The Nezperce herald. (Nezperce, Idaho) 1900-1957, 1917-09-13
ALL MUST PLAY FAIR.
War Demands Equal Service and
President Allow No Favors

Those of us who from the be
ginning of our war with Germany
have had faith that Presiden
Wilson was possessed of sufficient
intelligence, courage and determ
nation, to save the great working
and consuming masses of the ma
ton from the calamity of being
exploited by blood profiteers, whC
for two and a half years wallOweC
in the gold which they exaeted
from the vital necessities of Ger,
many's European enemies, and
who consider their own nation at
war, merely as another goose to be
plueked. have not been living in
q fools paradise.
President Wilson kept this
country out of war up to the last
day, the last hour, the last minute
it was possible to do so. As a
profound student and interpreter
of history he knew as well or bet
ter than any statesman in the
world the magnitude of the task
which confronted America, the
great difficulties, physical, moral
and psychological, to be overcome
in preparing peace-loving, I'M
organized democracy to wage a
victorious war against the most
highly organized military autoe-
racy in the world.
During that fateful time be-
tween the day when the presi-
dent saw with clear vision
that the preservation of this
nation and the salvation of
the world made war between
America and Germany inevitable
and necessary, and that day when
he delivered his war message to
congress, the president fOrmulat-
ed in his mind a pretty definite
course of action to be followed in
preparing the nation for war.
Two of the fundamental propO-
sitions In the plans which at that
time took form IN the president s
mind were these:
First: The whole power Of the
nation, physical, moral, industrial
and financial, must be modified /
in the shortest possible time with
absolute disregard of every con-
sideration other than that of de- |
feating the enemy.
Second: The enormous bur-
dens of war must be distributed as
equally as it is humanity possible
to distribute them, among the
hundred and ten million people
Of the nation. Their burdens in
clude paying for the war as well
as fighting the war;
Stated In another way, this was
the second proposition: Those
who are best able to pay, must
pay; those who are best able to
fight, must fight. There must be
no blood-prOfit-
Just because the president, be-
ing a mere man and not super
man, has been unable to ac-
complish the miracle Of doing ey-
at once, it seems to have
been assured by large numbers of
people that he is not going to do
some Of them at all.
There is no denying the fact
that among workers and consum-
ers of the nation there is a grow I
ing Impotence and dissatisfaction I
because so little apparent pro- /
gress has been made toward limit
ing profits, reducing the cost of
LIES necessities, and putting up
On the owners of surplus wealth, /
where it belongs, the main load a
If the war taxation. Il
1t is equally true that up to a s.
Tery short time ago there has been e
! feeling of great satisfaction and
content among the brotherhood of n
he blood profiteers. o.
This brotherhood is composed SC
n the main Of those men who in n
ne way or another have got con- to
rol Of the natural resources of
be nation-the ore, coal, lumber. I'll
tc. those men who have got con- so
rol of the transportation of the at
ation-the railways, steamships, pc
tc. and those men who have got qu
lntrol of the machinery which TO
lbricates the raw materials into he
of war and the neces- SCI
ties Of the civil population. sp
The brotherhood has been to
ltisfied and contented because it sci
as continuing to wallow in its an
God profits, and because few if If
~ Of its number had the imagin- gu
ion to realize that the more they ha,
allowed the deeper they would Shl
. the pit in which eventually res
ey would be buried. !
Being man Of keen perception, ish
G president has not been fooled wi
i a minute as to what the blood vel
,fiteers have been doing the .
st five months to their fellow bes
~ 10000. and THAR e.o,,n,,, Pc,