Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1917-04-19
THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1917.
HELP PASS THE ARMY BILL!
(Brooklyn Eagle.)

The president believes that the war will
demand great and prolonged sacrifices by
the United States. This opinion is shared
by the leaders of both parties in con-
gress. II is shared by the members of
the cabinet, by army and navy experts,
by most intelligent observers of the con-
flict now raging on land and sea. 1t is
shared by the statesmen, the soldiers and
the sailors Of our allies, who realize that
a weakened and distressed Germany j. not
necessarily a beaten Germany, and who
assume that since we have entered the
war on their side we are prepared to do
our full share TO bring it to a victorious
end.
The administrator is driving full speed
ahead on the theory that the more we do
now the less We will have to do in the long
run. One evidence of this is the prompt
formulation of a huge credit measure. An
other is the adoption of a vast shipbuild-
INC program of which General Goethals is
to be the executant and the allies the d.
rect beneficiaries. Still another is the
preparation made without the loss of q
mcmeht's title 70 coordinate our war pol
icies with those of Great Britain and
France through a series of conferences be-
tween representatives of those countries
and representatives Of our govern.
The wisdom of none of these measures j.
questioned by any considerable body of
opinion inside or outside of congress.
The same u%nanimity of sentiment ought
to be manifest in support of the army bill.
1t Is the most important war measure in
troduced by the administration. II does
not close the door against the volunteer.
but 1T does aim TO prevent that indiscrimi-
nate volunteering which has been hurtfull
to war industry in British factories: and
1T also aims to make the lazy, the indif-
ferent and the ~skulkers, including those
who hide behind women's skirts, do their
fun share toward protecting the country
which shelters and protects them. The
opposition to this bill j. not confined toI
towards. Ii Is not confined to those pa
cifists who from principle oppose war. 1t
Is reinforced by a very considerable vol
ume of public opinion, which, although in
favor OF the war, sincerely believes that
all OF our military necessities can be met
by voluntary service. This is not q negli-
gible opposition. 1t is not to be whistled
the wind. 1t j. sustained in some
measure by the splendid record made in
England, in Canada, in Australia and in
South Africa, where the response TO the
call for volunteers was immediate and in
But it takes no account of the
fact, explain it how YOU will, thai while
there has been a call for volunteers to
IN the navy and the army both, a
call placarded widely throughout the coun-
try and published and indorsed BY practi-
cally every newspaper, the answer has not
any general desire to enlist. In
tins city the number of young men daily
for marriage licenses, MANY of
hem with the hope hat matrimony would
them from military service. has
exceeded many times the number of men
applying at the recruiting stations. The
opposition TO the army bill takes no ac-
of the inequities of the volunteer .
of its demoralizing effect upon in
l~ustries necessary to the prosecution Of (,
var, of its final abandonment by Great =
Britain under the pressure of conditions
which must soon exert a similar pressure b
lpon us. =
The people may be sure that the presi-
would not urge the army bill if he
vere not convinced that il offers at once
quickest. the most just and the most t
method of establishing the mil
AIRY machine which this country needs p
or the defense of its rights. The people
lay be sure that the president did not
ommit himself to it until he had first
the experience of other countries al
18th a contrary policy, until he had invited y
ne judgment of men who have intelligent
studied the war, until he had satisfied N