New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-04-28
The Vote on Consumption

The Vote on Consumption
Congress is about to pass a bill which
makes compulsory service the cornerstone
Of our military system. 1t will not do this
willingly. 1t will do it only because 1t
lacks the courage under present conditions
to refuse to do it. Last year Congress
would have voted down CONSUMPTION with a
rush. It would have voted it down even
two months ago. 1t is writing 1t into our
military system at last only because we
are in the grip Of war, and from the point
of view of a country which must raise vast
armies and raise them quickly there is no
other way out but CONSUMPTION.
Honest opposition to CONSUMPTION IS a
sentimental survival. There is an element
in Congress which opposes the selectve
draft and is clamorous for vOluntarylSm
because it is pacifst or pro-German at
heart and wants to limit to a minimum the
value of our participation in the war.
But the sincere advocates of volunteering,
of whom Speaker Clark may be taken as
type, are not against consumption be-
cause they dread its efficacy. They mere
ly harbor the ancient delusion-the out
growth of frontier experiences and habits
Of thought-that volunteering produces
better military results than enforced ser
vice does, because volunteering is more
normal expression of wartime fervOr
in scattered and loosely organized com
munities
It has been difficult to eradicate this
thoroughly American misconceptions. 1t
has been a part of our easygoing, optimistic,
superficial conception Of what war meant
We continued to believe, even down
through the Spanish War, that the prml-
tive military methods Of 1872, 1916 and
1861 we're still good enough for us We
never grasped the modern conception OF
war as a struggle between highly organ
lied nations, each throwing into 1t all It's
resources, economical and industrial as
we'll as military
Statesmen Of the Clark typc-and the
woods were full of them until a year or
less ago-have gloried in the tradition that
war was essentially an amateurish vent
ure. They did not want to acknowledge
the value Of expert direction or scientific
method in making war. They have hated
what they call military "fuss and feath-
ors.' Speaker Clark said a few days
ago. THE War Department is jumping
around trying to bulldoze people into pass
ing this bill" Senator Sherman said on
Thursday: 81 shall not permit these gen
tlemen of military experience to tell me
how to raise an army
These naive confessions have illuminated
the mental attitude of the honest anti
conscriptiOnists. 1t is what Senator Till
man used to call the "cornfield" attitude
crude, prejudiced, eloquent of the intel
lectual limitations of the back country. In
time of crisis like the present, when the
nation must organize itself for war on
modern scale and apply the lessons learned
by Europe in the most stupendous of wars,
chatter like Mr. Clark's or Mr. Sherman's
sounds pitifully primitive and aboriginal.
They speak a dead language. How could
such middle nineteenth century emotion
alism be expected to stay the course of
military reforms which are not only ra-
tional in themselves, but are made indis-
pensable by the situation in which we find
ourselves?
CONSUMPTION is going to win in Con-
gress because necessity is forcing it on us.
The wise have seen it coming and have
accepted it. For the last two years they
have been preaching its value. Their ar
guments have made little Roadway with
the politicians. But they have gradually
won over the public. 1t is the pressure of
popular opinion to which timid and paro-
chal Congressman are now yielding.
Our CONSUMPTION law, when it passes, will
be law dictated by the strong common
sense Of the people, not imposed on them
by leaders whom they have put into power.
The Republican party has an honorable
record as a supporter of strong and eff
cient government. CONSUMPTION is an in
strument of such government. II is, in our
opinion, the duty of every Republican Sen
ator and Representative to vote for con-
scription. Every vote cast against the
selective draft is vote TO hamper effec-
tive national organization. 1t is vote
which must indirectly encourage our enc.
mics. The Republican party, now in OPP