THE PEACE CRUSADE IN OLDHAM - NEWSPAPER REPORTS

SATURDAY 11th AUGUST
1917 OLDHAM STANDARD
THE PACIFIST CRANKS

We have little sympathy with the pacifist cranks who were physically impressed with the opinions of their fellow men at the proceedings in Oldham on Monday, and none with the sentimentalists who are unnecessarily crying out their eyes at what happened.

There is no danger to free speech in this country by such happenings as Monday's but there is a real danger to the lives and liberties of the people if the cranks who engineered the proceedings are to have their way uninterrupted. The country has been long suffering; it has borne with cranks to a degree of patience which must not only have surprised them, but has evidently encouraged thm to go to further extremes. But even a worm will turn, says the proverb, and Oldham has demonstrated that it stands in unison with the rest of the country, and is not tolerant of those who would render the efforts of the last three years futile and enslave us to Prussian despotism..