St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1916-03-15
PRESS COMMENT
Good Apples Pay.


man, who had reputation for know
ing about the apple situation. So the
man who knew and the man who
wanted to buy visited all the apple
growers and bought the fruit at from
$1.75 to $3.50 a barrel, which was an
average price for an average product.
Then the buyer wanted to know if the
man to whom he had been referred
hadn't apples for sale and he was told
that he had but that the buyer
wouldn't want them. The buyer in
sisted on seeing them and asked the
price, which was $500 barrel and
the buyer snapped up the trade as he
said that was the quality he had been
looking for. Now these $500 barrel
apples had been raised in an orchard
no better than the other farmers had
and the fruits were of the same varie-
ties but he had sprayed his trees,
looked out for the growing fruit and
when he had them picked, he had
graded them according to quality. So
his first quality apples were worth
$500 a barrel because every apple was
up to the standard. Here is lesson
for apple growers. 1t rests with the
individual grower whether he will sell
the $500 or the $500 grade and the
difference is intelligence and industry
in growing them.-Bradford Opinion.
National Manliness.
There is the possibility that in
playing the part of a man the United
States may be forced into war but we
hope it will not. However, we feel it
would be a greater calamity for this
nation to refuse to play the part of a
man and escape war than it would to
play the manly part and take the con-
sequences. Manliness might achieve
victory, cowardice never can."-St.
Johnsbury Caledonian.
1t is pleasing to see the doctrine of
courage and manliness preached just
at this time. when a portion of the
country's population seems scared to
death. No sane man wants war for
the sake of war. That goes without
saying. But war is preferable to dis
honor. If the United States plays the
part of a man, does justice to all, and
demands the same treatment from all
others, and war comes, then it would
be an honorable conflict which the
nation could fight with clean hands
and pure heart. But if we are willing
to forego our rights, really vital
rights, involving our sovereignty. that
we may escape trouble, we will prove
ourselves unworthy u our ldlIOI ,
who have made righteous war. and we
shall be storing up for ourselves and
our children trouble and humiliation
beyond measure. Fear and decadency
in terms of national existence are
practically interchangeable words
st. Adams Messenger.
The Failure of Colonel House.
. cto1o,,o1 r7dxuor5 M HOUSE will soon
return from Europe without the in
vitation for President Wilson to serve
as mediator to the warning nations
which he was sent to secure. The
official denial of the Administration
that such was the object of his mis-
sion was soon refuted by reports from
their governments to the diplomatic
corps at Washington regarding the
soundings and solicitations of the Col
onel. When Secretary Lansing asked
the ambassadors for letters that would
gain Colonel House an audience with
their governments and attest to his
primacy as the representative of the
President, he was careful to deny in
diplomatic language that there was
any ground for supposing that the
middle name of the Colonel was
''Make-peace." The assurances of the
Secretary, however, served only to
stimulate suspicion, and subsequent
reports of the conversation of Colonel
House with those officials of London.
Berlin and Paris whom he was per-
mitted to see have confirmed first i'm
preston and justified first suspicion.
Colonel House was sent to Europe to
secure an. invitation, or even the
promise of an invitation, to President
Tor
mediation may be acceptable. The
Colonel will return empty-handed, and
the reception of his proposals has not
been such as to strengthen the hope
of the Administration that the Presi-
dent can enter his campaign for re-
election with evidence from any quar-
ter than any government looks with
favor upon his peace-making ambi-
ton. AS a result the politicians of
his party must look elsewhere for an
argument for his reelection that will
serve to silence criticisms of his for
eign policy.
The mission of the Colonel, however.
in spite of the gentle tact which is
one of his characteristic traits, may
have borne bitter fruit in another di-
rection for which the President is
wholly to blame. His round of the
capitals has been hailed abroad as re-
newed evidence of the reluctance of
Mr.. Wilson to rely upon the regularly
accredited ambassadors to represent
him when important affairs of state
are at stake. The emphasis with
which it was necessary to specify the
confidential capacity in which the
Colonel represented the President in
order to gain for him the status abroad
essential to the prosecution of his
mission necessarily reflected upon the
ability of the ambassadors whom his
presence temporarily displaced and
his mission permanently discredited.
Mr. Page at London and Mr.. Sharpe
ut Paris stood their ground as best
they could. but at Berlin the situation
Of Mr.. Gerard. who is a man of more
spirit than his confreres, was made
very embarrassing by the publicity and
prominence accorded to the Presi-
dents preferential envoy. Under the
circumstances IL would seem that Mr..
Wilson should deal leniently with Mr..