Show kathleen norris orris says our enemies En enties will pay the piper cell bell rea feature tures I 1 I 1 if I 1 I 1 d I 1 3 01 I 1 U 00 s G L 6 WO not hiff to steal and hate anti hill to secure our hames and our children the advantages the world can supply by KATHLEEN NORRIS N SOME of these heart I 1 IN shaking days it might be good to remember some facts about ourselves we are not a belligerent nation nor one inclined naturally to wars wo we have never had to bo be in our splendid ise isolation tao strength and prosperity we have not had to steal and hate and kill to secure our homes and give our children tho the greatest advantages tho the world can supply now wo we are ara forced into a role tor for which wo we were not prepared we wa dont like it and we mean to finish the job as rapidly as we can and then go back to our decencies but it if we MUST get into the world trouble it Is good to knoy know that our slow gathering mill military tary strength Is going to be 0 of a power beyond anything that human warfare has ever known before it may take us months month seven even years to gather our full momentum but it Is not our way to stop with hall half measures and we will not stop until rapacious and quarrelsome nations aro are thoroughly convinced that their ways aro are not the right ways A wealthy nation we operate in america almost two thirds of all the telephones and telegraph systems in toe the world we own two thirds of all the railways we havo have all but 20 per cent of all motor cars we produce 70 per cent of the worlds oil 60 per cent of her wheat and cotton halt half the great globes copper and pig iron and 40 per cent of the coal and lead output of all countries put together two thirds of all banking resources are ours the purchasing pur chasin 9 power of our population la is greater than that of europeans greater than that of a billion and yet our young fresh college boys and girls inform us firmly yet kindly now and then that tho the system that built this stupefying superiority perio perlo rity Is somehow all now put yourself in the place of a german housewife or a japanese one reading these facts on a sunday morning would your heart fall you a little as you asked yourself are these the people protected by their oceans strong and tall and educated and accustomed to a thousand advantages luxuries possessions of which MY people know nothing are THESE the people of whom who m our ur mad war makers have made enemies amies 0 oh to be sure we ready they may gloat over that they may gloat over that JUST A LITTLE WHILE LONGER we never saw the tha need of conscripting all our young men into armies as they did we never saw the need of starving and denying ourselves so that the money that we have spent tor for schools and homes camping and sports trips and shows and frocks should be molded into bullets and guns and it if these enemy nations had had sane leaders we never WOULD have had need of this military preparedness redness nor would they but they have called the tune and in the end pay the piper other dark days recalled so dont be too much swayed by momentary discouragements discourage ments news cant be cheerful just now it Is running along lines of strategic retreats and stressing the cri enemies emles heavy losses as they take point after point it did just the same thing in 1917 und and 1918 we grow grew sick of enemy victories there was no sign of STARTING TING NOW noir this week kathleen norris tells about her conversation with a well known columnist who believes that it is about rime for germany ge britany to breal break under tho the sir strain f sin of withstand ing the ever increasing might of the allied arn armies ties lor for us its to begin thinking about tho the peace that will follow our victory whether that coluni columnist nisA was right or wrong thero there is something wo tee must do now wo we must begin to think and act in terms of the tha justice and kindness wo tva want that pence peace to represent A better world is is not made over night nor made inevitable by tho the fairest of treaties breaking anywhere there was no light and then suddenly like the crackling and splitting of a lighted fuse came unbelievable rumors women and men were talking to each other in the streets in downtown washington did you hearit hear it lt be ba tru true we heard that the kaiser Is abdicating the germans are talk ing of a truce and then headlines five inches high peace peace peace at castill last that was alter after tour four years and three months of war during which time the leader of the english armies had admitted that their backs were to the wall that was after the enemy had taken much territory and possessed himself of oil wells and iron mines that was after czarist russia had capitulated and dropped out of the fight that was after ono one of our most famous washington commentators had informed us that with her he fresh resources germany could fight on for at least another five years lost last week 1 was talking to one of our best known columnists a i man n an whose dally daily comment upon n world events Is used in more than a hun dred newspapers ho he knows ger ma mankwell many hywell well tor for ten years he lived in all tho the european capitals by turns in the course of a general conversation he said that ho he would bo be very much in favor of americas adopting the swiss method of military training for boys after the war I 1 am not quite sure what that Is but I 1 believe that instead of drafting all boys for a three year term they take them for six weeks a year only 1 it up for all the years b be e taden 18 and 35 someone picked up his phrase and said hopefully after the war are we talking of after the war gradual wearing wc down he said seriously yes it is al most time for that we are hammering mering now at a dozen war fronts i the results show very little but the steady strengthening blows are deadly even little gains by the al lies are tick sickening enIng news tor for the peoples who have slaved and starved and who are grieving and freezing now wondering what the must be knowing that whatever the terms of peace are they will be kinder to them no now w than a year from now and kinder a year from now than after five more agonizing years of tills of course it was what we wanted to hear but I 1 dont believe he said it tor for that it seems to me that when you consider tho the facts fact s indicated earlier in this article and a thousand others like them it might very possibly be the truth |