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Tfate Commoner
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DECEMBER, 1918;
11
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, nbifi o rid oursolvcslfor a quarter
e"inr...-- n trs been "blotted from our
f a century n
Civilization. TmTrftor ltfrivw.
miP WAR AiNJJ inia vAi."Vm .v,
mha world is yet to learn the part played by'
Tbe ?5?,.i Jnnvfiment in he United States
the proniu"'" ,-. fiRfnhHnlimnt.
Eh a winning of this war. The establish
K .h-e . German-American Alliance.
was
1 - Vi-.n,nnv'B well thought out methods for
new ubi -- Avwinr wu nU of tho
Germanizing ui. """'" - t .
f the trauoiuuo ---;
ID" u . . ...nalnltir tVtn ttrnrm0 Wrtfhlticr
irlnk traiuCKers, eBiicuiijr m mt.vw. ...,v....b
?" . !nriv nnd ftonvinclnKly set forth in the
Ba moro ww - ..ij i, wi,ii
Sr was revoked. The Alliance, in addition
CH . ., rtonri hv thfi brewers, was intensely
to DeiHt, "--- ---- -, - . -
HHral ana intensely uimuj-w. xiu inuwuoui,
?0U . . ... ,, .UnnKatarl hv fln Irataar
Mli0 AllianUO WUO Oou ut,i,ui.u ., nw ..uu.
himself because of his effective services in
spreading tne uermau yiupugtmuu. j. ouuuua
had the Anti-saioon ueujsuu ucbuu tu nwvw imn
in the politics of the states for the election of
clean, patriotic men to office, than it came tace
to face with the liernian-Amencan finance in
every city of importance. It was dictating city
officials and state legislators; it was putting its
ncsty fingers into the -public schools and dic
tating what should, he taught andwho should
teach it; while certain professors in some of our
state universities secured and held their posi
tions by virtue of being German or by obeying
the mandates of tbe German-American AH-ance
by finishing off their education in German uni
versities. Does anyone doubt, in the light of the
fimmediate past, that if there had not been a
(strong, virile, prohibition nuement to combat
Sthe propaganda of this disloyal but well financed
organization, that America would have been
Isufficiently Germanized to lave kept her out of
fthe war? The increasing ' power of the drink
traffic, with the increasing debauchery of the
citizenship in the cities of the country,-fostered.
Ihandled and voted by the German-American
Alliance, would ere tnis nave driven us oeyond
the place where we could liavp been aroused to
the point of taking up arms against this de
stroyer of the world's civilization, and the very
currents of the world's history might have been
forever turned. The hand ofra good providence'
may be as distinctly seen in the origin of the
Anti-Saloon League a quarter of a century ago,
as it was in the delivery of the children of Israel
from their 'forty years of wandering.
A SOBER DEMOCRACY
I do not know what can be accomnlished at
the peace table to aid this cause, but somehow
we should have marshaled there, If possible, the
I united voice of the temperance hosts so it- can
fspeuK wuii autnomy, and if nothing more can
be done, we should secure the opportunity to
prosecute our world work unhindered by need
less restrictions. America has sent more than
tWO millions nf ihtk flnwntv nf Vior. -T.fr.r mnt,
Ihjod across the seas to fight and die, not for
I annexation or indemnities, but that the world
;uy oe maue safe for the kind of democracy
that we enjoy in this "land-of the fred," and
;wnat we believe the whole world will agree to,
fi he home of the brave!" and that the integrity
fOl the Smallor nnHnnn , 1 ;.-.- J.vl
I jnat all peoples shall have-a fair chance to enjoy
i "- i'"seiui pursuits in their own wax- While
xni ,y l0 TOalce this sacrifice that the
pmiin may e made Baf0 or democracy, we are
i equally ready to make all needful sacrifice to
'hvl democracy that is safe for the world;
, M 1C mtelllgent, sober and patriotic.
fnr n, Denocracy can no more be made safe
flonri.? iW02d wlth the rum a10 avowed to
for fl?Jn lt' than the world can e made safe
: flourish inCitaCy Prussianlsm allowed ' to
'in "5 vxtthQ baffle in intoxicating liquors
t'on t J P!blic ln the way of ultimate extinc-
are rp;f?Ug? mUCh ' remaIn? 7 to be done we
a ready t.n lonj n i, .. -i
i south n- i,a i T x "ttUU uviohb iue sea, anu
'trlM n ' .u ""-wver way you of these coun-
NeiL, 1 P0iJlt out tliat we can be helpful.
to oiTri i 'Buage, color nor creed is a -bar
the mptifn i t0 be of 8ervice. We only ask that
from Inn em?lyed he practical and divorced
I not invnw i , . Hpucmc temperance woric and
I thines i ?? and hamP6rod by the doing of many
i undPBHn2f0m8 ??". when so many things are
country. If you doubt the efficacy of tho omni
partisan and Interdenominational method, I
would refer you to our enemies, "themselves
being the judges." Their literature speaks moro
eloquently than complimentary of the complete
success of this method.
THE TIMES ARE RIPE
Tho time is opportune for a great, aggressive,
world-wide movement against tho alcoholic drink
traffic. When this war is ended, we will bo in a
new world wherein righteousness will flourish
less hindered than at any period in tho past. If
weaker nations are to be protected from the
brutally strong, weak men and women should
be protected from yioso who would coin their
weakness and wickedness into caBh. The heart
of the race will bo softened and chastened for
half a century after we have taken stock of this
conflict. Our old men will dream dreams, and
our young men will see visions of a better World
and we shall be prepared for tho bigger program.
When tho roar and smoke of this war of earth
and air and Bea has cleared away, and tho calm
judgment of history has rendered tho verdict,
It will be found that the Junkor, tho kaiser, tho
murderer of Arch-Duke Ferdinand and his wife,
in fact the very house of tho Hohenzollern, are
but the merest incidents In bringing on this
world holocaust. The -primary and secondary and
all-compelling cause is that a rjxce' of people have
arisen who eat like gluttons, and drink like
swine a race whose "God is their belly," and
whose Inevitable end is destruction. Their sod
den habits of life have driven them constantly
toward brutality and cruelty until they wero
prepared to strike for universal conquest, though
millions of lives and oceans of blood was to be
the price of reaching that unholy ambition. Beer
will do for a nation exactly what it will for an
individual. The use of it will destroy the finer
sensibilities, develop egotism, which Is always
accompanied by cowardice, and foster the un
speakably hateful doctrine that might makes
right.
.The last word as to method in temperance
reform has not yet been spoken and no organiza
tion or society holds all the-truth or all of the
elements of success. We are to plan a movement
fdr 'all tho worhl what is a success in-one cofln
. try may not be so great, a success in-another.
Let us, therefore, divest ' ourselves of all prido
of method. Let us hold to no method because
it is old, nor yet adopt another because it is
new; but let us try the methods that have been
successful and hold fast to that which is good.
Our business is to so marshal our' energy and
means as to bring about the "speediest repres
sion and the ultimate suppression' of the bever
age liquor traffic. We seek a saloonless and a
drunkless world.
undertake 7w t, ' wnen. 80 many.things are
1 Porated silii LUO opposition, thereby incor-
After mnoi, "&""$ we liquor iramc.
Method lc;VexPe"menting, we have found the
Ior the solution of the problem In this
FREEDOM, OR SLAVERY, OF THE SEAS?
(Continued from page 7)
and thus he sought to make perfectly palatable
. to Brlt'sh sentiment tho old American doctrine
of sea law. For in his 14 points the President
included the following:- '
Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas,
outside territorial waters, alike In peace and
war, except aB the seas may be closed in whole
or in part by international act!on for the en
forcement of international covenants.
It would be a help to clear thinking If every
one wduld remember that the great war has
toppled over the entire structure of International
law in regard to maritime rights and duties in
war time. fc Nothing Is left today of the old
system because of the wide range of new prec
edents made by both Germany and Great Britain
in dealing with neutral commerce and private
property on the seas. From the neutral view
point, both sides violated the law of nations;,
but Germany, it is needless to say, passed all
bounds in her outrages on life and property and
thus forced the United States to take up arms.
Today, there Is no such thing in practice as tho
freedom of the seas, even in the sense that the
principle was understood before the great war
began. The navies which yesterday received the
surrender of the Gorman battleships are virtually
a law into themselves, and in the last analysis
that means the unlimited supremacy of the na
tion having the strongest battle fleet and tho
slavery of the seas for all other maritime states.
This conditions of affairs will remain until a new
structure of sea law can be reared on the ruins
of what has fallen under the blows of the bel
ligerent alliances. , , ..
The President has evidently approached the
difficult problem of the reconstruction of sea law
In ,tlrao. of war in tho only way that can ffor
hope of reconciling . tho conflicting interest of
tho nations, especially the Interests of Great
Britain and tho United States, and avoiding in
tho future a race botweon them In naval arma
ments. Tho potontial war-tima rule ofono navy
will not lohg bo ondurcd on tho high seas by"
proud and powerful nations and if the world Is
now to draw away from that condition, in which
tho groat war has virtually loft it, tho way out
through tho leaguo of nations scorns the "most
promising of all.
Unless the United States can get a solution
along these lines, it will probably get nothing,
for it asks for neither territory nor indemnities. '
The British empire, It Is evident, will bo terri
torially cnlargod by the war, for it is tfoflnitely
announced that tho claims of tho British over
seas dominions to tho Gorman colonies will bo
supported by tho imperial government. Are wo
to spend 20 billions of dollars and thousands
of lives a modest expenditure porhap3 and
come away from, VorsailLos empty-handed?
Those Americans who aro no busy raising ob
stacles in tho path of tho President by attacking
his program for n league of nations and Hhe
freedom of tho seas, which aro In no respect'
selfishly nationalistic although they would safe
guard -America from future embroilment In
Europoan wars thoso Americans offer nothing
constructive as a substitute for tho President's
policy.
McADOO'S TETTER OF RESIGNATION AND
WILSON'H ACCEPTANCE
A Washington, D. C, dispatch, dated Nov,'',
says: Socretary McAdoo's letter, of resignation
dated November 14 follows: ' n4
"Dear Mr. President: Now that an armistc
has been signed and peace Is assured, I. feci at
liberty, to advise you of ray desire to return, "as",
soon as possible to private life. , v,
"I have been conscious for some time of t-ho
necessity ior this stop but', of course, I could not
consider it while the country was at war. ,(i.
"For almost six years I have worked inces
santly under tho pressure of great responsibllr,.
ities. Their reactions have drawn heavily uppn
my strength. The inadequate compensation nl
, lowed by law to cabinet officers (as you know
I receive no compensation as d.'rector general of
railroads) and tho vory burdensome cost of liv
ing in Washington has so depleted my porsonal
resources that I am obliged to reckon with tho
facts of the situation.
l do not wish to convey .the impression that
there is any actual impairment of ray health be-ca-iso
such is not tho case. As a result of long
overwork I need a reasonable period of genuine
rest to replenish my energy. But moro than
this, I must for the sake of my. family get back
to private life to retrieve my personal fortune.
"I cannot secure tho required rest nor tho
opportunity to look after my long neglected
priyate affairs unless I am relieved of my present
responsibilities.
"I am anxious to have my retirement effected
with tho least possible Inconvenience to yoursolf
and to the public service, but It would, I thinjc,
be wise to accept ray resignation now, as soc
retary of the treasury, to become effective upon
the appointment and qualification of my suc
cessor so that ho may have tho opportunity, and
advantage of participating promptly in tho for
mation of the pol'cies that should govern -tho
future work of tho treasury. I would, suggest
that my rerlgnatlon as director general of rail
roads become effective January 1, 1919, or upon
the appointment of my successor,
"I hope you will understand, my dear Mr, Pre
sident, that I will permit nothing but tho-most
imperious demands to force my withdrawal from
public life. Always I shall cherish as tho greatest
honor of my career the' opportunities you have
so generously given me to serve the country,
under your leadership during thosa epochal
times.
"Affeotlonatly yours, ,
"W. G. McADOO."-
Washington, D. C, Nov. 22. The President's
letter of acceptance, dated I&vcmber 21, folr
lows:
"My dear McAdoo: I was not. unprepared for
your, letter of the 14th because you had moro
than once, of course, discussed with me tho
circumstances which have long made it a serious
personal sacrifice for you to remain in office.
I knew that pnly your high and- exacting senio
(Continued on jpage 12)
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