The Washington herald., 1918-01-21
Nearing a Showdown.

Have Americans overnight become cynical and
agnostic about the war;,
They have been trained to the idea Of fighting
fighting must be done before their forces even
reach the firing line.
King Coal has done them sorry turn Yet out
of it much good may come if it wipes the fools
paradise in which they have been living Ameri-
thought they getting close to the war.
Now they find it receding from them. We have
tried to get into the by rhetoric by press
agentry, by the adoption of mighty plans and pro-
grams and the appropriation of billions Of money;
and now find that it doesn't work
The to be flying away from and
mocking The more struggle the more
ergy we expend the farther away it to get
In fact DR.. Garfield has served warning that we
have been expending too much energy; that we are
suffering from pronounced case of overwork and
Indigestion, and must go to sanitarium for few
days. The shock to self-esteem is great The
shock to pride in national business capacity is
even greater.
1t is our great good fortune that Americans have
skill for shrewd self-analyss when they have the
time to indulge in such intellectual luxury.
When they probe for the seat OF the present dis
case they will find number OF interesting things;
FIRST that Washington is still in the grip of ollie
tantes far is concerned; second, that they
themselves have adequate conception of what
putting the country basis really means.
Millions of Americans thought could have
without the rigors of The notion has
been prevalent that could escape the suffering
and the sacrifice of Europe; that would devise
some form of painless dentistry" for war, through
which we could do all the deadly work while
anesthetized against OF its travail That idea
has collapsed. War is war for America as for
France Britain, and it is fraught with evil, with
bitterness, with sacrifice, which must be borne if
victory is to be
The pity of it is that much OF our present woe
and discontinue is merely prelude to the real
thing, and that it is almost entirely unnecessary.
1t is the logical result OF a government which has
infinite resources against the penetration of busi-
ideas; which is Jealous OF sharing its power
with anybody-least OF all with the really big
of the country which is still in political
and petifoggng, despite all the warnings that have
been given, and which, according to all present in
dicatons will reform only when it is held up at
the point OF the bayonet OF real crisis, such as
threw Dr. Garfield into a panic this eek
The naked fact is that there is far interest
in Washington at this moment in getting lat gov
ernmcnt contracts and in parceng out fat
jobs that there is in beating Germany
Let us be thankful for the that King Coal
has given We needed it. DR.. Garfield, right
wrong, had the courage to prescribe a remedy
which would have caused any politician to
quail. In fact, politician would have tinkered and
hemmed-and-hawed until the last moment; and
then, seeing the disaster about come, would have
resigned account of ell health or some other
serviceable and left another one of his kind
hold the bag"
We hold no brief for Garfield. We hope both
his diagnosis and his nostrum right If they are
wrong he goes into oblivion; if he is right, he will
not be hailed as delivcrer. So his is thankless
job, and he is more to be pted than censured He
has shown to the country that "acid test" for
the government is necessary and that the show
down cannot be much longer delayed.