New-York tribune., 1918-01-28
America Must Wake Up

I We must make ready without delay for
what wo expect to do in the spring We
cannot whit until spring TO commence; now,
January, Is the time to begin. Our men should
go over as rapidly as they are qualified for
the final training, in order that they shall
be at least half a million strong on the
actual firing limo by next June-and let us
keep in mind that Of given "army" GO
per cent arc on the firing line and the re-
naming 40 per cent in the rear.
The task to transport troops and supplies
5000 mics from their base across n sub-
marine infested sea is an imposing one: vet
preferable to rcpelling Germans on our own
soil, as we shall have to do il this war is
lost
Our problems big, but we are big
nation eve say it ourselves), and we should
DC equal to them if we are any good at ALL
it's up to us to show, to buckle down to the
JoD, put our backs into it. Organize for
war; think war; end put aside everything
beyond the actual daily business Of living.
We must get behind this Shipping Board
Cor get another p. d. q. if it doesn't make
good, behind Congress with all our energy
and enthusiasm, and insist that no iron or
labor be used for construction or for any
other purpose which diverts it from ship
building. The entire nation should bend it.
self to this task, for or the floating Of those
ships hangs the fight for democracy.
Americas Share
II the situation is to be saved in 1918
America must do her share This is not to
say that Germany has chance to win. She
cannot win; but she may exhaust France and
cost Great Britain and America thousands
upon thousands of more lives than if we
are able to check her in 1918 and defeat her
in 1919.
The Allies need foodstutYs which we can
supply only through observing tho mcatless
and wheatless and BUTTERFLIES days. We must
respond. We've got to cut out "business as
usual" and pleasure usual, the use of
labor that is required by the government for
munitions, equipment and shipbuiding, and
OF materials needed for war-cotton and
woollcn We must resist temptation to buy
new clothes and new automobiles, and learn
that the wearing Of ali American flag or a
Red Cross button is not the sum of patriot
ism. We must save, that by buying it's
war loans VIC can help our government
finance the war Like England, France, Can
ada, Australia, we must have the conviction
of right and disregard Of personal cost
(not merely money! i'll this contest, of which
justice and freedom ere the hazard.
AT present many, great many, of US arc
not doing our share because so many of us
seem not to realize a citizens full duty Of
cooperation and the necessity of stripping
FOR battle. Some of us, yes, nobly; others,
suffering inconvenience, perhaps; but most
Of us living at case with little thought of
the unpatriotic and dangerous nature of our
sclhshness. While boys are offering
themselves for the supreme sacrifice, and
our allies arc dying, dying daily by the
thousands that we may live in safety, we
hesitate to deny ourselves a little Of meat
and wheat and sugar that they may have
sufficient. While our soldier sons await
adequate clothing and arms to uphold the
rights of the free peoples, view with
inert calm the incompetence and the stunted
vision that keep marking time in a cru
SADIE which is pressing forward.
Hoover ought to be supported by law
with which he can force upon the tradesmcn
and others the essential and the by no means
irksomc food substitutes and restrictions
he pleads for in order that We may
feed allies out of easily saved sur
plus from abundance.
We cannot study the present situation
without recognizing the necessity for an
extension Of the British holdings on the