The Lamar register. [volume] (Lamar, Colo.) 1889-1952, 1917-05-30
Our Own Literary Digest

ton law until 1t has already reached
a clamor. A grave alteration in ones
methods of living that concerns
10,000,000 young men necessarily con-
vulses the country, and as it is a
great national experiment whose out
come cannot be forseen, all theories
and speculations, predictions and
doubts have free play.
The newspapers themselves are not,
from day to day, entirely consistent in
their comment nor uniformly certain
of the result, but seem disposed to see
it through, like Mr. Briting, for move
we must and with what judgment we
may be given.
All angles of the question find their
expression. Asks the Buffalo Express:
"Will those fellows who boasted a lit
tie while back of being too proud to
fight be too proud to try to evade the
draft?" Some of the "patter of pat
riotism," as it might be called, which
is repeated until it becomes bromide,
irritates the Seattle Post-Intelligen-
Ger. 1t says: Suppose we say less
about the patriotism Of the parents
who have given their sons to the
country and more about the patriotism
of the sons who have done the real
giving and who will do the real fight
ing" Also, referring to the borrowed
slang of British origin, the Houston
Post remarks: "This 'do-your-bit'
stuff is not American, but English. 1t
doesn't fit the West. Hoe your own
row, get in the game, tote your own
skillet" Probably, the exigencies Of
enlistment and training, when fully
under way, will bring out the char
acteristic pungent Americanisms as
it will bring out the soldier songs.
Up to the coming registration day,
free volunteering has had an open
course, and, Notwithstanding the claim
strongly made that it is out Of date
and inadequate, itlhas shown graft
flying record, though without the in
spiration Of a call for volunteers from
the president, which would have been
it's real test. The indianapolis News
thinks $1,000 recruits a day is not so
bad. Even the eastern states are now
contributing a few" AS the Los An
geles Times observes, "The list Of
mothers who have raised boys to be
soldiers will be largely augmented in
this country, in spite Of the doggerel
rhyme 1t is the popular thing"
There seems, as yet, no disposition
to resent the selective draft, among
the young men whom it will reach.
They are not grumbling, but cheerful
ly willing to serve their country III
their country demands it, although the
Portland Oregonian loosely suggests
that many will be older than they
look when the provost marshal rounds
them up;" and the Chicago News,
speaking Of the chance to volunteer,
to be followed by conscription, adds:
Opportunity is knocking at the doors
Of our young citizens with gloved
knuckles. Presently, if unheeded, it
will knock with the mailed fist"
To the New York Morning Tele-
graph "this doesn't remind US Of civil
war days at all. Then a fellow could
skip to Canada and avoid the draft. "
The Telegraph strikes up q martial
also a marital, stave pertaining to the
matrimonial slacker-a phase that has
now somewhat subsided-thus:
She wore a hundred dollar gown,
1t was a stunning frock,
And she owned about a yard Of pearls,
But her face would stop 4 clock.
She said to Sammy Stacker,
an wed; will you be mine ?"
He looked her once and over,
Then he sought the firing line.
It is the belief Of the Toledo Blade
that ian able-bodied fellow with a
fishpole on his shoulder does not fit
into the present scheme of life" The
Philadelphia Inquirer offers this re-
buke: "Sixty Columbia students have
pledged themselves to go to jail rather
than register under the federal con-
scription law. Those weak sisters
don't belong in Columbia, and their
fellows ought to make the fact clear
to them" Pertinent to which the
yVo sh;psr+ov Ctor parciFias.