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Show C0MM1CJT1 ' Editor Standard-Examiner: ' Verily, it requires nerve for an inconspicuous in-conspicuous person like myself to cross verbal swords with the editor In his own baliwick, especially if his paper pa-per is the only one pdblished In a large city. But, even so, Imperative duty I sometimes calls and will not be de-j de-j nled, and Jt has been said that "even a j cat may look at a king." In your editorial edi-torial of Sunday morning, answering , a coast paper relative to an article in it concerning our army over in Europe, you are, according to my humble opinion, and that opinion is based on my understanding of the primary purposes pur-poses of our government, and the present pres-ent peril of my country and yours, fundamentally fun-damentally wrong. The coast paper above referred to. states ihat it is costing 51.220.0C0 a day to maintain our boys on the Rhine etc.. and you make answer as follows: "What an exhibition of petty criticism! criti-cism! If they are not cared for there, they must be clothed, fed and shclt-jered shclt-jered elsewhere at a cost of approxi-, mating the expenditure in Germany. Furthermore, our soldiers are perform-! Ing our part of n sacred obligation to! make impossible another world! debacle such ns occurred bcj.wc;n August, Au-gust, 1914 and November 11, 191S. .America, it is certain, owes the world; something more than a dollar perform-j ance a serving for price. America must do her full share in the carrying' out of the terms as of the armistice I as relates to the making safe of all ( nations from sudden and uncalled-for attack. It is a small soul who measures meas-ures everything in money and knows nothing of the bigger promptings of humanity." I was immeasurably astonished to read such an opinion as is expressed above In an American newspaper intended in-tended to be a patriotic educator of its readers! I have the presumption to make answer and say that our boys should not be on the Rhine at all, and that they may be better cared for and at vastly less cost nearer home. .And, lurinerniore, our uoys snouiu iioi uu billeted anywhere in Europe two years after the war has ended. It was proper prop-er and right that our boys should havo struck the final stroke that damned the rivers of blood let loose by an insane in-sane kaiser, but when (hat immortal and splendid work was done our boys should have been brought home and, moveover, they should have gone over there two years sooner than they did, as suggested by Col. Roosevelt. I beg- that I may not be considered offensive if 1 seek, in the balance of what I say, to arouse the almost moribund mor-ibund spirit of America, as is daily manifested and still growing. The teachings of the past vindicate what am trying to say, and tho best hope of the present and future admonish it. I ask no political party or person to be responsible for me, when I say that in my humble opinion Woodrow Vil3on, president of tho United States should never havo vacated hl3 office in Washington, to which his people : had elected him to promote their domestic do-mestic welfare, to cross three thous- : and miles of ocean alid hob-nob with 1 1 royalty, the very antithesis of his own 1 democratic country. There are statesmen states-men in our country as learned in statecraft state-craft as is the president, and by them, . regardloss of political affiliation, our. country should havo been represented:! at the French capitol, and we might J not now bo tho "butt" of foreign na- tions because of something the prosl-j dent of a great democratic government ' j did or said, as being whispered jn' French and Italian Journals. jt When President Wilson left our; shores an enormous and unheard-of E debt had been loaded upon the peo- I pie's shoulders and incompetent servants serv-ants had been left at home to lift the f burden and tho people are still groan-1 ing under the burden without a ray f of hope In the near future. Our ship a of state, the most magnlficient the I world has even seen, had dragged her s anchor and was 'drifting on the rocks I when the indifferent captain escaped H in his boat for other scenes. No, I am not excited, but tneasurjng carefully W my words. Oh, there was so much to do when he went away. The public B moneys were being squandered by the f incompetent "Got Rich Quick Walling- rords" and tho "Colonel Mulberry Sell- ' 111 ers," and strikes and high cost of liv- ' ing, and general unrest confronted l. a once prosperous and happy people. H When our captain deserted the good Li ship to loom large with foreign royal- y ty, he finally came back to his people S m broken in health and reputation. Provi- ( M denco had set us apart from the rest ' JB of the world and protected us with wM thousands of miles of ocean on either T 'S side, and the good ship of state was . 1 sailing merrily along 'till amateurs be m gan to fool with the steering geer and 1 sho is now drifting onto tho rocks, and I now behold the frightened faces of the I passengers who arc treading her decks H and looking into the baleful sky. You say that "America owes the world something .more than a dollai performance!" I say that America owes the world nothing, but she owet herself much, and will continue to owe until her children are again prosper ,j ous and happy. A dollar performance, : forsooth, when the big-hearted peoph of Amorlca have poured untold money and clothing, and food into tho ruined i homes of distracted Belgium ant France, and God bless them for dolnj it. Talk about a dollar performance vhilo the lillles of Franco are beinj nourished by the richest and' most pro clous blood of our American manhood but why continue? Very respectfully, A. S. CONDON, |