The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1917-07-16
WAR AND DEMOCRACY

AANMlf NV ikiA ARhh WIZ = Whn NANNf''n
articles for the Atlantic monthly, re-
ceiving good pay for his work. Now
he is one of the group OF great literary
men composing the Vigilantes who are
.deyoting their talents as writer's TO
the cause OF their country without
compensation. The articles written by
the Vigilantes are furnished free to
the press Of the country. We com
mend to the thoughtful consideration
Of our readers the following editorial
by Mr. Sedgwiek:
War is not democratic in its meth.
ods. War is no time for long delibera-
ton, for quiet argument. for threshing
out differing opinions War requires
prompt action; it compels nation to
entrust great powers into the hands of
dhe president. and reduces the func-
tions of congress to enacting laws
that carry out the presidents will. Al
nation at war, like a man attacked,
must be able to strike its hardest on
the instant, and ward off blows in
stinctively. All the national actions
that in times of peace are rational ac-
tions, the fruits of deliberation, must
in time Of war become instructive, au-
tomato.
II is difficult for q peace-loying peo'
pie suddenly to adjust itself to this
novel situation The country would
like to have time to think what it had
better do about this and that, about
anti.submarine defense, about steel
and wooden ships, about sending a
great army to France, about wise pol
icy towards Russia, about how to con
vince the German people that we real
ly are their friends and wish to help
chem to democracy for their own sake
as well as for the safety of the world. !
But there is no time to collate the
opinions Of 2O,O0OOOO men and 2O,OOO,-
600 women; neither is there time for
congress to listen to the elaborate ar
guments of the pacifsts among its
members. The president must have
immediate power to act for the whole
country.
q Undemocratic as this seems, we may !
hope that it win lead to two great dem.
ocratic achievements. The first Of
course, is to induce Germany to over
throw her military class and become a I
republic. The second applies particu
larly to the democratic affairs of this
country; we believe that there viii be
4ar greater equality in sharing the
wealth Of the country, far greater
equality between the rich and the
poor. This will be accomplished in
this way:
The taxes will be enoromus. The
country will spend 10 billions Of dol
lars year. That sum of wealth,
whether it is all raised by taxes or in
part by loans. will be consumed each
year. The problem before congress is
how to make taxes fall on luxuries, or,
in other words, to turn all the labor
now employed in producing Injuries
for the luxurious class into producing
all the things needed for war.--ships,
armament, munitions, supplies, etc.
The country would overwhelmingly
agree to such plan. Even the luxu-
rious would, for the most part, gladly
agree. The problem itself is difficult,
for the labor that goes into luxuries is
divided into thousands OF branches,
and often luxury is but some necessity
or reasonable comfort carried to eX-
cess; and often it is very difficult for
workers engaged all their lives in pro
ducing luxuries, suddenly to abandon
familiar job and take up work in
munitions factory etc Nevertheless,
that is the fundamental question to be
dealt with.
Let us suppose that the country sees
clearly that this is its chief problem,
and insists that taxation shall fall onl
luxuries so that labor shall be trans
ferred from the production Of Injuries
to producing the necessities of war
Then after the war there will be this
great number OF laborers released by
peace from their labors and ready to
turn to the works of peace. Here is
the great democratic opportunity.
This released labor must not go
back to the production of Injuries; il
must then be employed to produce rea-
sonable comforts for the poorer classes.
There must be more schools and more
teachers in the schools; there shall be
more public buildings; for example, a