The Lakeland evening telegram., 1917-11-28
HAVE YOU FALLEN
INTO THE WAR RUT
(Tampa Times.)

| (Tampa Tlmes.)
1t is the duty of all Americans to
be en- guard against the brutal forces
that seek to rob humanity Of free
dom and peace, but it Is equally their
duty to protect themselves from their
own thoughts-from falling into the
slough of despond that today may be
properly characterized as the "war
srut."
7 This applies particularly to Tam
pans who, while doing their duty In
every phase of the war, have allowed
business conditions resulting there
from to depress and rob them of the
spirit of initiative. Outbreak of the
war did work injury to some OF Flor
ida's chief industries, but Florida's
resources are so varied that the i'll
effects would not have been near so
great had the people met the situa-
tion with a greater show Of courage
and patriotism. AS a matter OF fact,
Floridans have had such easy sailing
for years that they could not appre-
ciate the eras Of depression through
, which residents of other sections had
, passed. and at the first blow OF ad-
versity some of them began to bleat
! They THOUGHT and talked Of war.
which was proper, but they thought
and talked great deal more OF
forthcoming hard times, which was
anything but proper.
, Hardly day passes in which the
/ business and newspaper men OF the
: city are not called upon to answer
: III, question, What is the matter
with Tampa"
v Tampa has been at disadvan-
\ tage for some time. but the princi-
? pal thing that has been wrong with
Ike city is that many citizens threw
o up their hands when they saw the
n ,fugaboo of hard times headed in
{ their direction, surrendering instead
J. 'of forming themselves into laying
{ wedge" in order to meet and fend
loff the attack. In other words, they
= got into the war rut," and 1t has
o teen we'll nigh impossible to jerk
l. some of them out of bondage. An
% ncuncement that millions are to be
o spent here for the construction of
Ia steel steamships, the opening Of the
2 tourist and fruit and vegetable sea-
l. ,scn, prospects for securing the naval
base and the appearance of other
blessings "in the ofiing" have revived
most of them. and from now on op-
timism is expected to prevail.
There is no city in the world
which has more natural advantages
ar than Tampa, none which has received
more blessings and none which will
receive more. There is nothing wrong
with Tampa other than the willing
- ness of some of its citizens to throw
~ up the sponge when Fate gives then
w. one punch and their unwillingnes
~ to cooperate with the "other fellow
in efforts to recover after the puncl
ke is given.
=" Il is to the credit Of our people
y though, that the days of fnancia
3D. stringency through which they hav
'se passed have not been allowed to a
'"i feet their patriotism, for no city q
ne equal size and wealth has given NOR
" literally to war and other worth
hs causes. They have answered ever
call of duty and will continue to d
"a 90, and If they will only climb o,
~ OF the war rut'' prosperity is ce
nj tain to return.
The following Newspaper Ente
'he Prise association editorial is owe
teu drawn, but 1t illustrates the ment
'ri- deaGness produced on some peop
any when they allowed themselves to "a
cry into the war rut:"
Get out of the war rut, Give
stic bunch of human interest edito
wv ials," ordered the Boss.
en- An expression Of finality, that asl
ot hue which deadens mems featur
her when the end has arrived, car
any quickly over the face Of the old e,
III torial writer. His pencil paused u
'He on the paper. His hands dropped u
si"' on his knees. His eyes turned
'piy cement. His Jaws fell apart
anu With one weak look Of reproach
tne Boss, he silently lowered
forehead to his desk, and moved ou
ham He was dead, dead!
d. Moral for Tampans: Shake
s7ss the mental deafness.