The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-05-02
Peoples Forum
II Has Come.

Editor Vir4nian;
Sir.--H History is in the making to-
day right before our eyes on a scale
that might impress the gods. not
hand made as in the days Of gal
lantry and romance but by gigantic
machinery. mii's ''"s'isrous and
cruel, heartless and souiless SO far as
anyone may see And that is the
"kultur" that has been well nigh
thrust upon the world today.
: But the half asleep old world has
been reused up at Last, and the first
thing we see is a took of astonish-
r1cnt and unbelicf is It possible
that such thing could happen in this
late day." Yes. II ~ quite possible.
now. since il has happened, The
kultur people had every reason TO be-
lieVe that they could sneak up be-
hind an unsuspccting world and deal
it death blow on the back of the
head. But one thing was lackine--n
little common sense.
Had they refraned from belgium
! France would have been an easy vic
tim then England. then America.
Their submarine program made them
n world of enemies Ever since the
day the Lusitania was sunk war with
the United States has been inevitable.
\ little common sense ought to have
( IanRHI inc nGIu-itftu Gel HldH SNB-
erals that these fatal consequences
would ensue. Even now they are
engineering a mad race between these
submarines on the one hand. and an
angry world rushing to clutch the red
murderer before he can destroy it,
Just as professional murderer
does not and. perhaps, cannot under
stand the ideas and ideals of an
orderly and iaw-abiding society, so
these German generals and high Of
fiCials, obscssed with the one dominat-
ing idea of military necessity, appear
to be incapable of understanding our
modern Civilizati They have
studied the processes which made the
old Roman empire the military mas
ter of the world, hut have failed to
study the processes which also made
il heap of ruins. Their skulls are
apparently too thick for such a task
Society has quietly suspected for a
long time that the heads of that em-
pirc since the days OF Bismark barely
escape being Congenial fools, But
what is more dangerous than fool
in authority?
Now in our defense of our beloved
country. our civilization. our future,
perhaps of the world itself. shall We
lack that saving common sense which
can easily make all the difference be-
tween defeat and victory? For ex-
ample. is IL common sense to continue
to destroy hundreds OF millions of
tons Of hreadstufts into whiskey.
when. as everybody knows, the issue
OF this world-war may turn. sundoubt-
odly will turn, upon the worlds sup
ply OF bread for the next twelve
months? / hereby respectfully and
earnestly call upon our Virginia dele
cation in congress TO take this ques-
ton into immediate consideration.
You could not in ana other matter
just now serve your country so vitality
and so nightly as to save this bread
for our own hungry people. and the
starving people in Europe
am surprised that there is not
more vigorous and persistent cam
paign in the newspapers to obtain this
important result. Gentlemen. ham
mer il home. and speedily divert the
hundreds Of millions bushels of wheat
and corn from alcohol TO bread Buy
the other millions OF grain now s.ored
bt. the tiistilierieS, Pay them reason-
able indemnities for the immediate
stoppage OF their huge business Get
down to hard tacks and common sense
quickly before We come to bread
lines and food riots, even In America
The exigency Is urgent and the peril