The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1917-08-21
THE ADVERTISERS sEm.wEEKLY
Allies of the Han

n WRITER in the current issue of the Satur
"A day Post calls attention to class Of resi-
dents who are, probably consciously, perhaps I'm
consciously, playing the Kaiser,s game for him
throughout the United States. These are OF those
who say, as one high in the Territorial govern
ment is quoted as whining last week: "WcII
you see what I>ngland's dragged us into"
"Havc YOU not heard the old, old arguments
of capital forcing this war because it was afraid
of the safety OF its loans to the Niles" asks the
Post writer "Of Great Britain dragging us in
because the British were lying down on their job
OF big interests who brought on our part in the
war for the sake of contracts? -".
"They have all the stoes arguments, these Ger
man spies and propagandsts, plus some new ones.
But ask them their names and addresses and
then, tri1e later, get out your notebook and
wrate something down--it doesn't matter what.
The names and addresses are not important, be
cause they false But watch them stop talk
ing, and observe them furtively scrutinzing you
afterward .'.
II have had two women try this with me, and
on one through train in the South overheard. in
the smoking compartment, one man holding forth
to three different audiences, 1t is insdious poi
son, for it strikes generally at the good faith of
our allies ..s#E
"How does this affect our men in the training
camps; | have known it to be tried in only one,
but the result with different sort OF men, might
have been disastrous From some hidden out
Side Source it began to be impressed on these men
that they about to face an unbeatable ma.
chine. The same stealthy whispers said that the
Allies were already defeated and that we were
TO be sacrificed to save the men Of France and
Great Britain. 1t circulated figures, wildly exag-
gerated as to the percentage of deaths among
officers at the Front
Cruel? 1t was dastardly As dastardly as it
was totally false. *#
81 have been frank about this, at the risk OF
criticism, because something must be done about
1t. And that something we Gan do ourselves.
Watch these unctuous people who magnify Ger
manys power and attack our allies. Watch the
men and women who sheer at our own govern
ment and minimize our fighting strength. Watch
the pleasant gentlemen who hate England and
assure you we are fighting her war for her. They
may be merely. disgrunteda Americairs but they
are more likely to be something very different
= =
perhaps because this German pessimistic pro
paganda has already gone very far, it may be
well here to quote some actual figures war
mortality. The difficulty is that a great many
people still confuse casualties with mOrtalities
A surprising number of people think that casu-
atty is DEATH whereas it may be the lightest pos
Sible scratch from a bit of splintered shell.
so for the cheer of those who take the train
or the family motor and go to spend week-ends
with their boys at training camps, and for the
comfort OF those who today facing the draft
let me give these figures taken from a recent con-
ference of insurance-COmpany representatives at
Washington, And take it from me-these insur-
ance people were not minimizing the risks their
companies were going to take or were already
taking!
"One very large lifc-insurancc company hav-
ing studied the figures agreed to insure the entire
~rmy at an increase Of five per cent. That means
that this company figured on only one death out
OF every twenty men engaged. Canada, which
suffered fearfuy at the beginning owing to the
necessity of putting raw troops in the trenches
has in three years lost seven men out of every
hundred by death. AS a certain percentage oil
deaths would occur if these men were at home
living normal lives, the actual percentage Of loss
is really nearer six out Of every hundred. ....
Casualties, of course, are vastly greater per.
haps man in four being wounded But though
we fear wounds and manning, though we ache
with the very thought of them, it is death that
is the real terror. 1t is before DEATH and death
only, that we are helpless" g.,