The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-06-20

SITUATION To-Day Cnat unless the people
of the United States awaken quickly
to a full sense of their individual re-
sponsibilities and join heartily in the
work of organizing the country for
! war on an enormous scale, there is
almost certain 20 ensue a long period
of CHASTITY fighting and worldwide
suffering-with ruin and starvation
on every side-and by long period
| 1 mean from five to twenty years, or
more.
! 1.-The war program cannot be made
effective without the full cooperation
| of the people That cooperation can
not be expected until the people have
been aroused to a full and complete
understanding of the war, OF what II
means to them and their future. and
| of the obligations and responsibilities
which devolve upon them if it is to
be won within the next two years.
Let People Understand War.
ct would like to repeat with the ut
| most emphasis what I had the pr1Vl-
lege of stating recently to the Mer-
| chants association of New FORK, tnat
it is absolutely essential for those VINO
are shaping the general war program,
without further delay, to organize and
project under government direction
a great and far-reaching campaign OF
| Information designed to make the peo-
| pie understand this war. 1t should pc
! made to reach the eyes and the hearts
and the IuI VI LIE PSO-
pie by freely using the advertising and
the news columns of every useful pub
| LEGATION in the United States, and by
using the movies, the billboard, the
postoffices, the public buildings, the
railway stations, and the public con-
veyanceS, as was done in the great
publicity campaigns which were sue
cessfuIly used to arouse the people of
England to a full sense of their dam
ger and their responsibilities at a criti-
cal period of the war. In addition to
| this, school rooms, the lecture halls,
the churches, the libraries the city
halls the public squares-aH the
meeting places of the people in every
state of the Union should resound with
the voices of Americas greatest and
most forceful speakers, telling the
people the full truth, the basic facts,
about this war.
"If coupled with this urgently
needed campaign, there could be ac-
complished a radical revision of the
French and English censorship rules,
permitting a much freer flow of all
sorts of war facts and war develop
ments from the fighting areas than is
possible under existing conditions, the
effect, l feel sure, would be enormous
ly beneficial to the whole allied cause.
Unbelievable Atrocities.
For instance, would it not be the
icy which even yet conceals from the
world the full truth about the incred-
ible atrocities in Belgium, atrocities
which, if possible, have been outdone
in Rumania, and which up to now
have not been publicly disclosed
adopting a new policy which would
release to the whole world the story
of appalling barbarities perpetrated by
the Germans there-many of them toe
horrible to describe from a public
platform, but all of them serving to
show the people here what they might
expect m the event of a Hun invasion
of the United States; what sort of en-
envy, in fact, it is that we are fighting
exposing the fiendish deviltry which
caused thousands of poisoned candies
| filled with typhus germs. to be drop
! ped from German aerOplaneS for Ru-
manian children to pick up and eat;
the tragic story of how the queens
little boy, her youngest, picked up one
| of these poison-laden sweets in heI
garden, ate it, Sickened almost at once
lowered between life and death for
| weeks and finally died in her arms
this story being written by the queens
own pen and sent to lady who has
, recently returned to New York, and
who has the letter with her now; the
shocking story of how brutal German
soldiers forced gentle and refined Ru-
manian women to disrobe in public
and then drove them in groups thru
the streets; the story of Rumania's
pitiable plight today, with disease rag
ing unchecked for lack of surgeons
physicians and medical supplies; the
! bloodcurdling details of scores of sub
marine sinkings where noncombatant
| victims struggling foI' life in the water
were ruthlessly shot or struck down al
short range; or, when they escaped
| that horrible fate, where they were
cast adrift in small boats on the high
seas to die one after the other from
madness and from thirst; and in a diff.
ferent category, the thrilling stories Of
! those combats in the air which are
, taking place every day over the fight.
ing lines in France, stories of courage
and daring the like of which have
never been equaled in the wides
realms of fiction; the countless storie.
OF noble heroism, of human sacrifice
and suffering for great cause, which
show in their true light the details OF
modern warfare, so persistei'tly con.
cealed, and so urgently needed to stil
the peoples pulse and to make then
: feel and realize the truth and the full
truth about the gigantic struggle be-
tween might and right on the one sid,
, and might alone on the other
Reverse Policy of Secrecy.
Reverse this policy of secrecy. lei
| the people at home have these and
other true pictures of the war as il
really is, and 1 firmly believe the re-
, Spouse would be electrical-the PEG.
pie of the United States would rouse
as one man to their task, fired with
patriotic fervor horn of a full ant
l true understanding of what this wal
means to the and their future, if the
+, individual obligations it imposes upor
+ those at home as well as upon those
, who are constantly facing death ir
the firing line for the sake of those
at home.
And this, it seems to me, is OF
paramount Importance in view of cir
. Cumstances which exist today clearl,
indicating that, as this country organ.
: ICES for war quickly or slowly, well OF
! badly, earnestly OR haltingly-so will
: the end of the he Lam Ii