The Washington herald., 1918-01-19

NUT
mems and the Marx Twain Company.
the whole, however, It ID a plain. direct
answer to the Peoples Councils de-
nand for a statement of terms
in the second place. the President
endorses the Bolsheviki in a manner
that must send cold chills down the
spines OF the editors of the Times, the
World, the Tribune, the Herald and
other-self appointed guardians OF
capitalism
Thirdly, the President is doing with
one stroke of the pen what battalions
Of soldiers cannot accomplish. He is
giving the encouragement of world
wide publicity to, and sympathetic en-
dorsement of the struggles OF the lib
eral forces in Germany. He Is there
by immea surably advancing the doom
of German autocracy.
"Fourthly. the message Is a COM
plete vindication of the basic princi-
pies of a lasting peace for which lib
erals and radicals in every country
have consistently stood. Briefly sum-
married., these principles are:
81. No forcible annexations, no pu-
nitive indemnities.
''2. Open diplomacy and the aboli-
ton of secret treaties.
3. Freedom of the seas
"a. Free trade.
-. Disarmament.
''6. The right of nations TO decide
their own fate.
80. A league OF nations
In other words, the despised paci-
fists, for whom the Presidents mind
has such contempt, are coming COM
pletely into their own"
But such argument is torn from the
article when on the back page it is
noted that the leagues suggestions
for membership on a peace council
shall include Prof. Nearing, Senator
LaFollete. Morris Hillquit. Eugene
Debs and David Starr Jordan.
And next in order in the list-alI of
them being chosen by a referendum
of the voters of the Peoples Coun-
cil-came the names of Jane Adams,
John d. Works, Victor Berger, Will
lam Jennings Bryan and others whose
doctrine has appealed to the anti-war
crowd for years, and whose aid in the
perfection of the organization of the
Peoples Council has been given time
and again in the past three or four
years.
There is much time taken by men
talking about our Dollar Patriots
which could well be spent in doing
something useful toward the conduct
of the war.
The rich men who have come into so
many important places since the war
began are not as bad as painted. In
fact. many of the charges against
them are creatures risen up in the
minds of interiors who. IL they had
the higher places, would speedily do
all the things they accuse the present
occupants of doing. Then, a very few
are responsible for the attack on the
many-a few indiscreet ones.
The rich men are human. of course,
and there might be a chance. here
and there, which they took. to promote
their own interests, or the interests
of some firm in which they had
shares. The cases have not become
scandals, generally speaking. and
there is no reason for unrestrained
noise over the matter. The war Is
going along quite we'll. in this respect,
in view of the tremendous steps
which have been taken in the COM
paratively short time we have been
in the fray.
There are countries where graft
real CRAFTS rampant. There
are countries where money has to
be distributed up and down and
around long lines of waiting Off
cials-and our country is not one
of them. There is enough of in
herent honesty in most of our pub
lie officials and in our recently ac-
quired semi-officials to keep them
pretty well in the path of good
Americanism.
We are willing to make the state
ment that in no country of the
world has any war ever been fought
with so much freedom from graft as
in this country at the present time
Moreover, we add to this that in nc
war ever before fought in the worl6
has there so much money been ex-
pended as by this country, and In
no previous war was there so much
of an opportunity to graft, If oul
people were to yield to 1t.
II this isn't good enough a rec
ord to make We would like to know
what kind of a record the people
are looking for-and we would like
some of those who are critics oi
things as they are to come out and
take even a moderate hand at the
game and see il they can improve
on it's purity.
Looking over the entire big field
with a multitude of fingers on tht
pulse of things as they sreL-anc
not as people think and talk about
them-we say this nation Is doine
RIGHT WELL. And We thinl
you'd agree, gentle reader. il yot
stopped to think of IT yourself, and
IL you had chance to look ovei
some of the figures rather minute,
ly some day when you had plent,
OF time to do it; o,,n