Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1917-05-23
Why the Nation is al War and Why Mone]
is Needed
CFrom the New York SUM

Tho great drive for the placing Of
the $4,000 .O00,O 900 Liberty Loan is now
well under way Practically a month
is available for pushing II to a sue
cessful conclusion. for the subscrip-
ton books close June Is The honor
of the nation demands that the loan
shall be literally oyersubscribed, and
It will be.
There may be still a few who arc
unable TO grasp the reasons why the
United States is at war. and why we
must enter upon so prodigious a cam
pagn Of borrowing, besides lending
our credit lavishly to our allies.
One thing is certain. The United
States is at war, not because II wants
TO be, but because the intolerable ag.
gressions OF Germany upon our rights
and her wholesale assassination Of
our citizens compelled us to honor.
able selfdefence.
The war sprang from repeated
criminal overt acts on the part of
Germany but back Of these and Of
higher Importance was the obvious
fact that the HOhenzollerns and Hans
burgs had embarked upon a war of
determination against democracy. We
were marked for the Teutonic slaugh.
ter no less certainly than were Great
Britain and France. True, German
ohicialism strove to conceal its ulti-
mate purpose. The cry raised in the
German ranks at the wars opening
Paris in three weeks, London in
three months; New York in three
years." was suppressed by prudent
oiiicialdom even before the French
army smashed it as with a sledge
hammer at the Marine. But the ulti-
mate purpose was there none the
less, although IL took something more
than two years to make the United
States suspect its existence.
We are in the war for self-protec-
ton. It would have been better had
we gone in eighteen months earlier
As it was. We deferred our entrance
until those who have become our al
lies were reduced to desperate straits
How nearly France was drained of
men. how seriously Great Britain was
endangered by the ruthless submar-
inc campaign our people did not
know until our own entrance upon
the war led those nations to reveal
to us as allies what they had sedu-
lousy concealed from US as neutral
spectators.
We must avert the possibility Of
the crushing Of any one OF our allies.
That would be a fatal break in our
own first line of defence. For, in the
next few weeks our safety as ma
ton viii be fought for by the gallant
men on the plains Of France and the
food ships hazardously making their
way across the submarine infested
Atlantic. A famine OF men In the
trenches, or of food in England and
France, and if we are not wholly
lost, at least the burden OF selfde-
fence laid upon us will be multiplied
a thousand fold.
We must avert that famine. Moth
ing must be permitted to interfere
with our efforts to that end. We
must select, equip, drill and forward
men TO fight our battles wherever
they may be most wisely fought. The
first line of defence should never be
too near the citadel.
We must build ships. and continue
building them until with their great
est activities the submarines car
make no appreciable halt in tn,
steady flow Of grain and foodstuffs Z,
Europe. We must build them by tn,
thousands, in all the shipyards Of tn,
Atlantic and the Pacific, build then
Of steel. build them OF wood.
We must arm them with three incl
guns, or larger il practicable, and fur
nish them with gunners. Already tn,
records show that the submarines
shun the armed ships. They will b,
the more hestant as gunners become
more skilled and new methods OF at