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Show 1H I OO H FORD'S EXPLANATION DOES H'l NOT EXPLAIN. V Harry Ford is back from Europe M ! with the announcement that the peo- H j pie of the warring nations are to 1 blame for the slaughter. They have Hj I allowed their rulers to do their think- H: ing, Is his explanation, building up j great armies and armaments which H;' j led inevitably to war. H Mr. Ford's philosophy Is not very 1 ! deep. The millionaire is a better au- H tomobile builder than Btateaman or B J peace advocate. Hj . Militarism has been upon Europe H( for centuries, and. with large armies H;i to enforce the mandates of kings, the HJ people were not in a position to re- Hjj ject orders. H'j The Socialists of Europe were not H in favor of war, at tho beginning of H the conflict, but they had no alterna- H tive other than to respond to the call H to the colors. H Henry Ford's publicity bureau com H plains that Mr. Ford's peace voyage Hi has been misrepresented by the news- H papers. Here is the complaint: Hj "The New York papers almost with- i out exception misrepresented the H " - character of the Ford enterprise from the first. For this Mr. Ford was himself him-self to blame to some extent as he failed to issue a comprehensive statement state-ment of his plan in the beginning. Newspapers disposed to be hostile towards any step to end the war took advantago of this to ridicule the expedition ex-pedition and their example has been very largely followed on both sides of tho ocoan. The papers controlled by tho steel and munition interests have been the most persistent in declining de-clining to print the facts about the nature of Mr. Ford's project. Yet it would not have been difficult for them to ascertain that this big body of people carried abroad in the Oscar II was not the real peace commission to carry out Mr. Ford's purpose. Though stated overhand over again that the ship was chartered to attract tho attention of the world to the peace plan, and for no other purpose, this fact has been studiously ignored. And because the boys did not jump out of the trenches the moment the ship arrived in European waters, the whole Ford enterprise was and is denounced de-nounced as a farcical failure. That the Oscar II was the advertisement of what is to follow has never been stated stat-ed in the eastern papers. That there is to be a commission of responsible men to undertake the peace suggestions sugges-tions after the Oscar II passengers have returned to the United States has been carefully omitted from the papers which exhibit such apparent fear that Ford may bring about peace." The automobile manufacturer adopted adopt-ed a most circuitous route to bring his peace proposals before the world. His explanation is somewhat belated. Had he simply inteuded a jaunt, he could have gathered his peace advocates advo-cates at the foot of Pike's Peak and walked them up the hill and down again. That would have obtained for Mr. Ford as much publicity as the Oscar II. As a matter of fact, the originator of the peace party expected to create a great stir in Europe. He dismally failed, and the failure made him sick. The whole scheme was ill advised because be-cause it was inopportune and an intrusion in-trusion resented by all but one power n Europe. |