is to say, the South, where there was almost no alien population. The only pure-bred American population in the United States was the very element which seemed unwilling to support the war! This, however, is a statement which needs full explanation. Let the Chief of Lexington make that explanation in the story of one case.
Tom B was a Tar-Heel tie hacker and lived in the mountains of North Carolina, twenty-six miles from a railroad. He could neither read nor write, but was straight and strong, and to see him swing a broad-axe was worth a trip into the mountains. When Tom heard of the draft he did not understand it. He had led a life of peaceful seclusion. There were two old Germans over at the railroad that ran a store, but Tom could work up no enthusiasm about crossing the Atlantic to kill people of that sort. But the draft came and many of Tom's meantime friends disappeared. It seemed inexplicable to him. He did not want to go to war with anybody and did not understand why there was any war. The solution of his problem at last came to him.
His people had come to these mountain fastnesses because there they found that liberty of thought and action which all our early Americans longed for; but now into that freedom of action there came some intangible influence which he could not understand. Tom simply resolved to march into the forest as his great-grandfather had done. He "stepped back into the brush" for the duration of the war. For him this was the only natural solution for a problem he did not understand. In this way he could escape what seemed to him oppression and impairment of the liberty which he held more dear than life. So he made the usual arrangements. Food would be left for him at a certain spot by his people. If anyone came in looking for Tom, his people would put up a smoke signal so he would understand. Meantime, Tom continued his work in a tie camp, his squirrel rifle leaning against a tree. When he finished his work, he "stepped back" into deep laurel and was lost as though he had gone up into smoke. His decision, having been taken, would remain unshakable even unto death. He said, "I reckon I made up my mind, and I'd ruther die here than in Germany."
Let us consider the situation. Here is Tom B, an
