The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1917-07-26
ssThis is Our War"

Whatever the President does toward
winning this war in the shortest and most
effective way, has our enthusiastic sup
port. But to swear answering allegiance
to his administration is beyond our power.
For remember this is precisely the same
administration which has been at Wash
ington since the war began. The very
men who surround Mr.. Wilson now are
the men who sat still with folded hands
while the world was ablaZe for two and
half years and never did one solitary
thing of any Importance to prepare this
country for the tremendous burden now
thrust upon US. These are the men who
laughed the idea of universal service to
scorn voluntary universal service was
their substituted and who now rush to
consumption and refuse even for one mo-
ment to utilize whatever of value the vol
untary system possesses. These are the
men who saw the science of war advanc-
ing by leaps and strides SO that the attack
became a terrific combination of force
and mechanical skill in which huge guns
of all calibers and aeroplanes of all sorts
and speeds played the crucial part. They
built no guns and they built no aeroplanes.
1OQdy VIC die COLIplCCClS "ltlloul hSdS
artillery and have only smattering of
field guns; and we have developed no
aeroplane that is fit to fly in France. If
the men of Mr.. Wilson's cabinet had
been completely deaf and blind, they
could have done Just as much for the
country in this war as they actually did
accomplish. Even when war broke out
they showed no understanding of the sit
uation They positively determined that
no troops should be sent to France this
year; and we were only saved from this
disgrace by the intervention of Roosevelt
and JoffTe. How can we possibly feel
any confidence in these men? And how
can we get good men in their places ex-
cept by constant vigilance and attack
when attack is necessary? For two and
a half years the Metropolitan has been
fighting for the very things which are
now accepted by everyone as obviously
necessary. They did not seem so obvious
in 1915 Who believed in consumption
then? Who believed that the German
menace would have to be destroyed in
the long run by the United States?
To our mind the most essential thing
to-day is torealize that we are not simply
Gdllcu III " uClp I1lC VIC dlC AOI
giving them" money, or supplies, or
men. We are not "giving them" any,
thing. This is our war just as much as it
is theirs. If it is not our war we should
never have been in it at all. Since it is
our war, we want to put everything into
it so as to finish it in the shortest possible
time; so that the world may be restored.
To our mind the whole plan of the War
Department has been favored with de-
sire to hold off until the Allies finished
the war for u.s. We should have strained
every nerve to have got from fifty to a
hundred thousand men TO France this
year. And by next year we could have
had five hundred thousand to send over
or any part of five hundred thousand
which we could ship. But to insist on
having million men trained before we
started to fight was both impractical and
extraordinarily foolish. When it is ex-
tremely doubtful whether we can trans
port hundred thousand this year or
more than double that amount next year,
what in the name of reason is the use of
getting a million trained before starting
the fight? The faulty of this policy will
become more and more apparent when we
find that we have withdrawn a million
men from the productive end, made them
wholly consumers, and provided no means
to use them The folly of the whole plan
is only equalled by the folly of several
details.-From an editorial in the Metro
politan for July.