Chicago Tribune
WHAT OUTSIDE PRESS THINKS OF US
How the rest of the country views Mayor William Hale Thompson and his attitude on the war, and public opinion to the "peace meeting" are shown in the following editorials from various papers:
Pittsburgh Leader — Mayor William Hale Thompson of Chicago should be kicked out of office by outraged citizens whom he has betrayed. It will be no fault of Thompson’s if Chicago escapes a baptism of blood which will write its shame and disgrace in flaming letters on the pages of history. Open encouragement has been given by Chicago’s mayor to the forces of disorder and riot. He has laid the fuse which may set off an explosion at any moment. He has exposed the people of Chicago to dangers which may ultimately result in the taking of many lives.
Pittsburgh Press — Gov. Lowden of Illinois is unquestionably a loyal American citizen, sincerely desirous of victory for the national arms. Can as much be said with any confidence of the members of the "People’s council"?
Pittsburgh Post— Occasionally the great body of patriotic people of Illinois turns in and overwhelm the small element in Chicago, headed by Mayor Thompson, which looks upon the metropolois of the west as "the sixth German city," instead of as "the second American city." It is refreshing to see the govern show the obstructionists what’s what.
Cleveland Plain Dealer — "While our soldiers and sailors are doing the manful work to hold back reaction in its most brutal and aggressive form, we must oppose at home the organized and individual efforts of those dangerous elements who hide disloyalty behind a screen of specious and evasive phrases."
In these word the president defines precisely the offence of those itinerant pacifists who, deprived of a haven in one state after another, were finally received with open arms by the mayor of Chicago.
The issue between Gov. Lowden and Mayor Thompson is not one of free speech, as the pacifists insist, but one of loyalty to the nation. Every disloyalist tries to conceal his dangerous agitation with a cloak of sanctity by appealing to the fetish of free speech and this fly by night organization taken in by the Chicago mayor is no exception. The only fitting place for such a group of disloyalists to carry on their work is on one of the battle fronts in Europe. There the pacifists might appear in their true light as opponents of the American flag and people.
Indianapolis Star—"Mayor Thompson dropped out of sight after authorizing the meeting," it is reported from Chicago. It will be recalled also that he boarded a train for California just as he ordered the saloon "lid" clamped on in the early days of his administration, and he otherwise has been strong leading a charge on the enemy from "somewhere in a bombproof."
Indianapolis News—Gov. Lowden of Illinois sent troops to Chicago. He could as a patriot and self-respecting man, do nothing less. The order was one that he, as chief executive, had a right to make,. The fact that the mayor of Chicago, William H. Thompson, issued a permit for the meeting altered the situation only in making it necessary fro the state authority to assert itself. Gov. Lowden says that he had satisfied himself that the meeting was "designed for the purpose of bring on draft riots and obstructing the government in other respects." The fact that the meeting was permitted and favored by a pacifist and pro-German mayor strengthens the governor’s conclusion.
Cincinnati Commercial Tribune—The emphatic stand of Gov. Lowden of Illionis against organized and mischievous, even if well meant, sedition calls for the admiration of American patriots everywhere, as the course of Mayor Thompson invites their contemptuous execration. Now that the country is at war, there must be no toleration of copperheadism.
