The Washington times., 1917-05-30
LETTERS TO TIMES
FROM ITS READERS
Communications on Timely
Topics Of Interest.
FINDS MIDDLE WEST LOYAL
Professor Offers to "ShOw" East
ern Folks How to Fight.
10 the Editor o. THE TINES:

To the Editor Of THE TINES:
] note your editorial of Tuesday.
THE BugIes" has a letter from "a
central West town" that describes its
people as having mo sympathy for
England" and considering cher block
ade OF Germany as wicked as the sub
marine" and states that "a college
town in the West is of similar spirit.
l wonder where those two towns are,
and whether they were misrepresent-
ed.
knows practically every voter. lid
me this winter he could count only
twenty men even family prO-German.
II h a college town where | live, and
from which / came last week to
Washington-Colum Mo. With IL,
900 residents. and the UNIVERSITY Hf
Missouri with some 1000 students.
Before President Wilson's war mes
sage, our university faculty voted
unanimously to request our Missouri
Senators and sixteen members OF
Congress to declare war. We wired
the resolution to each of the eighteen
gentlemen, considering that our uni
versity was Statewide, and NJ: In
one Congressman's district. We feel
the pulse of the whole State.
/ personally for two hours circula-
ted petitions before the war, asking
Congress for universal military train
ing. One hundred and eighty u the
leading business and professional men
signed. One man Of German blood,
who had been reputed to synIpathiZe
with Germany. gladly took ..nc p'ti'
tion blank Il did not ask himl, and
the next day returned 1t full--twent'
names. He proudly told me two weeks
ago. that his son had gone n Fort
Riley in the officers training camp,
knowing by the law OF chances and
trench wastage that that son should
be a corpse or a cripple ten months
after seeing France. or such stuff are
American fathers,
Our automobiles are blooming with
Old Glory, and on the street corners
one overhears grim curses f..r the
Hun who made Il necessary for US e
enter this horrible war. Look in a
recent Literary Digest and see how
the quiet. Wflson-following, middle
West now far outdoes the noisier
East in percentage OF voluntary enlist
ments. You should have heard life
long friends of one OF our Senators
disown and repudiate him on street
and In office in our town. Some OF
our men in Congress seemed not 70
know their own Missouri.
In German Cincinnati last Thurs
day a German said to me. why. OF
course we men of German blood are
against the Kaiser. Are we not child
rem of the '4s-ers?"
Editorially you add something
about "pacifism. pro-Germanism, and
shiftIess cowardice," and point vague.
ly around. Don't get offensive and
point in the wrong direction. for II
you were a man and not a paper, you
might get instantly hurt. Honestly
you need not point anywhere-East
and West are all right; what you
hear is Just some more OF the Kaiser s
money trying TO initiate public sen
timent.
Please. you Eastern folks, do not I'm
aRine for one moment that our region,
which gave Lincoln and Grant and
their great armies of fighting West
ern men, hesitates now to fight that
liberty may exist in the earth. Wen
show you:" come along with US.
II. WADE HIBBARD.
Head Of Department OF Mechanical
Engineering. University Of Mis-
souri,.
Washington. May 20.