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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1916)
w r 22 The Commoner VOL. 16 NO. 3 lnfSoT tlioso modern federalists, sifohgtli to your arm, and may you bo right in adjudging that tho cry has Hpont itsolf and that henceforth tho tido will ho tho other way. John P. Schoolerman, Mojito Vista, Colo, J A voto o thin district went 80 por cent against preparedness, as near as I can remember. Wo don't need it, and tho people can not bo humbugged into it. A Commoner reader, of Ky., writes: Humanity, I think wo will agree, is above "honor," because it includes honor, if for no nobler reason. Tho congressional muss over travel rights "rights" (!) when wo aro all so journers at tho great Inn brings out an equal fallacy, ignoring tho rights to peaco of a hundred for the right to travel of tho ono. But tho hundred havo another right ignored, a right granted them under tho plain language of tho fod oral constitution. This constitution (Art. 1, sec. 8, ch. L5, and Art 4, sec. 4) allows no pretext for war but to "repel invasions." Nothing else. Is fighting ovor honor, like French duollsts or German university stu dents, ropolling invasions? Othello strangled an innocent woman ' for honor "Nought did I in hato but all In honor." This feudal survival is not tho quality wo respect in a man who koops his word and pays his debts. Bluo jays screaming bloody murder An Old Publication With a New Point of View Think of Harpor's Weekly not mere ly as an old publication, but as an Old Publication with a Now Point of Vlow. Let tho namo and tho phraso bocomo InsoVqratyy associ ated In your mind: Harper's Weekly, An Old Publication with a Now Point of View. , j. i " What the Phrase Means to YOU Tho solo boast thnt Harper's Weekly had been published for nearly sixty years might well mean llttlo to you. Tho old aro not Inevitably lnterost lns. But tho fact that, with all Its years, Harpor's Weekly Is today more alert, morn up-to-date, moro varied than it has over been before, una uuqucsuoneu signiucanco. Nowadays, people of mental sub stance realize tho Importance of keeping clonoly In touch with affairs ui mo uay. iiarper s wooKiy is edited for thoso people Politics, tho stago, sports, curront literature, travel, motoring, and tho thousand Ddd facets of American llfo aro all Jcalt with In Its pages, by word nd picture. Put Harper's Weekly To The Test ff you aro ono of tho peoplo for whom Harpor's Weekly Is made, put it to tho tost. Tho coupon bolow will bring It to you ovory week for throo months. from their lofty perches, thesd honor editors always sound to mo. I no ticed that when their own whip crackers burned babes to cinders in Ludlow a few years back, the heavens on tho front pago wero sereno and beautiful. I am myself a retired naval officer, and havo not a thing to say against any officer of the govern ment. I havo a hole in mo to show that I once took an oath to defend tlio constitution. I believe that the good, sound sense of tho framers of that document is n thousand times better to be followed than the spirit nf nnniir-rln-Tilrm. Renel invasions. It seems to me that you pacifists ar.o missing a point here. The gods lying threads to a web begun; threads that lead on and on into a maze of technicalities and pretexts. "Not contentment," sang Nietzsche, "but moro power. Not virtue, but efficiency." Defense has become a very, very big word;' rights and priv ileges, honor and colonies and that endless string of precedonts from precedent from precedent that we dignify by tho name of international law. When some speculator Is nabbed trying to slip into Germany for war prices, "American Ship Seized" from tho very same sheets that havo been bewailing our lack of a merchant marine! "American." yea, when they want our brawn, but if sho does get by and cleans up a million, wo are never so necessary when they cut tho melon. Wo might try applying the principle of the hay seed taxpayer who boarded a man-of-war, knife out, to whittle off his share. Big deviltries, sir, as you know, are never done in the name of the devil. They are done by people who believe that thoy are God's in struments as firmly as Americans believe that millionaires are entitled to our money. Tho President said at New York, February 27, that "No ono seriously supposes that the United States needs to fear an in vasion of its own territory." In a noto to Austria, August, 1915, we laid down the sound, noble principle that the United States desires to avbid menacing the peaco of the world by the threat of its army and navy. This seems to mo fb wov t talk. Yet when we know -to a cer tainty that 500,000,000 have failed to keep tho peace by this prepared ness system, good men vainly imagine that 100,000,000 must now adopt it. J. H. Greene, M. D., Urbana, 111.: Our President, for whom I entertain the highest respect, has come before the peoplo on tho question of 'pre paredness. He asserts that it is es sential to prepare at once against contingent enemies, nobody knows whom. If preparedness is as essen tial as he seems to think, he certain ly ought to be logical enough to take nonuu uguumc uiose who havo al ready declared war on the govern ment. This would demand the im mediate necessity of taking over cer tain munition plants. at tho same moment advocate a 'more powerful military and naval equip ment than either or both of them together. And, if we drill an army and build a navy, they must be dreadful, as brutal and cruel as two or three European armies and navies combined. Nothing short of that gives us protection. Frank Stephens, Edge Moor, Del.: I wish there were some way in which I could express to you the certainty of my conviction that you are auso lutely right in your stand for Peace as against "Preparedness." J. H. Thormann, Cincinnati, O.: The average newspapers did not per mit the American public to form a true and accurate opinion of your practical foresight, but recently they see you as the only real tower of justice and strength for the good of our country and the world at large. Editorials do not sway people any moro like they used to. The mental ly blind have regained their inde pendent vision. Still the enemies of peace are now working harder than ever. I meet the general public ev ery day and feel convinced that both your political friends and foes ap preciate your timely stroke of policy which kept us out of the whirlpool of bloodstained battlefields. More and moro they realize that the entire world would have been turned into a slaughterhouse without hope for cessation. Senator Lodge tried to belittle George Washington on the 22nd inst. and such men demand that we sacrifice our national happi ness for honor's sake when no honor is at stake. I contend that citizens who choose to travel upon a foreign ship in preference to an American ship are a dishonor to the rest of us as they ignore our flag. They should look for protection to the flag they choose in preference to ours. A flag that is good enough for them while they accumulate American dollars is good enough for them when they cross the ocean to spend some of them. May the Almighty give you strength to hold in abeyance the wish of the unscrupulous. 1 M. C. Stott, Boise, Ida.i I deeply appreciate the great fight which The Commoner makes in behalf of the American peoplo as against the hun gry trusts. Success to your efforts. I have followed Mr. Bryan for twenty years and have always found him to oe on the side of the common people and fighting in their interest. ident Wilson, as a "preparedness" propagandist, will not omit to advo cate government manufacture of all war-making instruments and all mu nitions necessary to Complete pre paredness. For this policy operative might enable Uncle Sam to recruit an army "adequate for defense" without resorting to compulsory methods. Our patriotic yeomanry would be less averse to military ser vices whon they knew that they were enlisted to fight for Uncle Sam, and with guns and munitions made by Uncle Sam. Yes, take the private profits out of "preparedness," and its present most zealous advocates would chloroform to death the shameless sham. They would not want to pay the tax, without pocket ing the profits accruing from militarism. J. J. Sanders, Florence, Ariz.: I am "ferninst" committing our nation to any policy savoring of old world militarism. I have written my views to Senator Ashurst. Herewith find club of eight subscriptions to The Commoner. T. B. Nash, Nash, Okla.: Since we seem determined to be prepared for war and since, your other contributors have failed to mention- it, I want to call your attention to one item in the program of preparedness that seems to have been overlooked: this is a supply of willow wood for artificial limbs. Recent press dispatches carry the statement that the supply of wil low for this purpose has, become ex hausted both in Europe and America. The crippling and maiming is not half done in Europe yet and we are just getting ready to do ours. After the nation has taken a man from his home,, put him in front of the enemy and had him cut down to, just.a, torso, surely lie Wuld .have 'a right to ex pect that the government furnish him enough material for an append age or two. Gun factories and mu nitions plants can be erected in a lit tle time. We can build a battleship in a year or two, but it takes time to grow a willow tree. The President says: "We should profit by our ob servation of the immediate present." Our most recent observation has been the exhaustion of the supply of wil low, and we hope the President will give tins matter careful thought. As an example to the rest of the country he could have a willow grove planted on the White House lawn; It would : llAItPKU'S AYI3EKIV : 251 Fourth Ave., New York City ; I encloso ono dollar ($1) for which ; pleaso sond mo Harper's Weekly for ; tlirdo months, In ncconlanco with ! .yourjtrlal offor in Tho Commoner.; S Name ! ." s .Street ;.; : :'. : ii"ty : : ; SStato I No subscriptions renewed at this rate : J P. J. Davenport, Abingdon, Va.: I have three girls and two boys to be cursed by turning this country into a military camp with all its brutal of ill' f?d ?am strongly in vor n f, a"end'to-our-own-business" policy that has made this nation the envy of all Europe. We win 1 ave no wars with foreign countries unless wo bring them on ourselves. This proposition is monstmn r 4i. all "robber tariffs," free trade, trusts monopolies and combines sink into utter insignificance. All of them combined can't destroy pur .institu tions half as quick as the policy our present administration is reported as advocating, it is incomprehensible to mo that a so-called Christian nation, deploring what it terms German and Austrian militarism, submarine mur ders, and all that sort of stuff, could John Aubrey Jones, San Francisco, Cal.: I predict that, should the pres ent congress enter upon deliberations looking to the enactment of legisla tion to take the profits out of "pre paredness" and resultant war, by providing for government manufac ture of arms, munitions and warships the mask would be off, and the greatest beneficiaries from contracts from Uncle Sam for war-making sup plies would be exposed as "nrenarpd- ness" patriots (? for revenue only a la Hudson Maxim. For there would undoubtedly be maintained at Washington the most "insidious lob by ' yet known, armed with unlimited persuasion," to oppose, and if pos sible, prevent, such legislation. And this these "preparedness" shouters w?uil ?0' desDite the fact that the establishment and operation of gov ernment plants essential to prepared ness, would be the surest guaranty T i'Artu"s woum ne attained at the least cost and the minimum of risk. Wherefore it would be revealed to the people that the zeal of theso patriots (?) was born very much more of a burning desire to enrich themselves at the expense of the peo ple than to have the country actimllv prepared to repel armed invaders It is earnestly to be hoped that Pres- HEALTH AND INCOME Both Kept Up on Scientific Food Good, sturdy health helps one a lot to make money. With the loss of health one's income is liable to shrink, if not entirely dwindle away. When a young lady has to make her own living, good health is her best asset. "I am alone in the world," writes a Chicago girl, "dependent on my own efforts for my living, I am a clerk, and through close application to work and a boarding-house diet, I became nervous, and got so bad off it was almost impossible for me to keep up in tho office. "A friend suggested to me the idea of trying Grape-Nuts food which I did, making it a large part of at least two meals a day. "Today I am free from dyspepsia and tho ills of an overworked and improperly nourished brain and body. To Grape-Nuts I owe the recovery of my health, and the ability to retain my position and income." "There's a Reason." Name given by Postum Co., Battle Creek, Mich. Ever rend tho abovo letter? A new ono appears from time to time. They are genuine, true, and full of human interest. ' ' '- -4imlAuiJM