Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1918-04-05

perity returned to the farms or
America. But prosperity never re-
turned to the farmers of those ma
tions which remained cut off from
the seas.
Take the case of Australia, for in
stance. There three crops have re-
NAMED unsold on the farms. There
were no ships which could be spared
to make the long voyage to Austria
liza; and so, in spite of the efforts Of
the government to save the farmers
from ruin, grain has rotted in the
open because there was no place in
which to store it, and millions of
tons have been spoiled by mice and
other rodents.
Spell Disaster.
Such conditions spell irretrievable
disaster, in spite of all any govern
ment can do. Such conditions would
have prevailed in this country, from
the outbreak of the war until now,
gradually growing worse and worse,
and deepening in disaster from hard
times to universal stagnation and
widespread famine, if our govern
ment had not first resisted with
every diplomatic weapon the en-
croachments of the German govern
ment. and finally, when its cruel,
piratical. and ruthless policy moved
on from illegal restrictions to open
and ruthless murder, if our govern
ment had not drawn the sword.
Why did we draw the sword? Was
it to keep up the price of wheat and
cotton. and to protect trade only? If
someone should order you to remain
on your farm, and not to use the
public highway, would your resist
ance be based only on the fear of loss
in property, the profits from failure
to market your crops, the inconven-
fence in not being able to buy your
supplies in town? BY no means.
you would fight to the last gasp, not
to make money, but to be free.
When a man is enslaved, all he
loses in money is his wages; but the
white man has never been able to
accept slavery for that reason. The
white man has never yet been sue
cessfully enslaved. There rises up in
him against servitude a resentment
so terrible at the loss of his owner
ship of himself that death has always
been preferable to slavery.
What the Imperial German gov
eminent offered the farmers Of Amer
lea in it's ruthless submarine warfare
was not the loss of profits, but
slavery to the saber rattler of Pots
dam. He purposed to make us
slaves by numbering the people who
take our products to market. BY all
the laws of civilized warfare COM
merce under a neutral flag was free
from any hindrance except the legal
interferences justified by war; but
the Germans not only stopped mer-
chant vessels, but sunk them. They
not only sunk them, but they sunk
them without warning. They not
only sunk them without warning, but
they sunk them without trace-the
most devilish thing war has seen
since the savages scalped our ances-
tors and threw screaming babies into
the flames Of burning cabins; for the
German plan of sinking merchant
vessels without trace is based on the
murderer's maxim that dead men tell
no tales; and 1t was executed by the
massacre of men, women, and chill
dren, who, having committed them
selves to the awful dangers of small
boats in the open sea after their
ships were torpedoed were then mer-
cilessly raked with gun fire, and ex-
terminated to the last poor unpro-
tected, unpitied wretch!
These are the murders that stain
the hands Of the kaiser and his ad.
visers and minions. These outrages
| were peTpeITdtcu Ou neutral NcSSclS
when all that civilized warfare gave
the Germans a right to do even with
the merchant vessel under hostile
flag, was to stop 1t at sea and under
proper circumstances make 1t a prize
of war: but to kill the civilians or
board, even under a hostile flag, was
nothing but stark, plain, unmitigatet
!, murder.
Murders to Enslave Us.
And these murders were commit
ted in order that we might be en-
shaved! Having the right, accord
ing to the laws of war, to take thu
sea with his feet, and fight the thint
out, gun to gun, but being afraid tt
do so for fear that he might lose hi
fleet being afraid or unable to stoI
the selling of our products to hi
enemies or to open his own ports t.
us by fair means. he declared tina
, he would do it by the foulest meth
DDS ever resorted to in war. He de
clared the sea closed; and that h