The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1917-11-21
A Blessing IN Disguise

The sugar shortage in this community and
elsewhere, although looked upon as pr1vatlon by
many men and women, really is a blessing in dis
guise.
It has brought the war that much nearer
home 1t is teaching us that modern warfare
strikes at every phase of our national existence,
barring none, and that we are engaged in strug-
ole whose extent will test national stamina as
it has never been tested before.
The sugar shortage has made many of us
think.
Perhaps we did not understand the full scope
of the struggle. Perhaps still believed that
the war did not concern us individually, that the
boys in the trenches would have to bear the brunt
of it, and that the cry of food conservation was
idle gossip and silly talk.
Today we believe otherwise. The failure of
our mothers and wives to buy sugar at the groc-
cry stores drove home to our minds as perhaps
no other argument excepting failure to obtain
flour or meat would do that we also are soldiers
in this warfare and must fight as valianty IN our
own homes as our boys are doing in France.
And this is only the beginning of the struggle
The Palladium last week printed an article in
forming us that tailors have been asked to ellml-
nate belts and other useless accessories from
mems Clothes that shirts will have only three but
tons. that women will be asked to eliminate ar
ticles of finery, etc.
This is not exaggeration, but fact.
We may wonder about the stern manner IN
which Uncle Sam is going about the gigantic pre-
parations he is making for the We may not
be able to grasp it's full significance, but never
theless it is coming closer to every day and be-
fore long we will be going about wartime du-
ties with the same inflexible purpose and the
same grim determination that mark the conduct
of the civilians in France and England.
The sugar shortage, more than any one Incl
dent in Richmond, has made every one of us real
ize how important our personal equation is in this
war. If all of us must give up luxuries and make
sacrifices it behooves all of us to cooperate il
winning the war.
The sooner we understand that the one all
important piece of business before the American
public is the business of winning the war; thu
sooner will we go at the job in an earnest fash
ion.
An autocratic country can bring about an &C
tual cooperation of it's masses much faster ant
effectively than democracy can, for the prin
ciple of subserviency to request or demand O
the government is much better understood.
1t can be seen easily that in such country tn
individuals privileges and rights readily give wa.
to the all-supreme command and wish of the gov
eminent. In republic, we will blunder alon
haggling about our rights, unwilling to foreg
personal profits, insisting uninterrupte
progress of our affairs, irrespective of whethe
the nations welfare is furthered or jeopardizec
To cite an example.
All of us admit that when the government
wants to move troop trains, the railroads give tn
government right-of-way furnishing cars an
sidetracking other traffic until the troops ar
moved The railroads are cooperating with tn
government to high degree.
And yet, if the government says to us ind
vidually, please curtail the consumption of mea
and sugar, because we need them to win the wa
what do most of us do? Observe meatless da,
but order more meat the next day, or keep on ea