The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-02-26
GROUNDS FOR CONFIDENCE.

GROUNDS FOR CONFIDENCE.
1t probably can be said with truth that gen.
orally throughout our country the idea prevails,
whether as feeling, a belief or a conviction,
that Germany cannot win this war but must
give way at last and go down to defeat IN the
end. Perhaps one reason for this is found III
the widespread recognition of the fact that she
is fighting for system that blocks the course
of racial evolution-an institution which is a
boulder in the path Of human greatness that
must be blasted out Of the way. If this is the
true conception of the matter, she is battling
for a lost cause. The stars in their course fight
against her, which seem to have been an ancient
way of saying that failure was predetermined
and she was beaten when she began the war.
There comes time when things which have
served their purpose and outlived their use
fulness to mankind must go. When the feudal
system with its innumerable petty despots and
it's hordes of robber chieftains with power of
life and death over it's subjects no longer met
need of the people but did more harm than
good, it made way for the absolute monarchy.
And now the disadvantages Of autocracy have
come to outweigh it's excellencies. 1t still does
some things we'll but is manifestly undesir-
able on the whole. It is better for the
! boy to act a man IS part sometime and assume
the management of his own affairs, even though
he makes serious mistakes, than to remain IN
leading strings all his life. Similarly it is
better for the Individual and collective evolu-
| ton of the people, when they reach certain
stage of growth, that they should take their
government into their own hands as the repub-
lies and democracies are doing have done.
So many intelligent and progressive peoples
rule as to force the conclusion that popular
government is necessary step upon the evo-
lutionary path and that a people SO generally
educated and logical the Germans cannot
long delay to set their feet upon it. When to
these conditions are added the manifest evils
of the autocratic system, how it is militaristc
Of necessity and must buttress itself with
armies and armament, and how it's interests lie
in war whereas the interests Of the people lie
in peace it must, as would seem, be evident
| to thoughtful persons that the governing castles
! of the central empires are wag1ng losing light
and were beaten, in the sense that defeat was
inevitable when they plunged the world into
war.
| It seems to many minds almost incredible
! that Germany should have been able to win
most of the successes and hold the world at
bay SO long as she has. It is entirely explic-
able however, though that phase of it need
not be considered now. The fact Of moment
is that notwithstanding her notable achieve
ments, and no matter what her present strength
lllety NC, Gho 1eclillS LII elIu
go down and under has never weakened but
gains strength in all the allied lands. She will
go down because she ought to go down. Her
aims are inconsistent with human progress.
Her methods are abhorrent to humanity and
morality. Their triumph would be subservient
of all that is good; and epoch is clearly open
ing when autocracies, however useful in the
past and efficient for certain purposes in the
present, are longer to play leading roles on
the stage Of world affairs.
The federal department Of labor does well
to make the United States employment bureau
the instrument for handling the national labor
problem. This action has been urged by the
American Federation of Labor and by the
Chamber of Commerce Of the United States
The growing labor shortage has occasioned
much anxiety, and while the federal agency