Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-08-25


lawlessness can rule. Because the
city OF Seattle had not enough or
gained authority to keep the streets
clear OF rioters, the street car COM
pany could not run its cars, though
ii had the men TO 90 It. Enurely
aside from the rights and wrongs OF
the strike. upon which visitor could
hardly PASS judgment, the fact re-
mains that the strikers and the IN
evitable gang OF hOodlums and camp
followers with them held the whip
hand in many respects because the
streets could not be properly 20
Heed. Lives and property were i'm
perilled by the strike, nor was there
any method found to guarantee the
safety OF the public and give 1t
! trans LOrtatiOn while the employers
! and employees were settling their diff
ficulties. AS evidence Of how labor
can command a situation TO the Diet
riment OF the public. this was CON
elusive
In spite Of that fact, the sympathy
OF the majority with whom | talked
was with the strikers. Seattle &C
cepted with amazing good-nature the
interruptions Of business and person
al discomfort Of the strike, and the
improvised "jitney" service which
followed, and for some reason or
other which | could scarcely fathom
seemed to side with the strikers.
German Element Quit
In labor circles there is evident
some opposition to war prepare
tions but it is in the stronGholds OF
the I. W. w, and thousands Of near
anarchists throughout the Northwest
that the real attempt to blockade
Uncle Sam seems to have its root
and support. There is a good deal
of pro-Germanism. too, though most
of those who cherish it have the
good sense to keep their mouths
shut. hear a good deal of talk
about going into the war to help
England" and similar stuff but in
variably it is from those with a pre-
judice against England and without
any realization whatever of the gray.
ity Of the world situation. These
people do not realize that since the
day the Lusitania was sunk Ger.
many's course and Americas course
twere absolutely severed and that un-
less Germany changed her course,
some day we should be at war, not
for England but for our own ex-
istence.
But the Stacker, the l. w. W., the
anti-England individual and the in
different citizen are, after all, in a
hopeless minority here. Some of them
make more noise than a hundred
earnest, patriotic citizens, and they
will continue to make noise perhaps
until our crisis is more grave and
we take radical measures to end
their mischievousness. They are not
Typical of the Northwest, nor of what
it is doing. They will not seriously
cripple the Northwest unless some
how they should vastly add to their
numbers
Joke Of War
On the surface, men and women
here take the war less soberly than
we do in the Hawaiian islands, large
| ly, | think, because we have had
many phases Of it brought home to
us for three years, while the North
west has been more removed from
its saddening effects than we is
landers. Down underneath there is
here just the same determination to
do our part, and little more, as is
held by the red-bloOded Americans
of Hawaii. One hears on the streets,
in the cars, around the clubs and
cafes, and elsewhere, many half-hu-
morous, cynical comments on the
war, but many times, on inquiry, l
found that these comments came
from men who have already given
up most or all of their businesses to
devote their time and their lives if
need be, to the cause of Uncle Sam.
Ny friends who have been drafted
or have volunteered talk about it
usually in a joking, Indifferent way,
some Of them gently GUESSING out"
the fate that has broken into a sum-
mer of business or pleasure, but
notice that around their desks, or
in their pockets, they have books of
manuals, tactics, military engineering
or the like which they study inten.
sely at odd moments; l find their
afternoons and evenings devoted to
hard work in preparation for the
camps; when they are ordered away
they go as if to a vacation and
when you can touch them deep
enough, you find that they believe
absolutely in universal military train
ing; in Uncle Sans duty to fight
Germany; and in their own duty to
answer the call. In other words,
most Of this outward Indifference
this "cussing out, which the boys
give the draft and the war itself, is
only the Anglo-SaXon way of getting
ready to wade into the fight. with
joke and a song, and lick their
weight in Wildcats"
The Northwest is supplying some
wonderful human material. It's men
are splendid physical and mental
specimens They can be counted on
in a pinch. Mistakes will be made,
because the Northwest, like every
other section of our country, was
bred to peace and not to war, but |
find these men prepared to accept
mistakes, to accept whatever these
mistakes entail if thereby Uncle Sam
will emerge stronger and more eff,
| fAaN 49,