Hj 2 GOODWIN' S WEEKLY.
H tho United States, and in anticipation of that, all
H itho old ladies up and down the Atlantic coast
Pj every night, cover their heads, oven as tho os-
H. trich buries her head in the sand when danger
H ' threatens ,and in troublous dreams hears the 'first
H j gun of tho bombardment that is to resolve our
H i wholo eastern coast back into chaos.
1' "What shadows we are, what shadows wo pursue! "
H ' Europo is a wreck. The people of Poland and
H J Serbia aro starving. Belgium would have been
H starving for the past year, except for the food sent
H her from tho "United States. Tho sorrow of
H ' nations is indescribable. Their business is ut-
H ' terly dislocated. Not one of the great powers
H " can in ten years of ipeaco reach an aggressive po-
B sition, in -which the animosities of the present
H war can be done away with. Then why this sud-
H den cry of danger raised by President Wil-
H j son? To us there can ibe but ono cause. De-
H splto the pledge made in the platform on
M which he was elected, ho has permitted his
H j name ita go before the Democratic convention as
M j a candidate for re-election . He knows that tho
M i tariff smashing which he helped Mr. Underwood
M perpetrate, together with his Mexican policy and
H , his utter Jack of practical sense in relation to a
m , merchant marine, will snow under any Demo-
M cnatio candidate this year unless tho attention of
H tho people can be turned from the (facts. Hence
fl he has blown up this preparedness bubble and
M hopes to obtain aippropriatlons enough to give tho
B country a seeming prosperity. The self-respecting
M men in, his cabinet are resigning. Why?
H ' It will require the most adroit work that the
M president ever did to keep the masses of the
H ( Amferican people from understanding his real
H I character, . as do ex-Secretaries Garrison and
,- Breckenridge.
; Tlio strongest partisan hesitates ibefore assail-
fl ing the president because of the homage due- that
I great office. But if the people make one mistake
in selecting an incumbent for that office, that is
a double .reason why they should not repeat that
M mistake. iMr. Wilson will not be re-elected. We
1 doubt very much if he will be renominated.
M. Now Mr. Wilson expresses regret that no pri-
M vate, capital has come forward to begin the reha-
H j bilitation of a imjerchant marine and wants the
H government Ito build and run the needed ships.
m i ; This will, if carried through, set all the ship
Hj yards ringing, require an immense expenditure of
H vi government mjoney, and so far as it goes will
H influence votes next November. But we are justi-
H 1 fled in believing that the president's interest is
M j not in the commerce of the country, (but simply in
M t the votes.
B ', The need of a great American merchant ma-
M v i line is no more apparent today than it was fifteen
1 H months ago.
Tho proposition that the government build or
buy ships and run them, charging the inevit
able deficit to government account and paying it
, out of the national treasury, is the same he made
when, the coming of tho war showed how helpless
; we were to handle our own ocean commerce, but
at that time lie would not agree ito run the ships
J a minute after the. war closed and the great mari-
i time powers of Europe were able to resume their
Hiv ' merchant service which showed that the president
Hi ' ihad no possible conception of tho need of a great
H i nation to handle its own commerce.
Hf! t At 'that time we said tho plan would be better
HV I " "J3& than nothing but that it was not the correct way,
H w because no great commercial sovereignty was ever
H j y," established that way and that it was an. indirect
Sy Interference by the government with the business
of the citizens. The president's affected disap
pointment that the work has not ibeen engaged
'in by citizens, if sincere, shows how ab
solutely obtuse his mind is and how impossible it
s
MBLL
is for him to look beyond his prejudices at the
facts.
It costs less to run foreign ships than our own,
and all tho great shipping nations back their ships
with subsidies or bounties.
'How could our citizens 'build and run ships in
competition with foreign ships on such tennis?
Sixty-five, years ago, when the first argonauts
went to California, as they sailed out of Panama
iharbor to turn north for California, they saw
abeam a British ship that turned south for Guaya
quil, Callao, Arica and Valparaiso. English mer
chants had! trading stations In all those ports. The
service was1 much more thorough on the east
coast, and the ships called at all those ports -with
the regularity of the stars in their processions.
Germany began the same practice, so soon as
she could build the vessels after the close of the
Franco-Prussian war, and has made incalculable
sums. Since England has paid regular subsidies,
Germany regular bounties.
Both nations know absolutely the commercial
conditions in all those countries. In view of this
the president's affected disappointment that Amer
ican capital lias not entered into competition with
foreigners, is a serious indictment of the presi
dent's sincerity or of bis judgment.
He professes to believe that he is anxious that
our country possess a great m'erqhant marine.
In this connection it is fair to state that up to
date he has never suggested a iplan that can ever
be attained and maintained.
The Invasion That Is Sure To Come
WHEN the war in Europe shall be over there
will be imminent danger of a mighty in
vasion of the United States from those distressed
countries. But there will Ibe none of the panoply
of war in their coming. There will ibe no dancing
flags, no martial music, no roar of great guns
rather their ranks will be broken; the only music
will 'be requiems which Despair calls to memory
and the only flags will be the tattered ensigns
which poverty holds up to invoke compassion.
No fortresses, no fighting fleets can keep out
the invasion that is to come. When the war
ceases and these hosts strain their aching eyes
the world around in search of some light to
which they can turn, our flag will be the only one
that will carry any promlise to them and they will
come by companies, by regiments, by brigades, by
divisions, (by corps, by hosts.
Surely there will ibe need of preparedness to
receive them. They will come asking not for a
chance to despoil us, Taut to make 'bread for
themselves. Have the president and congress
these hosts in mind, and are they trying to pre
pare mleans to receive thenu? Is the present tar
iff schedule filled with encouragement for them?
Are more roads 'being constructed to open
new lands for these people to till?
Are new enterprises taking form which to
carry on will require vast numbers of workers?
In the past we have received and assimilated
millions of people from abroad. Just when the
great war was about to Ibreak upon Europe some
legislation was consummated in Washington,
which those behind it declared had finally achiev
ed "industrial freedom" for our people.
Will that legislation make it easier to receive
and provide for this new host that is to come?
Would it not bo well to make a careful survey of
what has been done and see if there have not
been, mistakes which should be swiftly corrected
There is something else to be considered. Our
country has attained its present position .because
labor has seized upon its latent resources and put
them in their present fonm1, and tho 'laborers Jiave
ran 'beyond the work. Wo have many idle men,
and when these are joined by the invading host
which is to come, what is going to be the re
sult? We are told there is a surfeit of money
in the east? Will that hoarded money be safe
when the ranks of the hungry swell to abnormal
proportions? Had not the owners of that money ' '
better employ it in undeveloped fields where the
poor may find employment?
We, surely are in need of a 'better prepared- ji
ness, but not in the direction toward which the i
cry is tending today. ' r ".
Tho invasion which most threatens us is one
we cannot keep out, and the struggle should be
for that preparedness that can receive and assim
ilate it
Our Local Progressives fl
vtJiR Progressive friends at their (banquet last
'Saturday night were enthusiastic. They aro
of that mental make-up which enables them to
ibecoirio enthusiastic under any mild stimulant.
Buttermilk will do if there is a scarcity; of grape
juice. On 'such occasions they believe they are
leading the world into a new sphere, where all ,.
will be joyous and they look upon their party
leader as the avaunt courier of the great judg
ment angel who upon Ills coming will stand one
foot upon the sea s id one upon the dry land and
proclaim to a shuddering universe that the old
regime is finished.
They forget that their great leader never orig
inated a political principle in his 'life; that
through Perkins' money and Democratic votes in
1912 he worked his way into the Republican con
vention, that by a transparent trick he tried to
get control of the convention; that, failing,
he bolted and ihad himself nominated iby his
brother bolters, and then stole his platform from j
La Follette's political creed; that he spent the
summer in denouncing the party from which he
had received all his honors and the emoluments
for seven years of the 'highest office in the gift .
of men, and succeeded in electing to that office
one whose political principles were the same as
those which ihad wrecked the country's prosperity
whenever tried.
They forget that now he is hoping for a re
nomination and election chiefly through the fear
of Republicans of the re-election of the man he
elected four years ago.
Is that a record to ibe proud of? But, then,
maybe, our Progressive friends are not so very
proud of it.
One of them, at the banquet the other night,
while insisting that there should be no close af
filiation with either of the old parties, asked:
"What did we ever get from either of them?"
Maybe that gave away the secret. 'Maybe it
is something they individually want that kindles
their present zeal. It has that look surely on its
face.
Who shall say that their battle cry, which,
stripped of surplusage, is: "Give us what we want,
or we will smash you again," is not a proper one
for them to adopt.
"I don't know what ailed the sick man," said y
'the quack doctor, "'but this medicine will throw
him into fits, and I ami hell on fits."
The Triple Navy
HTHE dreadnaught Pennsylvania will go into
commission in a few weeks. It is described as
perhaps the most formidable ship that was ever
'built. Her cost, we understand, will be somie $8,
000,000, and silie will carry a crew of about 1,000
men. If ever engaged in battle it is expected that
she will make good the old traditions of the fore
most shlpa' that in the past have hallowed and
given splendor to our flag. t J
This is well, and two or three of her class,
with a perpetual struggle for new devices to add
to their destructive power, should (be added to
the navy annually.
At the same time an English warship was
destroyed recently iby a (bomlb dropped upon it
from an aeroplane. That ship of the clouds cost