Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-01-30
BAKERS STATEMENT EXPECTED TO SPELL
HOPE FOR ALLIES AND DOOM FOR ENEMIES

people that this is so If they are TO
keep them in the war.
The war chiefs have been able 10
discount the utterances OF President
Wilson by assuring their constituents
that it will be impossible for America
to send soldiers enough to Europe 10
carry out the presidents program ana
urging them to have no fear OF mere
words.
Now comes Baker and talks not OF
policies but of military particulars.
What effect is it going to have on
people who have been lulled in their
hunger by assurances that there was
nothing to be feared from the new
foe that early in 1918" there Will pc
half a million American soldiers on
the western front, with an additional
million coming before the year is
over?
How are they going to stay asleep
when their dream Of an early peace
is confronted with the Baker state
ment of the hundreds of miles of rail-
roads, acres Of warehouses, leagues OF
docks and all the rest of the physical
preparations to take care of vast
American army?
/ Every word of it spells determine
ton to fight with as many men as
may be required for the Job In hand
and for as long period as is neces-
sary to accomplish victory.
There is nothing transient IN the
promise of those preparations. Ger
many and Austria, sick with the pr
vations of this winter, will know from
this recital of what we have done thai
ahead of them looms other winters
and summers, stretching indefinitely
into the future, when their war misery
will be greater and greater
The strategy Of encouragement Is
perfectly understood by the allies, ano
they intend to prosecute it, and the
Baker speech affords them propa
ganda weapon as welcome as the
tanks to the military problem.
That speech is to be put in the
hands of every American soldier anC
civilian abroad. 1t constitutes a per
feet answer to the German whimpe'
Of inefficiency, with which our foe ha:
sought to hamper the war spirit o.
America.
The ability to get democratic propa
ganda into the hands of the German
troops is the one compensation OF thu
Russian situation.
The Bolsheviki, with their new
found liberty of speech and of thu
, press, are full OF the PROSECUTING feve'
and refuse to find in the peace nego
tiations at Brest-LitOvsk any reason
for slackening in their miSsionar.
work among the Germans who walked
in darkness.
The whole eastern front will know
all about Bakers speech, and from
there it will leak all through Ger
lmany.
Colonel House is pervading tn
White house and the state department
these days. He says he isn't goin
back to the inter-allied conference il
France, and the next obvious guess
1 that he has come to help the presi
dent get out another state paper o.
e peace terms-is also contradicteC
What he is so numerous about Wash
ington for, l am informed is to he'll
: frame the new plan of propagand
campaign.
n It's to be ON a scale correspondent
n with the $21.0OO, 100000 appropriations
: the billion-dollar aviation start, tn
shipping program and the rest of tn
! stupendous war-making.
I We are going to advance on Ger
many with bombs and literature.
: The bombardment of Mannheim
the beginning Of the procedure an
d the more parades in Germany an
d Austria in favor of peace. the NOR
: airships will be sent to rain bomb
: and bulletins.
: The powers that be in America ar
convinced that until they have prove
: to the German people that there is n
h peace possible until the spirit Of cor
e quest gives place to spirit of cor
y triton, the kaiser and his crew wi
n be able to keep the armies fighting.