The Washington herald., 1914-09-16
LET Us Make Il.
By EMoRY ,. HAYNEs.

Any visitor to Germany can recall the small indus
tries, the Ito US Amereans) petty employments of
many people there. 1t IS now brought out plainly
Ito us that this extensive small thrift was of world
wide commercial Importance. Every one of thou
sands of/littie German acres given up to grow
ing some plant valuable in the drug market Almost
every square mile of soil has been subject to ex-
ploraton as to what could be dug up therein which
England and America would buy. Tiny homemade
factories are seen that seemed to me absurd Yet
now am able to understand how important the toy
factory and other such are to this great republic
As now, for the first time really, recall ali this
minute industry, am impressed by the review. At
the time this small business interested only as
casual information handed the roadside as to
how these Germans made living. 1t seemed not a
muniicent living, and probably not rich one.
But it now illustrates again the old truth that little
things control the world.
The suggestion is eloquent to US. What riches
are locked up in so vast domain ours, stretching
from sea to sea. The same chemistry works under
our flag. Wake up, boys of Americal Put your
wits to work and turn sod over for experiment.
We can raise every drug" and chemically change it
into the desired potentality Wake up, Yankee farm
lads! Use your school knowledge, and on the cid
acres plant something in corner that is worth its
weight in gold. just this crisis of should be
an electric shock to small workers, to women and
girls who have no capital but do have brains and
time. Train all your guns that sign, made in
Germany" and bring it down.,
The soil is the storehouse. And here in America
are such vast stretches of waste wild virgin soil
What is in the sandheap stretches of no mans land
that fringe every city? What is under the scrub
oaks and dwarf pines of millions of acres so poor
that one acknowledges he owns it and will pay
taxes on it? Does not sand make glass? 1t may
be that the world is not short of glass, But the
point illustrated is that waste sandy stretches can
be made to yield fortunes
Who is out of work? Let him use his brains on
la shovelful of dirt The brains are the important
things. And the Germans are killing and offering
up sacrifice of the best young brains of their
try. 1t is scholarly Germany which is being decimi-
mated. 1t is the flower of their manhood that is
being heaped up in piles to burn 1t is certain that
for the next fifty years, the American brains will be
by much in the advantage.
Thousands of inventive Germans will invent no
more This loss of brains in Germany is vastly
more than the loss of territory. And Germany may
not lose any territory. But she will have lost the
brightest and most brainy contingent that was ever
yet exhibited by any other nation
Civilization will net halt 1t will scarcely limp.
The virile minds of the Americans, the newer
peoples, will quickly repair the loss. This war is
wrong And no wrong has ever yet prevailed for
long Events move quickly in this century
Already Americans are busy; countless charities
are stirring the melting pot. Every corporation is
thrilling with the demand of the directors on all the
force, Boys We can make it. Get busy!" If only
We can preserve neutrality, so far as guns go,
we will shoot holes in all the Made in Europe"
product from which Europe can never recover.
If it had been seeming to many young man.
that there was little in our day. let him open
his eyes. By the folly of war there opens great
opportunity to the American boy who will study
and think hard