The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-02-07
CANDOR NEEDED
IN HIGH PLACES
Implicit Obedience to Garfield's
Drastic Order Did Not Abate q
Storm of Protest From Those Who
Believed the Move Uncalled For.
SECRECY IS CONDEMNED.
The People Should Be Taken Into
The Confidence of the Government
More Candor on the Part Of
High Officials is Desirable.

recent much-discussed coal conserva-
tion order the Financial Review for
January says, editorially, that COM
ing on top of congressional investiga-
tions into the conduct of the war
the governments coal order struck
thousands Of business men aghast.
Widespread and unquestioning obedi-
ence to the order did not serve to
abate storm Of protest from those
who held that the order never should
have been issued.
Some things can not be said to Of
ten, and among them is this:
Americas heart and soul are bound
up in winning this war.
And this, the corollary, is hardly
less important:
America will make any reasonable
sacrifice to win this war.
But just at this point is where the
average, war-intending citizen is
likely to find himself at variance with
some of the methods pursued at
Washington recently.
Peculiar obligations are visited up
on every citizen in democracy like
ours. The citizen, individually, must
obey implicitly, but the citizens, col
lectively, must do the bossing, also.
Furthermore it devolves upon the
civil population, in war times, to do
the criticising for the soldiers as well
as for themselves.
To take the concrete base of this
coal order. It may have been amply
necessary, but the government COM
mitted a great mistake in not taking
the people into it's confidence. It may
have been necessary, but it was equal
ly requisite that the public should
be convinced of it's necessity. And the
public was not so convinced. Mr..
Garfeld's hastily offered testimony
before Senate committee struck
one as an after-thought.
The great American public, includ-
ing it's professional and business men,
does not have to be treated as If it
were a child and as if there were in
this life some things too serious for
it to hear. There being no mystery
about the processes of government
it is unnecessary to surround them
with secrecy.
Much has been written and with
great popular, if not official, effect,
about the evils of excessive and need
less secrecy connected with the strict
ly military efforts of the country. It
has been pointed out that, as result,
popular interest in the war, once at
fever heat, has abated to a marked
degree, simply by reason of having
nothing to feed upon. Details and
personal news of the expeditionary
forces, of no military value whatever
to the enemy, have been withheld with
the result that in all probability q
great many Americans at the pres
ent time have come dangerously near
to forgetting that the United States
has an army in Europe.
The stupidity of the military CEN
sor has been described, one suspects,
more eloquently than truthfully, as
being due to peculiar slant of the
"West Point" mind.
This same unfortunate mental slant
has begun to manifest itself in the
administrative side of affairs at the
capitol. =,
Which would have given more aid
and comfort to the foes of this
country, the truth about the coal sit
uation, as it developed, resulting quite
probably in an avoidance of the pres
ent acute stage, or Mr.. Garfeld's un-
expected order, overlapping at
bound any step which even the most
active of our warlike allies is pub
licly known to have taken?
It is not at all unlikely that there
may be those at Washington who are
not above stirring up opposition to
administrative methods for political
purposes, but the cure Of this state
of affairs, as we'll as for the present
case Of public uncertainty is ridicu-
lously easy. It is just little more
candor toward the public on the part
of the loyal and hard pressed officials
who are trying all alone to do our
Job when they ought to let US help
them to greater extent than we do.
Use Skimmilk for Cooking.