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Show THE CITIZEN 6 tion, after the Civil war, they were effective. In this day of recon- approved on August 31j 1918 (the selective service act), SHALL j v BECOME OF FULL FORCE AND EFFECT, using struction, after the world war, they lose their appeal because the relaas far as possible the organization created by the present act. tive status of the negro and the white has changed. No person, upon completion of training, shall be liable to further The least that we can accord is justice. That may not solve the in problem. The curse of an irremovable race conflict may be upon us training or any service in time of peace without his consent, but for ages, but we must bear the burden as nobly as possible. It will time of war he will be liable to the draft. In fact, practically speak- - If ;.v not do to pin our faith forever to denials of the franchise, to peonage ing, every boy in the United States who is not mentally, physically for the black workers, to burnings at the stake. These can only or morally unfit for military service will be conscripted as soon as the Baker army bill becomes a law. If the conscription acts are to be sharpen the sword of Damocles and thin the thread that keeps it suspended over our heads. The best we can do will be none too good for revived as soon as war has been formally declared it means that all g of both races. If we must live together as we must who receive three months training are subject to the draft. The the without hope of disseverment the white man must invoke the wisonly chance of escape would be by favoritism in classification, of dom of his fathers and grandfathers who fought against slavery to which we had some experience during the late war. What startling developments in these days of covenants that guide him in solving the problem of racial conflict. preach peace and are designed for war! One result of the League of Nations is a proposed law for per-- , SALE REMNANT THE petual conscription. We shall be told that we are to have a citizeq., and a democratic army. We shall be told that this is the"4 administration is staging a spectacular sale of bacon, canned army THE and canned beef for the edification and mollification of a fairest kind of military service, much superior in a republic to a stand-in- g j; . well-bein- public clamoring for lower prices. On the same page that we read about the $124,000,000 dish of bacon and beans which the government intends to serve, we read about scores of thousands of babies in the country suffering from undernourishment. Had the President taken up the problem of high cost months ago he would have been able to prevent the scandalous sale of government goods to trusts and the waste of foodstuffs. The sale is really nothing more than a remnant sale. One hunmillion dollars worth of bacon and canned vegedred twenty-fotables would not go far toward the feeding of 5,000,000 soldiers. What has become of the foodstuffs ? Some months ago the government sold 25,000,000 pounds of sugar. The consumer reaped ho benefit because the sale was made to the sugar corporations. Many millions of feet of lumber were offered for sale and the lumber trust protested against the disposal of the lumber to the public. Consequently the lumber was sold to the lumber barons who, almost immediately raised the price of lumber $6 a thousand feet. The government has on hand several hundred million dollars worth of automobiles. Why not sell these to the public? Will it be argued that auto trucks are luxuries? And even if automobiles b'e classed as luxuries the sale of the government machines to the general public would help in several ways. It would put into service machines which are going to waste. It would release labor for other work than the manufacture of automobiles. And, despite the cries of protest from the manufacturers and dealers, it would not injure their .business, because the demand for machines far exceeds the supply. We read somewhere that the army had made a saving of millions of dollars by sorting over goods which went to waste. It is an economy worthy of commendation, but how foolish it is to save articles valued at a few cents each and allow articles worth thousands of dollars each to be destroyed. The $124,000,000 of bacon and beans is not a drop in the bucket. The government has surplus supplies of all kinds that can be disposed of to consumers directly. Let a demand go forth from consumers everywhere that these goods be sold to the people at cost. There is a shortage, we are told, in all lines of goods. If so the governments surplus cannot do any great injury to wholesale or retail trade. ur i PERPETUAL CONSCRIPTION UNDER the guisea oflawa law for for universal service, Secretary Baker perpetual conscription. Each person immediately upon the completion of his three months training shall be classified for service in war and Upon formal declaration of war by the Congress of the United States the provision of the act to increase temporarily the military establishment, approved May 18, 1917, and as amended by the act of Congress army, etc. But that is not the point. The salient fact is that the country is being placed on a war basis, that every preparation is being made for war and that in a free country a policy of permanent conscription is to be adopted. In the face of sucfy preparation can the advocates of the League of Nations keep straight faces when they assure us that the covenant is a league of peace. Clearly it is a league for war. It may preserve peace in countries accustomed to wars, but it will plunge our country, accustomed to peace, into frequent wars. And because it will do this every preparation is being made to fight big wars with all our man power. What has become of the policy of disarmament which is mentioned somewhere in the covenant? The only measure of disarmament so far provided for is the subordination of all the navies to the British navy. All others are to disarm, but Great Britain is to have the biggest navy. We may reduce our navy to two battleships, but, if we do, Great Britain is to have four or five or six battleships. We accept an inferior position on the theory that Britannia is the one nation fitted to rule the wave. But whatever the policy on the sea the policy on land apparently is to establish an American army capable of preserving and maintaining the territorial integrity and existing political independence of the members of the League of Nations. We must have an army big enough to preserve peace anywhere on the globe to which our conscripts may be ordered by the executive council of the league. . ' . U. The Rev. J. H. N. Williams of Salt Lake, defending the League of Nations, says nations can no longer live unto themselves alone. Hurrah! Let us all live for Japanese rule in Shantung. It is said that Carranza is about to establish a new cabinet office, the incumbent to be known as Chief Director of Insults to the United. States. President Wilson is trying to see how many times he can let the United States be insulted by Mexico without getting mad. Rye Beach is not the name of an ocean of booze, but of a dry town in New Hampshire. . No doubt the President sometimes think that the presidential chair is the thirteenth chair. An American ace is teaching the Bolivians. teach them more. Four aces coulf't McAdoo sounds like the name of a candidate for President of the Irish republic. i f J |