The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1917-09-13
A Stick In Civilizations Wheel

BY Ida NJ Tarbell of The Vigilantes.
Playing cutie fish, as Lincoln call
ed it, is one of the commonest tricks in
polemcs. In attack, in defense, in es.
cape your partisan cuttle-fish can throw
out its black fluid, darkening facts until
the straight line Of reasoning is in a
hopeless tangle A favorite form Of this
sort of polemic trickery is obscuring
the issue by declaring your opponent has
no policy"
Lincoln, the openest Of reasoners, he
who at every point in an argument
took almost Quixotic pains to make his
meaning and policy clear, was forced
always to keep an eye open for this par
ticular cuttle-fsh trick 1t was played
on him constantly in the Civil war by
the Northern pacifsts. They wanted
his termsl-He had stated them repeat;
edyl from the start-the Union-that was
his object and that alone. Whatever he
did or said, he did and said because he
believed it would help save the Union.
What he did not say or do he did not
say or do because he did not believe the
doing and saying would help save the
Union.
But the North was sprinkled with
people who were not satisfied with that
one clear aim, They wanted him to set
down in writing what he meant to do
with the Confederates should they be
defeated what kind Of government he
proposed to establish i'm the revolving
states; whether or no he would give the
negro a vote; that is, they were busy
from morning until night obscuring the
end-the saving Of the Union.
Every great contest breeds a school
Of this pestiferous cuttle-fsh. We have
/ them mountaineering our troubled
waters with their "We-don'tknow.why
we.are'fghting' ink. They want terms"
and threaten to hinder the war in every
way possible until they get them
There are two ways Of explaining the
people who today declare that we have
been hurried" into this war and that
we don't know what we are fighting for
one is that intellectual blindness
that ability to think what you want to
think. 10 see no more than you want to
! Isee-engendered by fanatical devotion
to a particular formula or scheme-oft.
en- very good in itself;-the other is plain
intellectual dishonesty.
If ever the reason for q war was
Iclear, if ever a people came 20 a war by
solid If slow argument, IL is now II
ever the aim Of a conflict was stated
fully and unanswerably. it was so stated
by the president of the United States in
his message of April 2, declaring war
That message is and must remain oul
justification and our aim. We are IN wal
because the wheel of civilization is
blocked 10y a stick OF such prodigiou,
and hideous toughness that il never
again viii revolve in the path Of FIRE,
democratic progress unless that part o
the world which has chosen that patti
frees the wheel.
Threee years OF experience in which
every opportunity was given the impe
rial government Of Germany to clea
itself Of the charges Of being at wa
WIN AlttNolllt Win law ana Win Nu
manity itself. have proved beyond
question that 1t is upon these deepes
p aspirations Of the world that it doe
war
Prussianism, as we have come 10 cal
the doctrine on which Germany base
its attack on the world. believes in itsel
and its superiority 20 the rest OF US. /
believes itself called to spread itself owe
p the rest OF US in spite OF our liking
. or not. II believes in war as the d
h yinely appointed instrument for ou
r conversion. Believing this, It made goo
and ready for its great crusade. IL d,
veloped a great, healthy, busy, trained
] obedient people-people who. for IN
sake Of the security they enjoyed in tn
d perfectly adjusted machine. were willln
i 20 accept war which was 20 make ther
. richer, mors powerful. rulers OF IN
t earth. This war Is but the first can
s lpaign in the series which was 20 Pru
sianize the earth Study Germany's ow
8 teachings follow the patient. inteniger