THE INFORMATION DESK
Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, in a letter recently made public, declared his abhorrence of war, but at the same time his belief that there are some things more abhorrent than war. One of these things would be to be robbed of the birthright of freedom, justice, safety and character. “Against any attempt of any person or group of persons, or nation or nations, to undermine or destroy these fundamentals of normal human existence and development,” he adds, “I would not only fight to defeat it, but would try to prevail upon every red-blooded liberty and humanity loving man to resist to the last degree.”
President Kilpatrick, of the School Garden Association of America, in an address at Labor Temple in New York, deprecated the general disposition to educate all children to live in the city. “It is time,” he said, “we should educate them so that they will have an opportunity to make a choice if they wish to do so.” To this end he would encourage classes in rural and household economics, and give the advantages of country living a fair show.
The trade balance of the United States for the current year seems likely to exceed a billion dollars. This is due to unusually large exports of food stuffs at high prices, and to exports of war supplies and munitions.
This year’s crops in the United States give promise of unusual abundance. The estimate is for 950,000,000 bushels of wheat, 1,300,000,000 of oats, and about three billion bushels of corn. There will probably be some reduction in the cotton crop because of the substitution of food crops for cotton in most of the cotton states. A smaller cotton crop will naturally mean better prices for that staple. So on the whole the outlook for continued prosperity in the United States is good if this country remains at peace.
If the Mexican people possessed intelligence and courage enough to demand and enforce the cessation of murderous activities by their bandit leaders, that country might now enjoy great material prosperity, for it is rich in things which the world is paying high prices for. It has copper, rubber, and petroleum, as well as gold and silver, and a soil that could be made to produce abundant food crops.
The recently issued Summer Social Register of 1915 shows a reduction of 75 per cent. in foreign residences or banking addresses abroad of Americans. This indicates the effect of the war on society in restricting foreign travel from this country. A Wall Street note also indicates that many notable financiers and captains of industry are taking their summer vacations in visits to the Pacific Coast and other portions of their own country instead of the usual European visit. The tourist agencies have also changed their activities to promoting “seeing America first.”
Some time ago Prof. Kuno Meyer predicted that the present war, instead of being quickly ended, would develop into a world-wide war, in which America would try to remain neutral, but would ultimately have to fight to protect her own interests. Let us hope that Prof. Meyer is too pessimistic. Already there are some significant signs that peace may not be so far off as some people suppose.
Miss Angela Morgan, one of the American delegates to the International Women’s Conference at The Hague, says that German college professors whose names are well known in the United States told her that they were opposed to the annexation of Belgium or any other foreign territory.
The old Latin motto to learn from the enemy might be applied with advantage (to themselves) by the British nation whose eminent leaders are complaining of slack work in the manufacture of munitions of war. A neutral correspondent of a London paper, returning from Germany says the workmen in German ammunition factories put in fifteen to twenty hours’ continuous work at a shift; that they never strike and never go on a vacation. Every worker works with the utmost diligence and energy of which he is capable, because he knows that if he slacks he will be sent to the front and placed on the firing line. This is war.
The American Army and Navy Journal thinks that militarism will not be dead no matter who wins in the great war. It prophesies that when the conflict does end “everything points to a continuance of the military systems as they existed before the war, strengthened and expanded in accordance with the lessons learned from the conflict now raging.” The only thing that can save the world from such a calamity is the establishment of a World Court for Judicial Settlement by the agreement of the majority of the great nations.
Speaking of the talk of war with Germany over the Lusitania tragedy, Cryus Northrop, President of the Minnesota Peace Society, and President Emeritus of the Minnesota University, said in an address to the students: “It is easy to talk of drastic measures, but what could we do in the event of war? Could we send our Navy over there? Where are the 48 British Dreadnaughts? We cannot suppose any different treatment would be accorded our fleet if we went over there. And could we send our army over there to be killed under ground? The idea is preposterous.”
The most prominent person who has called ex-Secretary Bryan a traitor is Colonel Henry Watterson, the most distinguished Democratic Editor in the country. He said in his paper, the Louisville Courier Journal, under the caption, “Treachery Unspeakable.” “The President’s note (to Germany) contains nothing which should jostle the Imperial sensibilities, but the actions and utterances of Mr. Bryan cannot be so dismissed. Men have been shot and beheaded, even hanged, drawn and quartered, for treason less heinous. The recent Secretary of State commits not merely treason to the country at a critical moment, but treachery to his party and its official head.”
H. G. Wells, the famous British author, in a recent letter to the London Times, severely criticised his government for lack of efficiency in carrying on the war. He says: “Throughout almost the entire range of our belligerent activities we are conservative, imitative and amateurish, when victory can fall only to the most vigorous employment of the best scientific of all conceivable needs and material. Unless our politicians can perform the crowning service of organizing science in war more thoroughly, I do not see any great hope of a really glorious and satisfactory triumph for us in this monstrous struggle.”
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts, in an address at the Commencement Exercises of Union College, said it would be as futile to abolish armaments as it would be to abolish knives because knives often inflict wounds. The reason of war, in his opinion, lies far deeper than armaments—it is the desire to use armaments wrongly for aggression. A general reduction of armaments should be sought with earnestness, “but for one nation to disarm and leave itself defenseless in an armed world is a direct incentive and an invitation to war.”
Governor McCreary of Kentucky is a believer in peace, but, unlike William Jennings Bryan, a believer in peace with honor. He is quoted as saying recently: “If the flag of the United States is insulted on land or sea I am ready for war, and in the event of war I shall exercise my prerogative as Commander in Chief of Kentucky troops and go to the front.”
Reproduced from an actual photograph
Rock Ballast, Electric Power, Third Rail, Electric Automatic Signals.
“The Water Level Route”
“There is a certain solidity and permanence about this concern which smacks of nothing unfinished.”
Albert W. Atwood
in Harper’s Weekly
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
- Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling.
- Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.