Pioneer press. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1882-19??, 1917-04-21
WATTERsoN AT HIS BEST.


Louisville Courier Journal ard dean
or the active editors OF American Jour
nalism, has lived long enough and
through so many epochs in world his.
tory as to be qualified above most OF
men to express intelligent opinion on
the declaration Of war with Germany.
IN addition to his years he is a highly
educated student Of history, something
which cannot be said OF ,lauv men
who occupy lofty pace. IL he
course Of his long career as editor ana
publicist, Henry Wnttcrson has some.
times taken the unpopular s:rc, has
occasionally been wrong. but his de.
votlon to his country has been OF such
fever heat throughout his long life that
Following his name could be written
in indelible letters the word-Amer;
can. In commenting on the declara-
ton of war, following the vote In Con-
gress on the issue, the dean wrote:
Fifty years the country has enjoy
ed surprising prosperity. This has
over-commercialized the character and
habits Of the people Twenty-Five
years the gospel Of passivism, with
business is business" for it's text,
mas not only been preached-indis-
ely-orac neutrality-suspicious. let
or hndrance, but has been richly f.
nanced and potentially organized. It
c ~ 4
a cult, justifying itself in fad it has
called Humanity-in many ways a
most spurious humanity-and has set
this above and against patriotic in
clination and duty.
Like bolt out of the blue flash
ed the war signal from the very heart
OF Europe. Across the Atlantic it's
reverberations rolled to find us d.
vided, neutral and unprepared. For
10 years body Of German reservists
disguised as citizens have been march
ing and countermarching They grew
at length bold enough to rally to the
support of a pan-German scheme of
conquest and a. pro-German propa-
ganda Of "kultar," basing it's effront-
cry in the German-American vote,
which began its agitation by threat
ening us with civil war if we dared
20 go to war with Germany. There
followed the assassin sea monsters
and the airship campaign Of murder.
AL the while we looked on with
either simpering idiocy or dazed
apathy. Serbia? It was no affair of
ours. Belgium? Why should we wor-
ry? Foodstuffs soaring-warstuffs
roaring -everybody making money
The mercenary, the poor Of heart, the
mean OF spirit, the bleak and barren
Of soul could still plead the Hypoc-
'acy OF Uplift and chortle: I did not
raise my boy to be a soldier Even
the "Lusitania" did not awaken us to
a sense Of danger and arouse US from
the stupefaction of ignorant and igno-
Bile self-complacency
First Of all on Bonded knee we
should pray God to forgive us. Then
~ wv 90 HC1, NilIlSlldu men, SOl01er-
ly men, to the flag and the fray
wherever they lead us-over the ocean
through France to Flanders-across
the Low Countries to Koln, Bonn and
Notwithstanding the fortress of En-
renbreitstein into the Rhine as we
pass and damming the mouth of the
Mozelle with the debris Of the ruin
we make OF it-then on, on TO RcrIii
the Black Horse Cavalry sweeping the
'Vllneimstrasse like lava down lHr
mountainside, the. Junker and the sab
er RATHER flying before us, the tunes
being Dixie" and Yankee Doodle"
the cry being, Hail the French Re-
pHblic-Hail the Republic of Russia
Welcome the Commonwealth Of the
Vaterland-1no peace with the Kaiser
no parley with Autocracy, Absolut-
ism and the divine right of Kings
to He'll with the Hapsburg and the
Hohenzollern.'
nII00IlI0 TInNHI\I