The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1917-05-17
CONSUMPTION METHOD.

NOhAoNL APOAOAl OAAA P'
Sharp Williams gave out the fol-
lowing statement in reference to
the plan of raising an army:
81 am in favor of compulsory
military service during the war
on the plans suggested by the
military staff. | have always
been and shall, | think, always
remain very much opposed to
compulsory military service dur
ing peace. We are now, how
ever, carrying on war for the
purpose, if possible, of stamping
out militarism, and thereby bid
ding wars cease. We are fight
ing for peace and for lasting
peace, and the only way to meet
successfully the system of COM
pulsory service which Germany
and Austria have is to face it
with a compulsory military SER
vice of our own until we have
outfaced and overcome it.
''Of course, it is useless right
now to say much about what sys-
tenn should prevail after the war
is over, because we do not know
how the war is going to end.
eff Germany wins this war,
Belgium will be a German de-
tendency; Denmark and Holland
will be German vassal states, and
France will be substantially adj
ministered by the German am
bassador at Paris. In that event.
Germany will have access to all
the ship building yards and navy
yards in Continental Europe
facing upon the North Sea and
the English Charnel. She will
then be left with these at her
disposal, and the conquered la
boring population at her disposal
prepared to build ships to over
come the sea power OF Great
Britain and become herself the
mistress of the seas.
"After once becoming both
master of the land and mistress
of the seas, nobody but fools
could fail to foresee that our
time must come next. If she
overcame Great Britain all the
great mercantile marine and
shipbuilding interests of Great
Britain and India would be at
their disposal as we'll, and we
would be almost helpless; for six
months or two or three years, at
any rate.
1.-THE thing for US to do now is
to win this war, and win it as
as quick as we can. | hear peo-
ole say, Try the volunteer sys-
tenn, then if it won't do, try the
other" These gentlemen forget
that we have been trying it for
some time, and that it has al
ready broken down. | saw the
other day a boast that Illinois
was the banner state of the
Union in recruiting" and she
had recruited '30-odd men in one
day. Think of thatl Three or
four states had not enlisted a
single man, although they are
being enlisted now, not under
the regular army period, but
during the war. The exam
pie of Great Britain shows how
fragile are the legs under the
volunteer platform. 1t is useless
to expect men to rush over one
another to enlist and fight for
the flag in war like this as they
did in the Civil war. That was
war between brothers. and like
all family rows, it involved in
tense hatred on all sides and
each was anxious to get to the
throat of the other. There is no
hatred in America for Germany,
and volunteers will volunteer
simply out Of a sense of duty to
liberty and country and civlllza-
ton without feeling of any sort.
But the chief objection to re-
lying upon volunteers alone goes
deeper than that and is two-fold
in character. First, those who
volunteer first are apt to be
those of the liveliest courage and
quickest realization of duty, the
highest patriotism and the best
blood. In a long war land this
is going to be a long war; let us
not fool ourselves about that, be-
cause this war will just begin
when the allies, with or without
our aid have forced the Germans
back to the Rhine) this character
of blood, these men of the char
acter | have described, would
be the men killed, manned,
blinded, while the skulkers and
shirkers-men of inferior mold
would be left alive to propagate
the race to the next generation.
Second The volunteer sys-
tenn is in no manner selective;
the man on the farm who is
making wheat and oats and rails