Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-02-16

ing "a public by men or officers in uni
form At the camps all sellers Of
liquors within five miles are ordered to
clear off There are differences of
opinion a5 to whether this is not TOO
severe. But the point I want to make
is this. whatever the government
believes TO be necessary. they enforce.
Other allied governments are afraid
OF this party or of that interest. The
government Of the United States
does not seem 10 be afraid of anything
or anybody Ii is not thinking about
politics i is thinking about winning
the war
The first act oil the president after
this country had declared war was to
call for the assistance of its best
known and most capable men of busi-
ness. Numbers of them are giving
their services, have been giving them
for some time past How long did it
take as In England to see that il
was essential to mobilize talent? Mr.
AsQuith did not want To introduce
outsiders among the old gang Of poll
ticians Lord Kitchener tried to do
everything himself, would hardly let
officers of ability and experience do
anything to straiEbten out the muddle
al the war Office let alone business
men, whom he distrusted ana disHke3.
More than two years passed before
this attitude was changed.
have heard much grumbliug
about She slowness of Washington to
7 seek out and set IN order the meas
ures needful for the success Of tue
American arms and the security OF
the people who stay at home. Slow
ness. / should smile DO these grum-
blers thing that the measures ia cues
ton are so simple so clearly indicar-
ed, so easy to ento~ca2 Il is Hot dit
tcuIt to put mp tail building Arch
fleets and engineers can calculate ac-
cuTateiy the strains ard stresses. the
quantity OF material required. the rate
at which work can be pushed on You
can speed up tho manufacture of mo
ter cars You can. if need he. Law q
railway jn d hurry In all these ac-
tlYil.es there is exact knowledge to
20 by. But who has calculated the
strains OF war Who can point to the
bases Of any science Of warfare?
al that the United States govern
meat can do is TO guess at what will
De needed, at The time the war will
last, at the methods when will best
aid in winning i. These matters can
not be known The Germans thought
the war would be settled under water
/ by the E.-boats. Some of us In the al
/ Led camp think it may be settled in
The air. But nobody knows. Under
these conditions it seems TO rne that
this country has acted both with wis
/ dom and with speed in doing SO much
as II has done within the short space
OF tour months 1t is spending S1f-
100000 a day and besides that lending
every u hours SIS 600 00G to the allies
70 keep them going. II has allotted
Sb39,008 900 for the building OF air
planes 1t is going to build desfr0vers
Ter the destruction OF submarines At a
cost Of $4,000 ,0g0 1t will spend dur
fag the next ? months upon new ships
LoF commerce and for carrying to
France all that the American troons
! VIII need there One day learn from
TIE newspapers that hundred tbou-
sand cylinders are being east for air
craft at the rate Of one thousand a day.
and That this rate can be increased al
viii 70 five or even ten thousand. An
. ether day ! notice that six million
flannel shirts have been ordered for
delivery during the early part OF the
winter
Yes. the other allied nations made
war ike amateurs. The Americans
are making war like business men