Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-01-19
An Eye Opener.

Washington, Jan. T.-Contracts for ar
NOR piercing navy proJect1les OF the IA
and 16-inch type totalling s3,14l,O00 to-
day were awarded by Secretary Daniels
to the Hadfelds limited, the English mu-
milton company.
Bids from American firms were more
than $500 a shell in excess of that sub
mitted by Hadfields. In announcing the
award, Secretary Daniels said the depart
ment had made every effort to secure re
auctions in prices which would enable
ii to give contract to an American con-
Germ but had failed to obtain satisfac-
tory bids.
The above is a news dispatch in
morning papers Of Thursday. 1t sug-
gests many things, but first of all, that
British munitions concerns, in the midst
of war that has called millions Of her
best physically prepared men to the
colors, are yet able to compete with
firms in a nation at peace in the fur
nishing Of war supplies. We seem to
have felt war prices" and wages more
than the nations engaged, or else our
firms are determined to make two
crops of hay in one days sunshine of
war OeIndnGS.
And what is of vastly greater import
ance to this country. at this time, is
the thus amply demonstrated fact of
what this country must face on tariff
s-than-revenue basis when
the war ends.
In the last campaign the Republican
and Independent press and the coun-
try's most experienced business men
and statesmen told the country Of the
crisis at hand, but it refused to look
further than existing war prosperity"
The above quoted dispatch from Wash
ington may open some eyes even if it
fails to rouse Democratic Congress
from it's near free trade coma.
In his inaugural address to the Legis-
lature Governor Milliken said:
we rightly view with pity and SYM
pathy the stricken and struggling ma
tons of the old World. Yet from the
standpoint of probable fitness for inn
pending world rivalry, the actual
strain Of this period of horror and
devastation is not upon any nation of
Europe but rather upon America.
Their cruel trial yet brings with it
some measure of compensation. Out
of the white-hot crucible of national
anguish will emerge a purified and pa
triotic citizenship trained to sacrifice
for the common good. On the other
hand. during their years of agony and
trial we are engulfed IN a flood Of Eu-
ropean gold. The fibre of our citizen
ship is weakened by uneXampled af-
fluence and ease. This is our crisis
hour. not theirs! Not, in Gods mercy,
by the same awful road, not we hope,
through q like experience of national
suffering and woe, but by some equal
ly effective challenge to our citizen
ship, we must match their newly won
capacity for utter sacrifice If we are
to hold our rightful place among the
nations"
Today American workingmen are
living and her business interests are
supporting war prosperity that de-
mands 5000 shell more than such ar
NOR piercing projectiles can be pro-
duced for in war-ridden Europe. What,
then, must be the change for us when
tho war ends?
The field for American considerat ton
! is almost limitless in it's possibilities.
Indeed it IS our crisis, as Governor
Milliken has said. While Europe is be-
, ing trained to mutual sacrifice, we are
rccklessly building extravaganza, care
lessness and insensibility to manifest
consequences.