The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1922-02-24
LET US P THIS

Let us offer a hypothetical cas- ant
one not so hypothetical at that.
In the early evening of March 81
1918, there "a a great crowd Of PEG
pie on Main street in front Of the Mis-
soulian office. Our editorial room!
were thronged with prominent mer
and women Of Missoula. There were
bankers, business men, lawyers anG
doctors, and mothers, wives anc
sweethearts. 1t was noticed that al
of these people were in a serious mood
Their faces were drawn with anxiety
and apprehension and their inquiries
for news were frequent and in short
crisp form.
It was a Sunday evening when or
dinarily the streets were empty and
people sitting around their firesides.
What was the occasion of this gath
ering?
March 81 has been heralded as the
day on which the second great Ger
maj drive to Paris would be started
by Won Hindenberg. The men and
women of our city had come to the
Muscular office to learn what was
doing. Of course, they knew that it
was not a bluff because we had long
ago ceased to think of the Germans
as buffers. Now, then, how far had
the drive progressed and what were
the allies doing to stop it?
Not much vision was required by
our visitors to foresee the future if the
drive succeeded. Paris would go, the
allied armies would be crushed, the
world would be in the palm of the
kaiser. The tribute exacted by him
would be most of the worlds wealth,
and Missoula, away off in n corner
Of the United States, would be held up
for it's share of the indemnities to be
paid by generations to come.
That was the money end of it. But
among the visitors to the Missoulian
office that night We're mothers with
boys whose lives were hanging by a
hair, wives whose husbands had left
their families and firesides in Mis-
soula to fight for the old flag. What
was happening to them? What were
their chances if H%indenburg was driv-
ing ahead across the fields of France?
Now, then, for the hypothesis. Sup
post on that evening somebody had
suggested a bonus for the splendid
fellows who were over there, grim and
determined hat Hindenburg should
not pass; that their lives would go
before the Germans would be permit
ted to reach Paris and conquer the
world.
Would there have been any object
ors to a bonus for these boys on that
evening? We guess not. Every last
man in Missoula would have mort
gagged everything he had on that night
to have given a bonus to the boys who
were fighting to save his home, his
family, his all from spoilation and de-
struction at the hands of the kaiser
and the Germans.
And the scene that we have tried to
picture was merely one of many
thousands like it in every city and
town in the United States.
But the wal is over. The danger is
past. 1t is natural to minimize a
catastrophe after it has disappeared.
We all know that from experience in
our own lives.
The world and the United States
were saved, but at a terrible cost.
Thousands of our brave fellows died
on the field of France; others were
cruelty manned for life; others lost
their jobs and are wandering about
the country in search of work.
Yet here is the old United States
intact and richer than ever. Nearly
all of the worlds gold has been poured
in at our doors. Thousands of Ameri-
cans We're made millionaires by the
vast expansion of trade in the early
years of the great war. Others were
made m~illionaires by profiteering on
their fellowmen. If the United States
cannot afford to pay this bonus with
out a whimper, then surely all selse
of gratitude and honor is lost to US.
President Harding and the national
administration have declared that this
bonus must be paid to the men who
so richly deserve it. The added tax
that will come to each of US is nothing
in comparison with the things that
would have happened if our boys had
weakened before the charging Ger
mans in the drive that began March
21, 1911.
Let US not forget that and at the
same time urge our representatives
and senators to get into line and show
the spirit of patriotism that was
aflame in Montana in the days when
her record of volunteer service to the
army was second among the states of
the Union.-Daily Missoulian.
THE GRIM REAPER