Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1916-03-10
RUSHING INTO WAR.

NM II ItRTtJ exceedingly lHe dJIl-
w tude taken by the Wilson adj
ministration since the withdrawal of
William Jennings Bryan from the
cabinet. 1t seems evident TO us that
we are rushing blindly, heedlessly, or
ignorantly into the worlds greatest
of all wars, and if we do not land
fairly and squarely in the turmoil in
a short time, it will certainly be no
fault of the present congress of the
United States.
The craze for gold, for power, pres
tige and authority has seized our ma
ton. The capitalists, who clearly die
tate our policies, have come to covet
the shipping and commesce Of the
world, which is in reality the very
thing for which the nations of Europe
are contending. To successfully wrest
this from the older nations, we must
have a powerful navy and much
larger standing army--we must have
Preparedness" for which our wor-
thy PRESIDENT has been contending so
valiantly We must impress the for
eign nations with our prowess and i'm
portance by insisting that Americans
have a right to go anywhere they like
on any ship, neutral of combatant,
armed or unarmed, and Of course the
United States must follow them and
redress any mistreatment shown to
them.
IL matters not that the ship on
which Americans sail may be loaded
with ammunition to the decks with
which to kill Germans, nor that she
carries mounted guns for defense and
offense, that ship must be unframed,
because, forsooth, there are Ameri-
cans aboard. And what nation, in the
position in which Germany is now
placed will halt in its avowed meth
DDS of warfare, because neutrals in
sist in placing themselves in danger?
Germany has conceded more already
in the interests of peace with the u.
5. than anyone, almost, ever expected
that she would; now we must needs
goad her little further and back her
into corner where she will be COM
PEELED to fight us, or abandon the war
entirely and sue for peace.
The United States Congress did a
fool thing when they voted down the
bill to warn Americans from sailing
on armed merchantmen of the belig-
gerent nations. Not only should that
bill have become law, but they
should have went further and served
notice on all Americans that if they
shipped into the war zone on other
than duly authorized American YES
sci, they did so at their own risk and
peril, and that the United States
would assume no risk whatever in
the matter.
Yes, and we have no disposition to
shield or excuse the action of our
representatives in Congress. Senator
Sutherland gave his support to the adj
ministration in the fight; Senator
Smoot lodged the issue by not regis
tering his vote. OF course Teddy
Roosevelt and lot more radical re-
publicans are bowling their heads off,
so to speak, because the administra-
ton has not plunged into war long
ago. But the fact remains that the
most important thing the present adj
ministration has done is to keep out
of war; and it is almost certain that
all the credit of this accomplishment
is due to the peaceful proclivities of
Mr.. Bryan, while a member of the
cabinet, and it is equally certain that
Messrs. Wilson and Lansing will get
us into war, if given time, as IL is that
Bryan kept us out.
In the event of war with some of
the European countries developing
as result of the policy recently as
sumed by Congress, every congress
man voting TO sustain the present pol
icy of the administration should be
compelled to shoulder musket and
take his place with the rank and file
at the front
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