New-York tribune., 1917-07-27
The Awakening


ditional s6,OOO,OOo,OOO this year the coun'
trv as whole will begin to know that u
;s Of war. That knowledge has been strlk-
ing in very slowly. We have been at war
only in a provisional sense. we nave not
translated our theoretical belligerency into
actual privation or sacritce.
The draft brought certain sense OF
war home to many. But the general eX-
pectation that from so to rs per cent OF 'he
men affected by it would obtain exemption
and that actual service was still many
many months distant gave something o.
an air of unreality to our first real expert
ment at conscription. The draft, hanging
fire since June last, and only now enter
ing its initial stage, has hardly interrupted
our routine life or quickened our ante
bellum consciousness.
On the economic side, as well as the
military side, we have not risen to a clear
conception of the task ahead Of US. Food
control is one Of the necessities OF the sit-
nation. The power of the Federal govern
ment in this field should have been asserted
weeks and weeks ago. But Congress has
DELAYED and bungled, just as it does IN time
of peace. 1t is still dealing with war prob
lens in the slows going, contentious, vaguely
irresponsible spirit in which it approaches
peace problems. The food bill has been
pending for nearly four months and is still
unenacted. The emergency war revenue
bill has passed only one house-the House
Of Representatives 1t was rewritten IN
the Senate with elaborate care. Now 1t IS
to be written over again.
Our war plans have been in a state OF
fux because the government has not known
exact1v what il wanted to do and has been
unable on many essential points to get
sufficient enlightenment from the people.
Rut enlightenment is coming at last, both
TO the people and to the government. Ihe
Treasury's request for S6,O00,O00, 900 more
e this session means many things. II
foreshadows the quicker expansion OF oul
armies. the calling out at once OF the tWc
100000 groups of conscripts authorized II
tho so,ective draft act, the exhaustion II
manv districts of the man power dra"n OF
- tho first draft, with an extension OF th'
oo,o limits for eligibles and new draft no.
far in the future. 1t means also ne"
Liberty Loans, with new taxation sever
enough to compel a real adjustment of ou'
economic life to a war basis. 1t will brin{
home to every one-in his daily activities
in his expenditures, in his enforced savlng'
the fact that we are at war and mus
accustom ourselves TO its rigors and It!
economies.
We could raise and spend S5,OOO,OOO'OOO
or even $1O,OOO,OOO,OOO, this year and still
hardly know-so far as the great mass o.
our civilian population is concerned
whether we were really at war or only IL
condition of armed neutrality. But wher
we are spending from Sl5,0OO,OOOOOo t'
$4,000, 100000 year for military pur
poses-or loaning it to our allies for tn
same purposes-we shall quickly realiz
that the world we live in has undergone
stupendous change-that the whole aspec
of things has altered for us.
1t is just as well that we should plung
now at once into the thick of war-that w
should raise the limit set two months ag'
for our military mobilization and that w
should practically double the financial bur
den which we counted on assuming 70
1917. The transformation of thought
habit and outlook which will result from
this plunge is something which we shoul'
wish 10 hasten rather than 10 delay. w
cannot prosecute the war as it ought 10 b.
prosecuted until we have cleared our visiol
and put the easy illusions Of the past be
hind us.
We are not coming in at the end of tn
world struggle-as too many OF us ha'
hoped-in order 10 exert our influence il
shaping the terms of a peace whose attain
ment would have cost us but little III bloo'
or treasure. We are not ending the strug
gle merely by throwing our sword into tn
scales. On the contrary, we are simpl,
restoring balance which has been inclin
ing toward the enemy's side. We mus
give far more than we ever calculated oi
giving when we declared war. We hay
actually staked our own fortunes in wa
in which we had never admitted that ou
fortunes could be put in peril.
The sooner the awakening, therefore, III