The Washington herald., 1917-10-04
Protecting the Soldiers.

From the commencement of the
war up to the present time there
have been few mails. indeed, received
at the Senate and House office build
ings that have not brought letters
from mothers and religious workers
urging that everything be done to
protect the soldier boys from liquor
and bad women.
I'VE are offering our flesh and blood
| to Uncle Sam, now let Uncle Sam
| take steps to protect them from the
things that tear them down physical
| ly and morally is the common tone
| of the missireS
, And that is the very thing that
Uncle Sam is doing.
Through his lawmakers. he has
| thrown about the men protection
OF enactments which is aimed to
make it impossible for the bootleg
| gers and constituencies saloon keep
ers to prostitute Americas manhood.
And through the administrative forces
of the nation he has PROMULGATED
rules and taken steps to enforce
4 them which, II is believed, will make
it impossible for either the bad wo-
man or the whiskey soak to play
their trade among the soldiers and
sailors.
The common belief of Congression-
al leaders is that. in this war, great
er advances in this direction will be
shown to have been made by our
country than by any country at any
previous time in the worlds history.
1t is a undertaking and it will re-
quire constant vigilance on the part
of officers and men to see that the
laws are not general fractured. But
this vigilance is being eXerted every
| day. in every camp of the nation,
and the confident hope of all of them
is that victory will crown the efforts.
There is one great factor. however,
upon which army officials generally
are stalking their hope of achieving
this-that is upon the belief that the
men themselves are their own mas
ters, and that realizing the weaken
ing and destructive effects OF i'm
morality and whiskcy- drinking they
will throw of the threatening yoke
of servitude, and fight shy of these
| demoralizing factors.
This message. therefore, has been
conveyed to the mothers of America
by most of the members of Congress:
| I'VE are with you to the end, to
make American manhood pure and
undcfiled for its trying test in be-
half of democracy. But better than
the sign that we can accomplish this
through the sweeping power of dras-
tic legislation, is the sign that Amer
lean manhood, in the trenches and in
| the camps, realizes the gravity of
its responsibility, and of its own
volition will sturdily and earnestly
refuse to De led into temptation"
Those who would master others
l Rraf oSta hAK cnlt A
lea knows this law is incontrovertible,
and with the same spirit that evinces
\ the determination to master the pow
ers of militarism the soldiers of
| America are going about 1t first to
master themselves.
| And that victory, Congress knows,
will be victory comparable in many
| ways to the victory that will be
| achieved over the powers of mill
tarism and autocracy
! La Toilette md Public Opinion.
Just one force might compel the
Senate to take note of the La Fol-
lette dismissal proceedings and carry
it through to the unseating stage.
That force is the force which IL
shown with sufficient clarity would
move the Legislative body of this na-
tion to take almost any action. OF
course, the force we speak of is pub
lie opinion.
If public opinion moves to a point
where each and every Senator is con-
WINGED that an overwhelmingly large
number of his home people want La
Toilette removed and IL that opinion
is brought to the Senators at Wash
ington in such preponderant amounts
that 1t cannot be denied or compro-
missed in any way. then we may see
Mr.. La Toilette buying a ticket back
home.
| If this force isn't exhibited at such
lengths, then it is not at all improb-
able that the Senate will allow the
Wisconsin Senator to retain his seat
Those who have been connected
with movements of other kinds, in
both the Senate and House; know
that 1t Is very hard thing to get a
cleay-cut expression of the home
tyosers on any pending matter Of