Yours for the
revolution." Socialists are in favor of
war, provided they could accomplish their
'evil purposes by the war; even boasting of
their revolutionary principles and say they
expect to see this country flow with blood.
The Appeal to Reason stated, years ago, tha ;
if things went on as they had been, there
would be a revolution compared with whicn
the French Revolution would only be a
skirmish! Socialists have always been in
favor of war. Carl Marx, the "father of
modern socialism," at the Hague conference,
1848, said: We must finally have recourse
to violence in order to establish the rule of
labor;" and Eugene Debs favors the same
today. The treasonous threats he has made
against the government of our. country- -
one of which was mentioned in our Dec
ember issue—is enough to put every true
American parriot on his guard. When tha
"Debs-ites" make their march a million
stronge to the state of Colorado to unseat
by force the Governor of that State and fre<>
comrades who were imprisoned because of
of some of their radical activities, which
Debs, in the National Rip-Saw of August
1915, says will be if there is no other remedy
they do not want to have to cope with Uncle
Sam's "preparedness."
The Rip Saw and Appeal lo Reason, like
all other socialist sheets, loudly oppose
national preparedness, saying it is only a
scheme of. "capitalists to make profits '
cunning advocates of "The Revolution" are
earnestly trying to keep their dupes in line
so that they can work their graft and them-
selves make profits by increasing the-cir-
culation of their anarchal sheets. Thesa
hypocrites are opposed to the United States
army, the navy, militia, police forces andjill
other powers of the civil government cal-
culated to suppress or prevent strikes, riots,
anarchy, treason and rebellion,, for they
want to have as little opposition as possible
when they "start their revolution."
President Wilson, in his message to Con-
gress spoke of a disloyal set of people in
this country. He must have had reference
to this element- These have but one obi set
in view rifle or ruin—and if not possi'e'e
to rule any other way, they will, if they
dare, drench our country with blood. Bill
Havgood says: "Every socialist whose so-
cialism is skin-deep whistles at the law."
Eugene V. Debs says he can have no respect
for "capitalistic laws" and yould use force
if he had it, but as he has not the force he
will wait and bide his time.
If the President and other high officials
of our nation, neglect their duty in regard
to preparedness, when they know the aims
of this anarchal element, they will be to
blame should our country be unprepared for
an uprising or invasion. If socialism with
its "international" and "world-wide" move-
ment continues to spread it will encourage
an invasion, hoping thereby to accomplish
the overthrow and ascendency of the govern-
ment. This is exactly what socialism aims
at and what its leading men desire. Some
have already said that if an enemy should
invade the United States they would join
them and help bring our country and govern
ment to defeat. What is this but high trea-
son? And what could we expect of such
people but bitter opposition to prepared-
ness ?
HOW DO VfE KNOW THERE IS A GOb?
9
Logan Stone
Skeptics ask us "How do we know there
is a God when we have never seen him,"
and we answer, we know there is a God the
same way we know there is anything else
we have never seen.
First, we know there is a God because the
Bible and history tell us there is. When
I lived in the state of Omaha I read a book
about a country called Oklahoma. I be-
lieved the book for I had faith in it- I wrote
the government land agent at Mangum and
asked him about land and asked him if there
was any that could be filed on and he re-
plied to the effect that there was yet land
to be filed on. I believed his statement and
forthwith came l4o Oklahoma and found
things as they had been told of-and filed on
a quarter section of this land. Thus I was
guided not by sight but by faith and by
faith I found the "promised land."
We read the history of Illinois, Iowa, Mis-
souri or any other place in the republic and
when we seek these places we can always
find them. We do not need to see them
first to know of their existence. We know
they exist because the knowledge has been
transmitted to us by history. So it is with
England, France, Germany or any other
foreign country. We know they exist be-
cause history has given us this knowledge.
The eye of faith reveals this to us and rea-
son teaches that our belief or faith is un-
erring.
We read of George Washington, of Napol
eon and other illustrious men whom we
have never seen and we say we know these
men once lived because history has con-
veyed the knowledge to us and no sano
man can doubt their existence. We have a
thousand times greater reason for believing
these men to have lived than we have for
doubting it, and before we could doubt in
the least we would have to be convinced
that the history of these men is false.
We read from the authors of the Bible
and from Josephus and other historian:!
that God appeared to Moses, to Abraham
A
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Stone, Logan. The Socialist Antidote (Granite, Okla.), Vol. 1, No. 3, Ed. 1 Saturday, January 15, 1916, newspaper, January 15, 1916; Granite, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc280462/m1/2/: accessed April 23, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.