davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-24
MAMERICANS OFF THE SEAS"
If Critics of Our Policy Are Restrained
Why Not the Copperheads!

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: Will you permit me to thank you for
your courageous and timely editorial OF this
morning, Americans Of the Seas" and to
compliment you on its moderation and fair
ness. wish that we could hear more OF
such vigorous yet temperate expression OF
just these sentiments.
There are thousands Of red blooded Amerl-
can. who are to-day bottling up within them
selves the same feelings, and writing with
shame in the effort They have refrained, as
YOU have done, from giving utterance here
tofore to their opinions, through a realization
Of their duty not to embarrass the President
at this trying and critical juncture. Ihis
duty has been stesdfastly and uniformly oo-
served by citizens Of that class land BE-
lieye they are legion) who are jealous OF our
rights and our honor.
But what is sauce for the gsnder does not
seem to be sauce for the goose. why does
not this duty rest with equal weight upon
that class Of citizens known as "pacihsts,
and IL they are not willing to observe THIS
duty why should they not be compelled TO DO
sol You will recall that on the occasion OF
the anniversary Of the Lusitania massacre
meeting of the American Rights Committee
was scheduled to be held at Carnegie Hall,
but was called off by the authorities on the
plea that the holding of such meeting at
that time might cause the Administration
serious embarrassment In its foreign rela-
tions. Why, then, are such meetings as that
held last night at Cooper Union, and others
of their ilk, permitted TO be held without
protest of any sort? 1t may be true that
these people and their leaders are actuated
by pure and disinterested motives. Il IS also
possible that none of them is, either con-
sciously or unconsciously, subject TO any for
eign influences. Personally take the liberty
of doubling 1t, and at all events they are not
absolutely immune from such suspicion. But,
however that may be, those of their country
men who entertain opposite views are at
least equally sincere and dsinterested.
Now then, one of two things ought to be
done Either the meetings and other public
activities of these Copperheads should be
suppressed or else the rest of US should be
granted and afforded the same opportunities
to make ourselves heard. The former can
not very we'll be done without abridging the
right of free speech. Therefore, some means
should be found whereby the opponents of
American rights and honor could publicly and
jointly give full expression to their side of
the case.
II, as we must believe, the President is
desirous Of unfolding our honor and defend
ing the rights of our citizens, then he has
the right to a full expression of the assur-
ance that the people are standing behind
him. Let him hear in full volume the strong,
virile voice of the nation, as well as the
shril and neuter walls of the short-haired
women and long-hsired men.
GEORGE WESTERVELT.
New York, Feb. %, 1917.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-24

the legitimacy and continuous tenure OF
existing Latin-American governments.
Suppose there should be successful revo-
luton in Brazil, Chile or Argentina
Would we want to engage to boycott In
definitely government in any one OF these
countries which had established its COM
plete de facto authority and competency?
Until all the American republics enter
into a treaty abolishing the right Of revo-
luton it is impolitic and dangerous for
the United States to set itself up as a
single-handed arbiter in such matters. We
should be trying to do the work of Holy
Alliance for the Americas, of which we
should be the sole member. With the
little powers we might make some show
of coercive authority. But with the big
ones we should have to back-track on the
legitimacy and indefinite boycott theory,
lust as we back-tracked on it in Mexico.
The established practice of international
law ought to be good enough for US in
dealing with Latin-American governments
arising through revolution, unless and
until we are ready to join Pan-Ameri-
can League which will guarantee stability
for its constitutional term to each partici-
pating government.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-24

took over entire from the French philoso-
ply the idea that potatoes, as potatoes,
were not food; they must be exalted,
boldly or subtly, into something higher
and nobler, creamed, cheesed, fried, 1t
mattered not.
A very eclectic spirit we have shown on
the whole. We take our soups where we
find them, French, Russian, Philadelphia.
Artichokes bloom side by side with spa
ghetti. Yet no alien invasion is permitted
to dislodge or faint with one smudge OF
disloyalty such American glories as buck
wheat cakes, maple syrup, strawberry
shortcake, apple pie and corned beef hash.
Altogether, we have travelled long road
from the true blue British simplicity OF
dumplings, roasts and joints with which we
crossed in the Mayfower. 1t is only when
a reckless chef attempts piece Of down
right trickery, of Disgusting honest food
with the trappings of pretence, that our
ancient blood tells and we realize that
there are limits beyond which no healthy
American stomach can be pushed.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-24
The German Blockade
thrown in
From The Baltimore Sum

For sixteen days we have beer kept off
European waters. If we are to remain off
them till Germany says we may 60 back the
country ought to know it at once, so that it
can adjust itself TO the German embargo. If,
on the other hand, we do not intend TO take
orders from Berlin we should say so, and
send our ships 10 sea either armed or with
escorts that will protect them. That might
mean real war; but, if so, it would be Ger
manys fault, not ours.
The point is that it is time the suspense
and uncertainty came to an end one way or
the other There is no indication that Ger
many will recede from her expressed purpose
to sink without warning neutral vessels
which overstep the lines of the war zones she
has marked out. There is, on the contrary,
every indication that she will not recede.
Therefore We should do one of two things
announce our willingness to submit to the
German embargo or our determination to
ignore il. Let us either haul down the Amer
lean flag on the ocean or throw IL resolutely
TO the breeze, come what may. We have
reached the Valley Of Decision. Whether it
is to be also the Valley of Humiliation is a
question which the national conscience and
intellect, as expressed through those in au-
thorty at Washington, must take into con-
alteration.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-24
Cabbages and Commuters

There's many a sad word spoken in jest,
and some of the saddest this spring will
be those that are hidden under the gibes
directed at commuters gardens. In times
past it was one of our chief claims to wit
that we could jeer at the radiant armfuls
of seed catalogues that enliven suburban
trains at this season, and could chuckle in
advance over the sickly rows of radishes
that would be the only product of those
catalogues, and over the graves of corn
that never corned and carrots that never
cared. This year, however, our mirth will
be bitten by the slugs and cutworms of
jealousy.
What if Friend Commuters radshes are
bitter and his lettuce fabby and leathery
textile? A poor vegetable, but mine own,
he will retort. and turn the conversation, in
that exasperating way he has, to the latest
quotation on lettuce in the city markets.
1t was 10 cents at last reports, and there is
no telling where it will soar before Friend
Commuter has his back yard ploughed
and seeded and scratched up by the puppy
and watered and seeded over again and
prayed over and kodaked and finally har-
vested The spring crops will undoubt
edly effect a reduction in the high cost Of
such vegetables as can endure the rigors OF
suburban agriculture, but that will not de-
tract in advance from the three months of
gloating which will be the heritage Of the
commuter this year.
Already the chorus is tuning up. In
the general lament concerning onions and
cabbages and lettuce the gleeful falsetto
can be discerned They had, they boast,
two rows of beans last summer, and this
year they intend to encroach on the
croquet ground and put in two more rows,
and you should have seen their Country
Gentleman corn! This is not the season
for city folk to retort that they remember
being put to work hoeing those beans, and
that, as for them, they prefer the hardy
Delicatessen Gentleman, whom bugs and
rain cannot corrupt, nor boys break
through and steal. This is not time for
city folk to pirate of lettuce plucked icy
cold from the corner grocer's refrigerator,
nor of cucumbers and tomatoes perfect in
shape and of dollhouse tenderness. 1t will
not do even to figure the cost of buying a
backyard and hiring man to plough it
and investing in the necessary new-fangled
farm implements and paying damages TO
the folks next door for having shot their
chickens and running the new shirts we
gave Friend Commuter to sport around
the tennis court in. No, the thing we
must not do is to reduce to their actual
cost the price of suburban lettuce and
radishes. If we should, in moments of
overpowering jealousy, giggle at Friend
Commuter with his watering pot and his
one dozen strong, sturdy tomato plants
satisfaction guaranteed-we hope we shall
be punished as we deserve, and get nary
an invitation to a vegetable dinner in West
chester this summer--one hour of hoeing
thrown in.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-24
To the Silent

A wind Of singing stirs the air,
Old weary words wake IN new might;
And never, never, anywhere,
Was il more sweet to sing, or right.
But the others,
Our mute brothers,
Lying somewhere in the trenches day and
night
Little time have they for song; they can but
watch and fight.
FLANDERS" and France" are words Of fire,
"Alsace" banner Haunting high,
"Rhoims" glows with deep vengeful ire;
Can poets let such words slip by
But, ali. brothers,
Our mute brothers,
Lying somewhere with your faces toward the
sky
Noblcr is your silence, though il last eter-
nslly.
CLAUDE G. WAsHBURN,
Florence, Italy.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-24
Still the Political Postmasters

II is hard to eradicate the idea that
postoffice appointments are political pat
ronage and nothing else. Only few days
ago the greatest and most profitable office
in the country was taken from the hands
of an expert, who has given lifetime OF
service to the Postal Department, and an
estimable gentleman of average attain
ments, no postoffice experience and color
less record in public life was appointed to
be its head because he happened to belong
to the party in power. Now the conferrees
representing Senate and House have
agreed to drop from the postal appropria-
lions bill the amendment, proposed by Sen
ator Poindexter and adopted by the Sen
ate, putting all first and second class post
masters into the civil service.
For this Mr.. Moon, chairman OF the
House Committee on Post Offices, is prl-
marily responsible. He frankly admitted,
in fighting the amendment in the House,
that he thought civil service regulations
a delusion and a snare as applied to the
postal service. Most of all, he was OPP
posed to the idea that postmaster, hav-
ing made good and gained experience in
small station, might be advanced to take
charge of larger and more important
office because he had proved his quallhca-
tons to run it to the satisfaction of the
public. He was against "carpet-bagger
postmasters."
Whatever satisfaction Mr.. Moon and
the rest of the politicians can obtain from
this victory they are entitled to-. They
have perpetuated the spoils system instead
of helping to install merit system. Sooner
or later the change will have to be made,
because that is the only sensible and decent
way to handle this phase of national bust
ness. 1t is generally to be regretted that
patronage-grabber ideas have delayed the
day of it's going into effect.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-24
Our Anglo-Saxon Stomachs

II is along about the stage of cookery
represented In this years Salon of Gull
nary Art that the American palate be-
gins 20 hem and haw and change the sub
ject and beg 10 be excused. We may have
covered our Anglo-SaxOn love of raw
bones with a wealth of sophistication and
a genuine cosnIopOltanism Of taste. But
tender US plateful Of apparent straw
berries composed Of moulded and tinted
goose liyers, and away down within the
American soul Of souls something snaps.
Futurist art may be all very interesting
hung in the art gallery-but on the walls
Of the stomach, no!
The spirit Of French cooking has pretty
well crossed our continent, according 10
globe-trotting Investigators. The cafeteria
of Los Angeles is sister 10 Delmonico's in
certain essentials. The English boiled po-
tato. for instance, without which no slab
Of red meat can be patriotically consumed
in the British Isles, is practically defunct
in America. Even in the days Of the old
Aztor House rotunda, last survival Of the
pure American idiom in the hotel Kitchen
spuds wergxareIy boiled. We long ago
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-24
Restoring Our Flag to the Seas
New York, Feb. %, 1917.
o the Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: In to-day's issue of The Tribune you
ask: "How and when, therefore, does our
government propose to restore our flag to the
free seas of the world?" As "our govern
ment" in this case means the President and
an irresponsible Cabinet if one may hazard
an answer based on the conduct Of that same
Cabinet and that same President, it is that
nothing whatever will be done to restore it.
But does it not strike The Tribune as an
extraordinary anomaly in the Constitution OF
a free people that in a crisis so seriously
affecting the honor and the fortunes of the
nation so great lease of power should have
been given TO the Executive that on his indi-
vidual will the preservation of that honor
and the vindication Of those rights should
seem very largely to depend? Washington
might tell Congress that his policy was "to
lose no time in acquiring the ability to insist
upon justice being done to ourselves" but
characteristics, If not character, have changed
very much in the United States since Wash
ingtons day, and people who can produce a
Bryan ought so TO reserve to themselves the
regulation of peace and war that at such
times as these the practical expression of
their will, whether it be for the abandon
ment or the maintenance Of their interna-
tional rights, shall be independent Of the
character of the President.
In "The American Commonwealth" Lord
Bryce, speaking of the Cabinet says: IAN
American Administration resembles not so
much the cabinets OF England and France as
the group of ministers who surround the
Car or the Sultan, or who executed the bid
ding of Roman Emperor like Constantine
or Justinian. They are not govern
ment as Europeans understand the term"
Yet, as it is inconceivable that the founders
of this government ever intended TO lodge
autocratic power in the Executive, II the arm
ing of American ships is an executive rather
than a legislative act, and the necessity
for arming them exists, as it does, then 1t is
the legal and therefore the moral duty of the
President to arm them, however such an act
might conflict with his personal inclinations,
for if he may permit himself to be ruled by
his personal feelings rather than by practical
considerations of actually he is pro tanto an
autocrat and not the servant of great and
free people.
Though Democrat, have no hesitation in
saying that President Wilson's reluctance to
act in the present crisis has the appearance
of being due to no higher moral inciple
than a timid desire to spare his own feelings
at the expense Of his country's honor and the
rights of his compatriots.
+. ]. DUNDON.
New York. Feb. %, 1917.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-24
Swearing In Hannibal Hamlln

To the Editor of The Tribune. ,,,s
Sir: On March 4, 1851, was 10 'n ~, {.
gallery OF the United States senate, q y
Breekinridge, as yet vice-PresidenI "a.
United states, was in the chair II Wa s,,
noon. | saw three persons, two OF NJ NJ q.
,tors. advancing toward the presS@s ,.sl
GERS dais. In front Of the clerks os's - H.
halted. facing the chair. The mlamV .i.sS Ls
three. al word from the elerk' .Svisis
hand, and the occupant of the shS n. IA, y
,erod the oath to Hannibal Hsm'lH .sc,
would well and truly perform ths W.
V;ce-president Of the United StA~H Ssst
Tbercupon Mr.. Breckenridge slePp ~ al
NJ Hcrnibal Hamlin assumed the era. .,.IlsI
a. viee-President and presiding oh ."a rhss
~. senate 10 order. Mr.. Breekinrss' ,ss
c n,o had already been pFessn'ssg ,.slG
,aDoe forward and was sworn u :. sS,pS
from Kentucky. That post nc e. xi.hsa
sfterward to 20 into the keoeli,V '.',.ds1
sIe'r n"or excuse that his state had secfoy %
"" Then went to the front Of the O .s % -
.sw Abraham Lincoln take tse o. OiH'
sorm Faithfully the office Of Pre,'a Is "S,,ss
Ilrited States. There is no ne ss'SopcR0&
that ceremony. JohN L.
Brooklyn, Feb. 81, 1917
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-24
SUFFRAGE AND PAClFlSm
How Get the Ladies Out Of the Arena OF
Martyrdom?
To the Editor of The Tribune.

To the Editor of The Tribune
Gu. The statements of Mrs. John Rogers
ir a leader of the National Congresslon"i
Union. reported in the press OF February -,
that "war is hell foolery," that the uhl.eu
States should be kept out of war; no matter
THAT banpens." and that she "will give no
.or,,ice NJ any kind to country which yio-
lates the rights of women by refusing 'he"
political freedom" confirm my discoveries
made last year, when l withdrew from the
suffrage movement
then found that the movement Is largely
a paciist-socialist affair, as has just peeh
shown by the storm of suffragist opposition
which has arisen to the declaration OF loyalty
made recently by Mrs. Gait, Mrs. "hitehouse
and a few members of the Suffrage party my
former associates could not be made TO sec
that a woman's first duty is to declare her
LOYALTY to the government in which sne Is
asking a voice; therefore left them
Mrs. Whitehouse, who has recently recant-
ed last winter refused to assist the move
ment for national preparedness, saying that
she would not do so until the vote had been
Given TO women Mrs. Gait, DR.. Shaw and
lane Adams, among others, decried the WIS
dom of making any preparation for military
cyentualities, and Mrs. Gait told US that u
was "written on the wall of time that war is
a relic Of barbarism and must 60" and inti-
mated that women, if given the vote, could be
depended upon to see to wars going.
We now see the method of wars dissipation
which these women saviors OF mankind had
N view. They were to lie, Bryanlike. on their
hacks. with their hands folded in prayer,
while the enemy should bundle them up like
cordwood and toss them on to our national
ryre. This was their fair dream of martyr
dom-until the German Ambassador was
given his passports and the dream began to
look like reality. Then, suddenly, new
legend appeared upon the wall of time, read
ing, This way to the tall timber" when
Mrs. Gait, Mrs. Whitehouse and the more
agile of their associates were to be seen hun
ryng for the trees.
Where this leaves Mrs. Cats deluded but
less nimbe followers we need not ask. All
that il is now charitable to inquire Is, How
shall tkey, too, be got out of the arena OF
martyrdom before the hungry animals are
let in? ELIZABETH OGDEN WOOD.
New York, Feb. q. 1917.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-24
LOOK OUT FOR THE SPARK
Food Riots Might Grow Into Conaagration
Like the French Revolution
To the Editor of The Tribune.

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: If any of our eminent statesmen have
read past history there should be much food
for thought for them in the present serious
situation engendered by the great increase In
the prices of the necessities Of life.
AS we all know, history repeats itself; and
surely the food riots which occurred last
Tuesday, and, no doubt, will occur again, can
be compared to those that marked the begin
! ming of the French Revolution in 1889. Quite
a few persons lost their heads at that time
for no greater misdeeds than those commit
ted by the present day malefactors who Jug
gle the prices Of food
What if a latter-day Camille Desmoulns,
endowed by Providence with the full power
Of inhammatory speech, aroused the suffer
ing populace to realization of their misery
caused by the INSCRIPTIONS speculations OF
a few greedy individuals whose sole aim is
to corner the public necessities in order to
accumulate fortunes, regardless of the well
fare of the community? What would hap
pen? God only knows!
There is yet time for the right kind of leg
lslation that will curb the insatate appetite
of these vampires who suck the blood of the
people to further their own ends.
1t takes but a spark to cause a coniagra-
toni
Beware of the writing on the WALL This is
a Christian country, and if the dictates of
Christianity are to be observed, laws should
be enacted forbiddng the systematic starving
of the people If this state OF affairs is to
be allowed to continue, even the God-given
rays of sunshine will be cornered and sold to
the highest bidders.
VICTOR D'AVAILLoN
Elizahath i Feb "a 1917