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Show wm Goocfiviris UJqqJcIis I j wV IIINK of it! One hundred and fifty C SpspHWk millions of big American dollars raised k YMHfflr or tne ec Cross and all in one Mf short week! This achievement is nil urn i OlF without parallel in all annals. Never IWJffmT has there been such a spirited and generous outpouring from human hearts; never was work of mercy contemplated on such magnificent scale. It is all too wonderful to comprehend at present it 'even bewilders be-wilders the imagination. And what Shall be said of the spirit that prompted this unprecedented unprec-edented offering? Surely the great-hearts of America have forever refuted the charge that we are a sordid, dollar-hunting people.. But why speculate? Wherever our Red Cross reaches out its hands to minister to unhappy peoples binding the wounds of battle, comforting comfort-ing sorrowing women, caring for the homeless children and scattering scatter-ing good cheer everywhere, wherever a despairing human heart has felt the magic touch of the Red Cross and found health and happiness and hope again, there is to be found a fine regard and firm friendship for the American people. Who can calculate the hundreds of thousands thou-sands who will bear personal testimony and tribute to our ministrations ministra-tions of mercy in their darkest hours? The cause of the American Red Cross is something more than a crusade to reclaim human bodies and broken hearts from the wreckage wreck-age of war; it is the forerunner of a wonderful fellowship that will some day reach around the globe. Silently but surely its angels of mercy are forging the golden links of sentiment and affection that arc to bind the nations together in one big brotherhood of human hearts. . What we have made possible by simply unloosing our purse-strings is a most inspiring contemplation. And in serving others we have served ourselves best. Today we are mobilizing our armed forces to make a mighty demonstration dem-onstration against the enemy. Military authorities are all of the opinion opin-ion that this alone can save the day in France and insure ultimate victory for ourselves and our Allies. It will doubtless embrace the s, most determined and decisive military movement of the world's great-t great-t est war. Should our hopes be realized, this achievement will glorify the name of the Great Republic for all time to come. We will never f weary of recounting the story of our great adventure abroad, nor will our gallant comrades-at-arms across the sea ever tire of telling jf how the magnificent American army rushed to their rescue and turned the Hun in his tracks. But even the human heart has strange whims, and one fancies that the favorite legend of the war, the one that will make the strongest appeal ap-peal to the children of today and the generations yet unborn, will be that which relates the stirring story of a gallant and generous people who, during the stress of war, found time and furnished means to carry on the work of mercy behind the battle lines. The relative merits and exploits of the great armies in the field will always be open to dispute, but memory of the American Red Cross will ever stand as an enduring monument to the charity and chivalry that is lodged in the hearts of the citizens of the Great Republic. P A BOOMERANG. RN TCT susPcct that Champ Clark is sorry he made that Fort Wayne rt - VV speech. He intended to sound the keynote of the Democratic $0? congressional campaign; instead of that he seems to have stirred up a 4 . veritable hornets' nest among the lo . Hoosiers, whose hospitality v they claim he abused. Speaking for the loyal people of that state, the Fort Wayne NEWS wants to know why Speaker Clark signaled out I Indiana among all the forty-eight states to hear first-hand his tearful 1 plea for "the election of a congress that will stand behind the Presi- dent in the conduct of the war." P It so happened that the Democratic spokesman delivered his ad- H dress that night in the district of a Republican congressman who has H a better batting average in supporting the President's war policies H than the Speaker himself. The Indiana press reminds him of this in H unmistakable language. It likewise reminds him much to his cha- grin, we fancy of, fi is inglorious opposition to the conscription bill, ; jogging his memory as to how he sought to use his silent influence as 'H speaker to defeat the measure and how he finally took the floor and 1 denounced a government that would contemplate recruiting an army H by force, declaring that in his eyes and the eyes of the people he rep- H resented "a conscript was no better than a convict." Why, then, this ' paper wants to know, should Speaker Clark of all men "journey clear 'H from Washington to Fort Wayne to tell us that another man who H stood by the President in his hour of trial is not worthy to be con- IH tinued as congressman because, forsooth, the President needs men iH who will support him in the conduct of the war. For disgraceful gall iH can you beat that?" M And then another writer, becoming purely personal, wants to H know how it happened that the Speaker's son, Bennett Clark, obtained H his commission as lieutenant colonel, in view of the fact that less than H a year ago he was a civilian clerk in the House of Representatives. H He suggests that perhaps the celebrated Houn' Dawg from Missouri H has now become a War Pup and is busy scenting out "deserving Dem- jH ocrats" for orderly duty. Which is a good way to put it, but why H limit it to Missouri ? Surely the houn' dawg that was once so out- H rageously kicked about has now come into his own and is feasting H on the fat of the land. As we view it, Speaker Clark will serve him- jH self and his party best by keeping his silence. Certainly the Ameri- iH can people are in no mood to be scolded by him or to listen to his ,'H preachments on patriotism. M IH THEY ARE STANDING GUARD. IT is a pleasure to watch the work of the two senators from Utah in H the present war congress. They are both wide awake and hard at 'H work, and their work stands out in bold relief to that of the great ma- H jority of their colleagues. Their fearlessness is most refreshing, espe- H cially in these days of "me too" statesmen. Also, they are quite as 'H far-seeing as" they are fearless ; they are looking forward to the day H when the great American people will call the government to an ac- counting, and they are trimming their sails accordingly. Which might H mean that our senators are simply playing politics but that is not the 'H point in mind. ' Senator Smoot is admittedly the watch-dog of the national treas- H ury. Need one observe that he has a tough job on his hands ? Nor is H it necessary to say that his post is not the most popular in Washing- ton, particularly during the consideration of the River and Harbor measure now before Congress. The Southern senators arc assaulting H the "pork barrels" in mass formation and our senior senator, with what help he can muster, is hard put to the task of standing them oil. H It was to be expected that a certain substantial element in the Senate, m mostly of his own political faith, would rally around Senator Smoot, but when the junior senator from Utah jumped into the fight with a fierce denunciation of his Democratic brethren from the South the controversy assumed a different aspect. Incidently, the "Judge" let the cat out of the bag and it is doubtful whether those hungry South- erners will ever forgive him for what he said. 'M In many respects, Senator King reminds us of a certain type of Utah citizen, now almost extinct, who was in the habit, of "eating a Mormon for breakfast every morning." Just so, since he has gone to HI Washington, there is scarcely a day passes that the fiery senator Hi doesn't want to have somebody an I. W. W. or a profiteer or a HI slacker shot at sunrise. A bit theatrical at times, he has the rare H faculty of calling a spade a spade, and when he starts out to flail some- H i one he usually makes the fur fly. That he should suddenly cut loose H J a broadside of characteristic criticism and invectives against the HI . Southern contingent must have caused some of those fine fellows to H shake in their boots. Our junior senator is somewhat of a fire-eater H himself when he gets into action he can out-pitchfork old Ben Till- H man himself and nowhere in all the North or West is there another H, member of the United States senate so amply equipped to fight those H Southern Democrats with their own weapons. In other words, when H the senator from Utah unlimbered his armaments it was a case of H fighting the devil with fire. H v So it was that Senator King's speech provoked a Southern col- H league to pay the following compliment to Utah: "Both the Utah H senators, I am afraid, are rather vying with each other these days in H their attitude toward river and harbor legislation ; they are outstrip- H ping Don Quixote in his palmiest days-when he was fighting wind- H mills; but the junior senator from Utah has no pacemaker either in M history or in literature, unless it be that fellow who undertook to ride Hi up the west Capitol steps on his horse, with the intention of proceed- B ing right into the Halls of Congress in an effort to 'teach Congress M confidence and horse sense.' He was prompted by a high sense of M public duty, similar to that which the junior senator from Utah was la- fl boring under, I take it. 'The idea of the man on horseback was that m he was to represent confidence and the horse was to represent horse M sense. So on Saturday (March 18) the junior senator from Utah rode M into the Senate on his hobby of economy and reactionary conserva- M tism." , One naturally supposes that the above was intended as sarcasm, B but it missed the mark. Senator King may be Quixotic at times, and H he has been known to fight windmills ; however on that particular day V he was not flourishing his sword at a fancy he was combating one H of the most vicious and sinister evils that has crept into our national H political system. We have yet to read his reply to the free-booters M from the South, but our hot-blooded senator is fairly good at calling M names himself, and it wouldn't surprise us in the least to hear any day M that he waded right into their nest, bearded the whole pork barrel M crowd and called them a gang of cut-throats and thieves, compared B to whom the notorious Captain Kidd would seem an honest man and a B desirable citizen. That they happen to be Democrats will count for M little as our junior senator proceeds to skin them alive and tack their M hides, to the fence. All of which will be interesting to watch. M Meanwhile, Senator Smoot stands guard of the Treasury and M never allows a single day to pass without calling the attention of his M colleagues to the current extravagances of government. He is less M dramatic, less spectacular in his ways than Senator King, but in clear- M headed, cold-blooded fashion he is writing facts and figures into the H Congressional Record that will come back to curse the politicians and M plunderers who are now running amuck in Washington. When the fl day of reckoning arrives and the American people come to a full real- M ization of how the treasury has been raided, then the endeavors of the m two Utah senators will stand out in striking contrast to that of a ma- M jority of the members of Congress, and then will they be accorded the M credit due for the splendid, uphill fight they are waging now. H H THE TOLL AT SEA. ACCORDING to figures recently issued by the British Admiralty, the total tonnage sunk by the enemy submarines during 1917 i exceeds 6,500,000. At least a third of these losses were sustained dur- w ing the second quarter of the year when the submarines reached the M peak of their efficiency. They were then destroying upwards of m ' hree-quarters of a million tons monthly. Since July of last year, m however, there has been a steady decline in the losses sustained until M j at present they approximate less than 50 per cent of what they were m i on year ago. Morepver, the American shipyards are now in full swing B and are more than making good the losses to the shipping of the m Allies. The tide has turned and from now on the undersea assassins M will have an uphill fight. ' Wherefore we may all breathe more easily, and yet one is .astounded .as-tounded who contemplates the scope of destruction wrought by the submarines in a single year. It is estimated that every ton of shipping ship-ping costs $200. At that figure, the losses in ships alone to the Allies last year aggregated $1,300,000,000. Then it is safe to say that the cargoes carried by these ships would be worth at least four times as much as the ships themselves. The losses thereby entailed, then, would approach a total of $5,000,000,000. Thus the combined losses in ships and cargoes losses that can never be reclaimed at the least calculation go well past the six billion mark, a staggering item to contemplate. con-template. And as one contemplates the dream of destruction of old Admiral von Tirpitz and how near it came to realization, it causes even the most cold-blooded person to shake in his boots. As matters now stand, the German press is making no secret of its disappointment over the failure of the submarines to starve England Eng-land and stop the U. S. army transports in their tracks across the sea. They profess chagrin at the thought that they "hardly ever sink an American troopship, and when we do sink one we always find that only the ship is lost, whereas the troops whom we really want to destroy de-stroy are always saved." They no doubt recall Ludendorff's boastful prophecy of a year ago that "our submarines will se rthat the American troops will not reach the European battler " and that other assurance of the war lords that although a million soldiers might leave America, they would all see the bottom of the Atlantic. Well, our troopships seem to be racing past the submarines without having their schedules seriously interfered with, and somehow or other, England Eng-land manages to keep from starving to death ; in fact she is not only keeping body and soul together, in spite of the submarines, but she is showing the Germans the fanciest kind of fighting along the West front. To the thick-headed Teuton this is all very difficult to comprehend compre-hend ; he can't quite figure it out with the information he has at hand. The British Admiralty and the U. S. navy chiefs could no doubt enlighten en-lighten him, but what they know must remain a dark secret for the time being, at least. THE PRESIDENT IS RIGHT. PRESIDENT WILSON wants Congress to stay on the job instead of chasing back home to repair political fences and line up for the fall elections. Of late a great majority of the congressmen have been showing more concern over what is happening in their respective districts dis-tricts than they have manifested towards the vital issues that demand their immediate attention. This was to be expected and is to be pardoned, par-doned, we suppose. , Your average congressman has a deep-seated conviction that the destinies of the Republic reside in his keeping, and therefor it is his bounden duty to perpetuate himself in office. And how can he accomplish this unless he leaves Washington to swelter by itself in summer time while he rushes home to kiss the babies, com- . pliment the ladies and shake hands with every Tom, Pick and Harry in his district? The President, however, takes a different view of the situation and seeks to set the minds of such as these at rest by assuring them that "politics is adjourned" and that "the elections will go to those who think least of it; to those who go to the constituencies without explanation or excuses, with a plain record of duty faithfully and disinterestedly dis-interestedly performed." As to the latter observation, we fully agree with the President, but we doubt that it will be very reassuring to some four hundred and odd lawmakers. They will remain Jn Washington, Wash-ington, of course, and do whatever the President desires, not because they hold the same high opinion of their constituents but because he has fixed the rer onsibility upon their shoulders and they fear to go home until they have cleared the calendar of all urgent business. Meanwhile they will be most uncomfortable and the warm weather , will not be together the cause of their discomfiture. What the President had in mind when he said "politics is adjourned" ad-journed" invites all sorts of speculations. Surely he is going to allpw us to hold our customary elections this fall, even though he will not countenance the return of the cougressn.en to participate in .their own campaigns at an ean r ch ' e ! P rhaps he merely desired to speed -Congress up a bit. |
