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Show I '1 WE SHALL SEE WHAT WE SHALL I V' , SEE 1 j A Washington newspaper which, like h all Washington papers, has ehe habit of H'' echoeing administration sentiment, dc- Mj ,- precates the idea that any national pro- laj j t gram of reconstruction is necessary for UHi : the United States basing its arguments IFni uPn two statements; First, the United Ml i i . States had no preparedness program bc- M j fore we entered the war, and yet the war H ). has been won; Second, Germany Had a H?-, "lV carefully developed program of worll H ' conquest, and yet lost the war. Quod era Hi ;, demonstrandum. r L Presumably this paper would har i WM-. , argue that the war would not have end Hj u sooner if the United States had been bet- U, ; '' , ter prepared, or Germany less well pre- H n pared. And unless it is ready- to defend HI 'I -v this preposterous position, the argument Bl 1 that a program of preparedness for peace 111 conditions is unnecessary is ludicrqus. r III No jhdividual'could conduct a business Iffi ' tyrid avod bankruptcy, n competition with V I' other intelligently conducted concerns, H ' without having a program of procedure. :; W. Vrt.' l Desultory drifting gets no man, no busi- B, I, ness and no nation anywhere but upon H' '! the rocks. Propositions are solemnly ad- j&V vanced and defended in politics which," if R propsed in private matters,' would cause ' ? their proponent to be brought into court f ";::'; for the appointment of a guardian or '' ; i" commitment to an institution for. the mt1 $ intntally disabled.1 And this "argument" Ht r' in favor of this country playing the Mi- H'r, i cawbar game as we come face to face H:i h -with after-the-war conditions is a case in p point' "" H, k .'; As sure as the sun rise son the day : ; " ' the peace treaty is signed, under the ex- ' . '; v isting tariff law, which throws the mar- V' lit of this country open to theexploita- H: .,.. -tion of the whole world, will go back to H:.' ';y the industrial situation prevailing before Ht - . , the beginning of the war nterrupted the H' ,,iS' . ,, : ".optrations of the Simmons-UnderWood ' f measure when three million men, in mid- H'l I summer of 1914 were out of jobs, and the Hi r. plague of unemployment and the paraly- . v'v sis of business enterprise was spreading '.' ' -over the land. Hv" - Yet demagogues and doctrinaires blink Ht.: -( this situation and try to make the people K ' r believe there is no danger. There seems f to .Be .no reason to believe that this ad- : ' ' ministration will budge an inch from i s' "bourbon free trade policies, and there- M, lore the people will be able to judge from R' " bitter experience as to the results of sur- M y rendering our marekts to industrial n- m ; v vasion by alien producers armed with p u the deadly weapon of a cheapness attain- B i, ed at the sacrifice of human values. Na- V;J tional Republican. BBB-' te. ta. m. |