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Show Bl j ' jfakt Xr-""-'- " '"" " ' ' ' " ' r ' ' ' I tBSj 1 I 9M Goodwins UJqqJcIis aw, fsy;,MiviwiW. n mlll'lv.m V vjj fcS HE news from the front has been cs-B; cs-B; iC jBBSiBlk pecially bracing during the last week. wk- I ) vfHiO Everywhere along the horseshoe-flfr horseshoe-flfr jgs ' Jwfw shaped line from Soissons to Rheims B IL .- 1 mW the Allies are steadily forging ahead k, fBw anci disPatcn ater dispatch tells us DK J that the Americans are in the thick of Bj the fight and crowning themselves with glory. General Foch seems Mm' to 1ave the situation completely in hand and so far has managed to I wL out-maneuver the enemy at every turn. Whether he will be able to m J:ag tIie bi army of the Crown Prince is still questionable, but it goes V without saying that he has the Kaiser and his crowd in the most un-B' un-B' comfortable position they have experienced since they set out to ride 9r rough-shod over peace loving peoples. From the tone of the last re-B re-B ports, it would not be in the least surprising to hear or thecomplete ilL rout of the Crown Prince and his half million men any hour. t All of which has stirred our hearts and hopes to the utmost. We Kr have met the enemy and we know now that we can outmatch him W when the full force of our military power is finally brought into play. f The end is in sight, but the smoke of battle beclouds our vision and it I? may be that the deciding test at arms is still far removed. There are J) those amongst us you can find them on every hand whose optimism 4 leads them to look for a final settlement of the war this year. That m seems improbable at this juncture. However, we do look for the big m showdown sometime next summer, when America has reached the w peak of efficiency. At our present rate of progress it will require all " of the time intervening to get in shape to hand the Hun the hiding he so richly deserves. And who would have the issue settled in any less I ' decisive fashion : j The defeat of the armies of the Crown Prince will, of course, j & severely shake the morale of the German people. However, we have tf 'it on good authority that the civilians in the central empire are not as down-spirited as some would picture. A distinguished Britisher re- M cently inforrried the writer that the German populace are in the fight to the finish. The women, he observed, are in dead earnest about win- i ' ning the war and are supplying the spirit for the nation. So true is f, this, he said, that the German soldiers no longer desire to be fur- t h, loughed home. This for the reason that when they do return home ,? their women folk abuse them so unmercifully for loafing when ! $ they ought to be at the front helping to hold the line, that they actu- y ally find more peace and quiet in the trenches. We simply mention this observation for what it is worth, but the thought comes that & there still remains some powerful agency at work in Germany, other I t than the official edicts, that alone can account for the terrible earnest- I ncss of the enemy in the face of such awful odds. inf This same authority warns us also that the hearts of the German ! soldiers will break before the hopes of their people at home can b.e blasted. Thus he looks to see the Bodies mutiny by the wholesale I J- w.hcn confronted by the American army in full array sometime next summer ; he ventures the prediction that when they finally break un- dcr the awful strain they will slaughter their own officers and come h hurrying in hordes across No Man's land, their arms abandoned, their J; hands stretched high, and their lips imploring mercy. If this should 4 happen, then the civilians behind the lines would have no alternative C but to fold their arms and sullenly await the verdict of an outraged world. vJt But meanwhile, however pleasant it may be to anticipate the & coming of peace, it is our business to occupy ourselves solely with the h arts and obligations of war. He who contemplates any other kind of peace than that which will come only when the Allies have struck the enemy with all the pent-up fury that righteous hearts hold, is not waging war in earnest. Our soldiers have turned the tide and it is j! " M for us to see that the advantage gained shall not be lost through any f . M premature crowing over the victory. We must keep pace with the M army in our war work. ( M j' , H THE SCORE AT SEA. I I H THE subsea assassins of thc-enemy appear to be getting busy again I M along the Atlantic coast. In some manner or other they managed M to bag a battleship and several smaller boats of rather inconsequential M size. And along the Irish coast, after a long period of comparative in- i M action, they finally managed to sink one of our biggest troopships. ' M The enemy naturally feels quite chesty over these exploits but he has M little to crow about. The San Diego will scarcely be missed among ! J the mighty navies that stand guard on the seas, and the Justicia was ( M homeward bound with none save, her crew aboard when she was ' M struct. A ship is a ship, of course, and one of the most precious M things in the world these days, but we must expect to lose one now M and then, and we can take the loss of this transport with a grim smile H and a special prayer of thankfulness that her prow was pointed west- ward when the torpedo struck her. M And by some strange coincidence, on the very day that the news H came of the sinking of the Justicia, Herbert Hoover addressed a H notable gathering of Londoners and assured them that the food crisis H has passed. He declared that we now have plenty of foodstuffs and H enough boats to feed our friends across the water in substantial H fashion. This splendid assurance in the name of America must have M cheered the hearts of our allies as nothing else can, save a decisive M defeat on the battle front. All this then, together with the fact that M we have transported a million and a quarter men across the water H without any serious mishap, must be taken into accounting when the M score at sea is posted. There is no cause for alarm in this direction. M H UNCLE JOE'S CANDIDACY. H 1 NOTWITHSTANDING his four score years and three, it is not at H all surprising that Uncle Joe Cannon should desire to be returned M to Congress. Representing the Eighth Illinois district has become a H habit with him he is now serving his twenty-first term and we H look to see his fellow citizens return him to Washington with a rous- M ing majority. There will be those of his constituents, we fancy, who M will support him out of a sentimental desire to humor the old man's H whims, and honor him besides, but the majority will be moved to vote 1 for him because he has long since demonstrated his peculiar adapt- jM ibility for the office. M While we do not agree with some that politics is or ought to be H adjourned this year, it does seem that his constituents could do no M better by themselves or the nation that to re-elect Uncle Joe without opposition this fall. For almost a half century now he has been a H credit to himself and his community and a glory to the Republic. i Down at Washington he is regarded as pretty much of a national in- IS stitution. He is one of the few remaining links that connect the stir- H ring days of the present with those of the glorious past. True, the t years have begun to make noticeable inroads on his once powerful H physique, but he is still free from most of the infirmities that prey upon men many years his junior, and in many respects he is still fit as ;wM a fiddle. In almost every essential particular that goes to make a ca- H pable congressman he towers above his colleagues like some pic- jH turcsquc and solitary peak on the plain. jH That the veteran statesman from Illinois should decide to make the race again is a delight to his countless friends the country over, , Ijfl H for it was not so long ago that it was rumored that his health was H failing and his days were numbered. Then when it was learned that H he had selected a cemetery site and caused to be erected thereon a H massive monument bearing his name, it was generally assumed by H friends and foes alike that he was speedily preparing to give up the H ghost. However, the chances are that the only thing Uncle Joe had H in mind was that he didn't want any fool friends or members of his H family quarreling over where to locate or how to mark his last rest- H ing place. It was characteristic of him that he should desire to attend H to that more or less important matter himself. H And then one day in the House, not so long ago, in deprecating H the sad straits to which the people's government has fallen these days, H he contented himself with the observation that "when the boys come H home at the close of the war, at a time when I shall be wearing an H asbestos halo, I suppose, they will take possession and direction, and H worthily so, of the affairs of government, because they will have the H rare experience and rare patriotism that will come from their service." H Which seemed to say to many that Uncle Joe did not contemplate H outliving the war, but almost everybody was inclined to take a more H optimistic vjew of the outlook for the old war horse from Danville. H No less a personage that Colonel Harvey scoffed at the idea, suggest- H ing that Uncle Joe "will not have to get measured for a halo for years HI after the war ends, no matter how long it lasts," and that "when he I does get into the halo class it will not be an asbestos one that he will wear. He won't need that kind. It will be the sort that goes with a mil harp which will be served out to Uncle Joe. Besides, the Huns will have a corner on all the asbestos long before Uncle Joe gets around." 1 Which, by the way, is a very pretty compliment, considering that the 1,1 colonel and the ex-speaker have been on opposite sides of the political lf fence all their lives. MM But Uncle Joe has his own peculiar ways and dearly loves to m confound his enemies. If one could read what lies in his heart, the H chances are that his all absorbing hope is to be spared to a ripe old H age and then be permitted to die with his boots on. So that we look B - to see him get out on the hustings this fall with all his old-time fire, M and whoever happens to be his opponent in the race will have our L sympathy, if not our support. When asked as to what he would make H the issue of his campaign for re-election, Uncle Joe replied : "Myself." M This he evidently deems a sufficient platform for his purposes. And M why not? As distinguished from most of his colleagues, he is not a H "Me, too," congressman. He is for the war to the finish, and he stands H solidly behind the President in all the big moves, but he would not be- H little himself by offering this as the reason why he should be returned. Hj He has vision that is not given to the ordinary congressman. He Hi sees the approach of a day when the representatives at Washington H will' be called upon to stand on their own legs and act on their own Hi initiative and responsibility. And that, unquestionably, is what Uncle H Joe had in mind when he made his decision to run again and selected Hi his peculiar platform. Hj H A CONJECTURE. H ' T T may be that the New York state Republicans were sincere in H J- their tender of the gubernatorial nomination to Colonel Roose- H' vclt, and it may be that he was likewise sincere in his statement of I his reasons for refusing to accept it, but it was just barely possible that there was a game on tp corner the colonel and that he was cunning cun-ning enough to see through it in time to save himself from being made the monkey. There are doubtless thousands of Republicans in - the Empire State who would like to see Roosevelt elected governor Hi and his election could be easily accomplished, but might it not have Hk been a well-laid plan of Boss Barnes and-his associates to shelve him mjU once and for all? The colonel fell for a similar scheme put forth by HE Boss Piatt back in 1900, and were it not for a stroke of Providence IE that extricated him from his political fetters, the chances are that he Hi would have been little heard of afterward. Hi As matters now stand, Colonel Roosevelt is footloose to ply his Hi trade as a private citizen and patriotic advocate, witnout regard for a HI single political obligation or contingency He pref rS, so he states, to HI give himself up for the time being to dv oe study of t1 c internal and Hk v international questions which are new the ,hief a ncernment of the nation, as well as to do everything in his power towards the successful wj prosecution of the war. In such capacity he is bound to find more Ws, contentment and satisfaction, and he is sure to grow in the estima- jl tion of his fellow citizens. Moreover, he unquestionably senses the vm possibilities in this direction more than anyone else. tfPi Recently the war in its most grievous and glorious phases has " been brought straight to the Colonel's door. One of his boys lies m buried behind the German lines. Another lies wounded in a Paris $1 hospital and it was not long since that a third son suffered injury. He iJ has already been called to pay his share of the price in the blood of J his family. The sympathies of the entire country go out to him. And no political honor that he might now seek could possibly equal that H which has been heaped on him and his family by friends and foes M alike. Ira ROOT'S CALL TO REPUBLICANS. H IS it too much to say that Elihu Root's remarkable address to the fl New York state Republicans was something more than a partisan Jjj exho-' 'on; that it waived all political considerations and dealt solely JL with dictates of sound government? What he said on that octa- W sion n es a peculiar appeal to the thinking citizen, regardless of M political beliefs, and the chances are that even President Wilson and H his associates, if pressed to the point, would have to admit his allega- jg tions and endorse his contentions in toto. 4hj Were the able ex-senator simply a politician and nothing more, he JK might have contented himself with a stirring arraignment of the Ad- , ministration for its shortcomings, before the war and since. The facts -J? were available and he doubtless could have made a clever case on X that score. But the venerable statesman possesses dignity that rises above mere partisanship for its own sake, and broad vision that sweeps JL far beyond the range of sight of his fellowttizens. He beholds a 11 new America in the making, and he would have his party rise to j meet new issues in the same spirit as they met the old. He invites yfc his fellow Republicans to a contemplation of something more than a A mere scramble for office on any pretext available. He counsels his party that service during the present crisis is more essential than political success. He would not adjourn politics this year, but he would put it on a higher plane than ever before. And how would he accomplish this? Simply by putting the Re- J publicans on guard of the people's interests that are liable to be lost sight of or ignored while the party in power occupies itself primarily Vj with the prosecution of the war. To this end he urges the waging of jk a strenuous campaign this fall, that will bring into open discussion every vital issue concerning the American people, such a campaign as Jm would make of the Republican party a vehicle for the utterance of y j honest opinion everywhere. He holds that, as affairs are now run in jK Washington, the minority party is the saving grace of the nation and K that its usefulness must in no wise be impaired. Hence he would have M Republicans everywhere name their strongest men for representatives m and fight for their election, on the theory that such men can serve the If country in better fashion than those who, because of party affiliations, m necessarily come under the spell of executive domination. ff And if perchance, as the signs of the times seem to indicate, a Republican majority will be returned to Congress, he senses no alarm over the prospect. This for the reason that the Republican party is i essentially the war party and has afforded the President more consistent con-sistent support than his own. Citing several instances in which the minority party saved the day for the Administration, he ventured the assertion that the President would have nothing to fear from a Re- M publican Congress. And at any rate, he submits a proposition that is plain to all : namely, that the people have the right to name whoever J they choose as their representatives. And if, in the turn of events, it 3 should happen that the citizens should vote for a change in the con- JI trol of Congress, who knows but what it will prove to be the saving grace of the situation. p And so, Republicans are urged to take up arms in earnest this year, not so much as critics of the Administration or the conduct of the war, but for the furtherance of the constructive forces of public Ji opinion in the matter of the proper conduct of the war and the settle- Jil ment of the grave internal problems that will come afterwards. $J I i |