New-York tribune., 1917-06-02
Our Mask of Hypocrisy
By Henry 4. Wise Wood
To the samaritans Come at 1850 TO the

To the Samaritans Come at ll:5s TO the
Succor Of Democracy.
Sirs. Semi-Srs and Mesdames:
You have undertaken a mission fraught
with great danger, much in the spirit OF the
Crusaders Of old-so you like TO believe. You
are 70 rescue govcrnment-with- liberty from
extinction at the point Of the crown hilted
sword OF autocracy-at least, this IS what
you are confding to the world. The aura OF
pious glory already radiates from your brow,
while the glare of your flashing sword dazzles
YOUR foes until, blinded and awestruck, they
cover beneath its pitiess rays, the rays oil
peoples triumphant government OF them
selves This. believe, is as you picture to
yourself yourself and your enemies.
"To make the world safe for democracy
This slogan Of seven sweet and modest
words-how comes it that it has but just
been born? Can it be that in the womb Of
your conscience the period of CESSATION is
some thrty-four months wonder, | who
saw the world being made unsafe for democ-
racy when first the worlds robber nation
poured into France to grasp the democratic
child of your democratic loins-by the throats
/ the men. by the breasts the women-and to
nut it TO torture. Then the democracy which
YOU had fashioned for France, and France it.
self, your friend and benefactor, went down
into the bloody mire beneath trampling
autocracy with never a cry OF protest from
you.
Why Not Be Honest?
And now you would make the world safe
Tor democracy Why only nov? Can it be
that not until the long fingers OF Berlin
reached into your own yitals and began to
encircle Texas, Arizona, New Mexico. was
democracy hurt in your eyes? | suspect
, this is so. Why not be honest and open?
Why not tear away the mask OF hypocrisy
and cant which you wear as pous smirk.
and say frankly that having yourself been
hurt you intend to make your own democ-
racy safe for yourself?
You know and | know that this is what
you mean, so let us sit down together and
discuss the saving of your own skin; in the
final analysis that only is what you are un-
dertaking to do
As you leisurely enter the war. clad only
in the vanity of your provincialsm and bulk,
you assume that your very presence is a
factor Of immense military weight. Already
you are preenng YOURSELF in the belief that
your few destroyers sent to the other side
have cut the number of the submarines vic
tins in two. "If we have not who has?' you
ask. The cargo fleets you are to build, the
armies you are to train; the air fleets you
are 10 organize. the innumerable other vast
I II - -
future time to do the very prospect Of
these. you say to yourself of course must
crush the spirit of Germany and bring her
quickly to heel.
Do you suppose that Germany does not
know your Washincton-your Washington,
D. c.? That she has failed TO measure your
every man in il? I'll warrant that she has
worked out a chart of scientific coeffcents
by which she can predict with exactness pre-
cisely how, and in how many months, your
President and his naval and military secre-
taries will react to a hostile act of hers.
Our Aid-Next Year
The authorization OF an army six weeks
after the declaration of war, which is to be
assembled three months and a half later for
six months of training preliminary TO a
transatlantic voyage and finishing course
/ IN Europe, all OF WnlCn Will DIIUe IL W tut
aid of your stricken ALLYN fourteen months
after your "hostiltles" have begun!
There, again. is your bossted shipbuild-
ing project-that gigantic bridge Of food
ships which two months ago you were to
throw in a jfy across the Atlantic.
dream. dream smashed by another dream;
by dream OF three millions of tons in eigh-
teen months! Why. in eighteen months you
will not have finished quarrelling over
whether the food bridge shall be of wood, or
of steel, or of thin air; or whether 1t shall
be built at a profit or loss for the builders;
or whether it shall be controlled by a man
termed a board. which the aforesaid man
says is always long. narrow and wooden.
But" you have been telling yourself
secretly, "this war will not really need US;
II will all blow up before We can be hurt.
We need only mark time vigorously enough
so they'll think US preparing to fight, and
arrive at the wnd-up to say that VIC fin
ished the war. Then we can tell the Allies
how 10 patch up the world so it will be as
moral as we are
few weeks ago you had Germany in the
convulsions of revolution. You would fight
only the Kaiser. The dear people of Ger
many were to welcome your freeing them
from his thraldom; so you showed the Ger
man trenches with the proclamation OF your
Presidents altruistic purpose. You shelled
them with paper. as you have been doing
The Springheld's Defects