The Colorado statesman., 1918-10-19
MEN RESPOND CHEERFULtY
War Draws Attention to the Fact
That Thousands of Citizens of Alien
Birth Do Not Understand the Eng.
lish Language.
BY ARTHUR w. DUNN

.st III ura1t has been of great benefit.
Inc machinery is in good working or
Ner ana the men of tile country have
responded creditably to this demand
upon them for more man power. One
feature has been added which Is OK.
Pected TO be of great assistance. This
tne creation of legal advisory
poarus TO aid the local boards in the
determination of questions arising I'M
uef the draft law. It is expected that
the ADVICE of the legal boards will
save lot of time at this end of the
line.
frobably the most gratifying cir
cumstance in connection with the new
draft is the cheerful response of the
men. The provost marshal general
does not expect as much difficulty In
regard to slackers rs I'm the first draft.
The whole country has grown more
patriotic as the war has progressed.
War has taught the lesson that more
attention should be given to immi-
grants in the future. When II is found
that thousands upon thousands of men
OF alien birth but who have become
. American citizens and been drafted
into the army, are yet unable to under
stand the language of the country, II
means that there has been faulty sys-
ton somewhere. These men could not
understand the orders given them, nor
did they understand why they were
called into military service. Hereaf-
tel 1t would be well to see that immI-
grants are taught the English lam
guage, or at least that they should be
compelled to learn it when they be-
come citizens. 1t might be well also
to see to it that the aliens living in
this country should become citizens.
or leave it. We have found much
too large alien population as result
of the draft law.
Congressman Walsh of Massachu-
setts. who has made himself unpopu-
lar with the members who want to
print everything under the sun in the
Congressional Record. and at the same
time populariZed himself with those
who would like to see less waste in
government printing, made strong
plea in the house for saving paper and
printing bills. He showed that while
the government was trying to curtail
tue USE VI pdper, IL NhS Ut lile same
time wasting paper in many ways.
Congressman Mapes of Michigan in
terjected remark to the effect that
the government printing office work
this year would cost S12000000. while
many bureaus go outside and get
great amount of printing done by con-
tract.
hood of 25.000 physicians have wholly
or partially withdrawn from private
practice to engage in war work, the
public health service has appealed to
our people to remember that taking
care of themselves Is one way of ex-
pressing patriotism. One-third of the
men registered under the first draft
were rejected for physical disability,
and in majority of these cases the
cause of rejection was some easily
preventable or durable defect.
Besides making things hum Mt the
producing end, the government is urg-
ing firemen in factories and large
buildings to aid in avoiding any repe-
tition of last years uncomfortable coal
shortage. According to Van Fl. Man
ming, director of the bureau of mines,
45,OOO,OOO tons of coal can be saved
yearly by proper building and adjust
ment of fires, and this without the as
sistance of any miraculous agencies.
Anything that will save 45,OOO.OOO tons
of coal for the United States is doing
q rood deal more than its bit in these
war times.
Probably the most astounding thing
the Germans of higher intelligence
nave encountered is the manner
in which this country has gone
into war. They never believed it was
possible for the United States to mobil-
ize, equip, train, ship and put into the
fighting lines anything like an army.
Just Why they could not bark back TO
Civil war days and see how a divided
nation raised two armies of great fight
ing material is n mystery. The Ger
mans have made other errors. First
they did not believe this country would
go to war; and second they did not be-
Iieve we could put an army in Europe.
They had some reason to believe we
would not go to war for the pacifist
sentiment was very strong. Then the
Germans were misled by the pro-Ger-
man element in this country. They
believed that the Germans in the Unit
ed States would have nerve enough to
revolt and counteract the efforts of
this country to be effective on the side
of the allies. They had reason to en-
tertain such ideas, but events show
how mistaken they were. If there con-
tinues to be a firm idea to fight to a