The Washington herald., 1918-04-15

Will WIN lhC
war"
You heard this cry when America
entered the conflict. 1t came joyously
from the throats of hundreds of thou
sands of our allies and America ac-
cepted 1t as quite the natural thing
and settled down to buy bonds and
do other things to help that ingenu-
ity.
But the War Department. continu-
ing its pre-war policy. went ahead
steadily doing everything in its power
to suppress and discourage this in
genuity. Yankee ingenuity has been
term to talk about but not to de-
velop. so far as the general course
of the department is concerned
There have been citations galore to
show this. Inventors who have really
had something worth while to show to
Uncle Sam come here only to be sent
back to their homes, after weeks of
effort, and with the very apparent
understanding that the department
didn't want to have them about.
The history of their courses has
been the same in all their cases. They
have gone from bureau to bureau and
here and there and almost every
where-each subordinate telling them
their invention might prove worthy
but always sending them on, ever on,
in that endless tramping which struck
down their patience. and demonstrate
ed to them that ingenuity required a
most eXtravagant amount OF shoe
leather and long pocketbook to buy
bread and butter and a cot IL it
would succeed.
There have been many impractical
fellows in all this enthusiastic mob.
of course. There have been hundreds
and thousands of the inventors with
whom the departmental men would
be wasting their time IL they gave
them even quarter of an hour That
was to be expected quite naturally,
| and the expectation was more than
fulfilled without question. But there
| have been real inventors with real
ideas in the long line-and the long
line was worth sitting to get to them.
The tide appears to be changing
| now We hope it Is. 1t is time it
| did so. Enough fooling has been in
dulged in now and the American peo-
pie, through their representatives,
have spoken and asked that the bu-
reaucrats change their ways. This is
| serious business we are in. We
need everything We have to win, Es-
pecially do We need what Europe
looked to with hopeful face-"Yankee
ingenuity"
Secretary Daniels told glowingly of
the accomplishments of the Methodist
Church in the present war, and gloried
in the fact that he belonged to that
church. etc. We do not believe in
introducing this subject in this way
at all, but in view Of what Josephus
says we desire to make one point and
then dismiss the subject We belong
to the Presbyterian Church. but want
to say that the mark hung up by the
doughty, red-haired Irish Catholic in
the Engineering Corps who killed five
Huns with a pick-ax-a story which
comes automatically to us-is a mark
for all other churches to shoot at.
OF course, this poor IrIshman fell
dead at the hands of his enemies he
fore he knew what damage he had
done, but our Presbyterian hat is of
to him just as it will be to any Metho-
dist or Congregationalist or Baptist
or Unitarian or New Thoughtist or
the member of any other creed who
does as well.
For definiteness of proof, and for
thoroughness with which they lay
their cases before Congress, commend
to us the rural letter carriers of the
nation.
A bill recently passed by the lower
house grants the country carriers
twenty per cent increase in pay plus
per year per mile" increase for
routes over twenty-four miles in
length. The letter carriers brought
this about by furnishing the members
with detailed statements showing the
original cost of motor and horse ve-
hicles and their cost Of upkeep for
the year. -...
The amount left for support of the
carriers families was so pitifully
small that no self-respecting member
could deny an increase. 1t was so
much below what men in shipyards
and other governmental lines wsrs