The weekly soliphone., 1915-10-08
UNSIGNED LETTERS.

Supplemental to other decayeu ideas which are being pushed for ward by so-called American citl- zens," comes a protest from an un- signed writer against the big An glo-French loan now being under written by New York bankers. There is nothing original, "cute, or instructive in this protest-mere- ly a silly diarrhoea of rhetoric su- perimposed upon basis Of rank preiudice-so rank, indeed, that the writer reall believes he is patriot. Hundreds of thousands of these letters are flooding the coun- try, appealing to bank depositors to withdraw funds from national 1n- stitutions which participate in the loan, predicting dire results and in general beating the air with the devils fan to such an extent that one not versed in the art of reason ing might be induced to believe some part of the silly talk.
 The article referred to begins with this: England and France are at their wits end, beaten in battle. des arted by their own peo- ple, unable to raise the means with in their own frontier for prolong- ing their we'll night hopeless at tack on Germany, unable to con- hci tools Ru ;sia and Italy
 All of which is incorrect-just as untrue as if France and England and the other allies should say the same thing concerning Germany and Austria. AS a matter of fact, none of these countries is defeated, nor will they be for many months to come. Each is playing game of finance and machinery and or ganization so gigantic that even the smaller details are appalling. When the war began it was esti- mated that the loss in men and fi- nance would be so great 1t could not be endured more than a few months. But the blood-letting and the burning and dynamiting goes merrily on, with ample credit for all. Germany has never won even the semblance of complete victory against France and England, while the latter pounded von Kluck and his enthusiastic troops so fearfully that they were forced to fall back in the very beginning of the war and can perhaps never regain the ground then lost.
 But this does not mean that Ger many is whipped. Far from it. Germany is the most marvelously organized nation of the earth, and it will require more energy than the allies now have at their disposal to upset her. Well informed military critics agree that for either side to break through on the Franco-Bel- gian side is well-nigh impossible. The situation in this field is dead locked. Then, for Germans living in America to localize the issue, make this country a clearinghouse for their ill-will; use the U. S. mails to carry their messages of Vi tuperation, and, incidentally, some untruths, smacks of disloyalty so marked that the result will inva- riably be reflected in this country s attitude toward Germany. This paper does not believe American bankers should supply funds to be utilized in the purchase of war mu- nitions, no matter whether pur- chases are made by the allies or the Teuto lie powers. Neither do we believe American intuition plants should be permitted to sell their wares to Europe. The whole nefa- rious business is contrary to neu- trality, regardless of any technical opinions that may be handed down by intern etional lawyers. Yet Ger many has borrowed money here, and so long as the practice is permit ted by U. s. laws, it comes in poor grace for eirher side to make effort to inflame the public passion with stories that are manifestly untrue It savers of a second class political campaign, and is being conducted on the sane low level.