The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-10-07
What Are We Going to
Do About It?
Ry e. e. Hartman, OF the ViaiIantes.

This war win end some day. Some folks are
already planning what they will do after 1t Is
over. Are we?
I read the other day that the German and Aus
TRAN prisoners now in Russia had resolved, al
most to man, that they would not go back to
their former homes when the war ended, but
would eInigrate to the United states and Canada.
What will twin countries say to them?
Come right along, brother! Make yourself at
home. Take this chair It has higher back and
thicker cushion. Have a glass Of ice-cold beer
with me. I'll tell the wife and she will cook up
a mess of sausage and make some biscuits and
open her best canned fruit for you. Let me ad-
just this stool under your trench shoes and offer
a cigar to while away the time, till the dinner is
ready" 4
win we talk like that? Oh, will we? 7
If do l shall start out on hike into the
frozen north and begin to live on whale steaks
and bubber.
Isn't it about time for US to begin to plan?
Should we 20 on with our lob of licking the Hun
and never look ahead to the time when he is go
ing to become economic question? Should we
let things slide till he is the sea, coming over
in any old bottom that he can rake up, prepared
to grab off lot Of New World coin and land and
help US make our laws nice and easy for the
Hun at home?
Or will we tell the Hun in Europe to get in
side the Hunnnsh lines and stay there while he
works out his salvation? Shall we say to
the Hun, who, being in America and enjoying its
advantages. has elected to go back to Hunland
and join in tn frightfulness that has been the
backbone Of Kaiser Bills plan, that 1t was no
more than should be expected and he is welcome
to come home to
Shall we open our internment camps and let
they now hold? Haveing clean dish and whole
some food shall we defe it with propagandists
and spies and enemy agents? Having made our
bed with clean sheets and pillow slips and blan-
kets, shall turn the covers back and let the
wallowing swine from the roadside mudhole
creep within?
There is only one line of conduct that we
follow with honor and common sense, and that
is the line that will keep our bed and food and
home clean. The line that will maintain the pur-
ity that we have attained through the refining
by fire. We must say to the Hun in Europe, in
America, in Asia, anywhere he may be found;
Get to work within the confines Of your own
country! Build up and purify your land Purge
it of the filth that clogs its spirit. Wash it clean
of the evil 1t has chung to so long Renne II with
years of sacrifice and earnest work for the right
Then, after the leaven has worked and passing
decades have carried away the last grain Of the
old devsh doctrines and beliefs, then it is pos
sble that thes nations may grant you amnesty
and let you 60 out through the world at large
once more. 1t is up to you. Get to work on
yourself"
Letting the Hun wander at will after this
is will be like leaving the line of fuse burning
and merely cutting off the dead end after the
spark had cTawled inward toward the magazine
Allowing him to have the same old freedom
to come to our shores would be as foolish, and as
disastrous in the end, it would be to smother
fire with cotton loosely piled.
President Wilson and his advisers have great
MANY matters to handle and many questions to
decide. Let us not leave them to do all the
thinking or all the talking on this question, The
American people are concerned to such degree
in this matter that they should not delegate to
any man or body Of men the task Of thinking for
them Iney SnOuld 40 Lnelr own lnlIhluS anu
when they have had time to formulate plan
that looks feasible and thoroughgoing they
should say to their servants at washington from
the President down: "Here You put this
through adong the line we have laid down. It is
no time for fooling or for doing party politics.
Put up the bars and spike them fast, so no one
can slip them, We have a. stomachful and we
must have time to digest it before we swallow
any more" --a
Then get busy with the American of foreign
birth and Americanize him or throw him over
the bars to the soil that bore hon. We have no
room in America for the man who shouts "Hur-
rah for America" and follows it with whisper
of "Cott sci danlS Ich bin Deutscher.