Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 229, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1917 — George Ade Tells How To Win the War. [ARTICLE]

George Ade Tells How To Win the War.

Assuming that this letter is now J being read by some boy or girl old enough to go to school but still young enough to be called a “kid” (by those who don’t know any better) let us begin by asking the question, “Is it wrong to fight?”— Every boy or girl with civilized patents can answer that question. If we say yes, we admit at once that our old friends George Washington and U. S. Grant were depraved characters, because they fought and then kept on fighting. If Buffalo Bill once upon a time rode out across the plains and came upon a band of Indians attacking a settler’s cabin and went dashing up with his scouts and killed a few redskins, is there any boy in the world who would go back on Buffalo Bill and pick out some quiet, elderly real estate dealer as a substitute hero? It*’s too foolish to talk about. Suppose we say it is not wrong to fight. Then we remove all blame from the Indians that Buffalo Bill killed and we find ourselves so mixed up that probably we had better back up and take a new start. In answer to the question, “Is it wrong to fight?” there can be but one sensible reply, as follows: “It all depends.” ' Suppose a boy of 14 is walking along the street with his sister and the neighborhood bully swaggers around the corner and pushes the boy up against a fence and cuffs him alongside the head and then tries some insulting familiarities on the sister, and suppose the boy who is thus humiliated and whose sister is in tears, suddenly remembers that he has been told to “keep out of fights!” What shall he do?—~-•

Retreat into an alley, or stand up in defense of his own self-respect and try to protect his sister? Suppose he says to the bully, “I believe in peace and no matter what you do to me, I won’t strike back.” Then he would get a few more cuffs for good measure and his sister would be ashamed of him and he would be ashamed of himself and the little rowdy who attacked him would call himself cock of the walk and be a greater nuisance than The United States of America is involved jn a hideous war because President Wilson and Congress and all persons who are warmed by red blood instead of being chilled by sarsaparilla pop had to make the same decision that every boy is called upon to make when he is jumped upon by a tough customer. Another question (boys only): Did you ever let a boy up before he yelled “Enough” and then have the whole fight over again? If so, you might go around in your .neighborhood and give some valuable information to people older than yourself. If you (this is for both boys and girls went out into the woods for a picnic with another “bunch” of young people you knew and liked, and if your crowd had a basket of things to eat and the other crowd had a basket and some toughies came along and stole the basket belonging to the other crowd, would you give them something to eat out of your basket, or let them sit over by themselves, hungry and miserable, and Watch you stuff yourselves? You’d play fair, of course, even if you had to go a little hungry. Mr. Hoover is now asking . every boy and girl in America to play fair and divide up with the hungry youngsters of France and Belgium and Great Britain. There isn’t food enough in the world to go around if we are selfish and claim more than our share. How can a boy or girl under school age really help to win the war? First, join the Junior Red Cross. They keep on saying, “I know Uncle Sam is right and I will pull for him until he wins.” Believe what you say. Root for the U. S. A. as you would root for your baseball nine or your basketball five— Stand out on the edge of the sidewalk and cheer the soldiers as they swing by. If you get a chance to hold yarn for a Red Cross knitter, do your [“bit” and say to yourself, when the arms begin to get tired: “I am helping on a pair of socks*, and these

socks will keep a soldier warm and prevent him from being discouraged. When the time comes for him to fight he* will be in better condition and more willing to fight because he had these warm socks to wear. He will climb over the top of a trench and help to chase the Germans back to where they belong. There will be a great victory and I will share in it because I held the yarn that knit the socks that warmed the feet that carried the man that chased the German that obeyed a kaiser that has to be licked before the world can go to housekeeping.” Probably the children to whom we are now talking are better posted regarding United States history than are some of the people who talk about it. The children have got the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation freshly in mind and know what they were about and why. They know that this country is dead set against slavery, either of the old-fashioned kind of chains and phcakles, or the modern sugar-coated German variety. They know that our boys now in training camps or on their way to France are getting ready to fight against the oppressions of a cruel despot,, just as some other American boys once fought at Bunker Hill. „ By the way, if you can find a man

or woman who does ’not understand how the rights of a democracy are to be preserved when kings go on the rampage, ypu might loan this ignorant person your school history. Mark the pages relating to the Boston Tea Party, the Liberty Bell, Lexington, Valley Forge and Yorktown. See if you can find any favorable mention of the pacifists of 1776.