Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1918 — The Poisoned Dove [ARTICLE]

The Poisoned Dove

By Richard Washbum Child

I came back from China and Japan a few months ago. A reporter on the pier in San Francisco said, “What do they think in the far East about when the war will end?” That was the first expression about the war heard by an American returning to his native country and aching to know what Americans at home had been thinking, planning, doing, how we were expressing our manhood and womanhood, whether we would soon find a way to .mobilize America and throw the giant force of her against the menace of men. I heard this query with a sickened spirit. The reporter would never have asked the question unless in behalf of the readers of his paper. Could this represent the spirit of the people—the spirit of America? I had heard the same question in England back in the days when the Zeppelins had just begun to come over London with the slogan “Women and children first.”

“Over there,” however, they learned long ago of the folly of living daily life with the sound of this question in their ears. They have learned that insidiously, quietly, imperceptibly, the persistent tap, tap, tap of thlsjlttle question weakens the cause, turns the edge of determination, enters the subconscious mind like a slow disease draining off fighting spirit, manhood, and the dash and power of the one purpose, and beats upon that which should be the unbreakable will of people who must win. More Dangerous Here. For America, this question haunting the minds of its citizens is more dangerous than it was “over there.” Our soft prosperity, our distance from the struggle, tempts weak men to cling to the comforts of peace. . We have not felt the gaff of war. Not yet have we learned the pain of that full deep thrust of regret that when democracy called for us, we, the pioneers of liberty, asked why and how and when — but, at first, did not come. We have not learned even the prelude of that day when the war will have seized upon and wrung our hearts, when the ghosts of our men come back to sit in the farmhouse kitchen or in the leather chairs of the club, to click the latches of village gates, and march in Invisible brigades up the asphalted avenues. So the flabby men and women among us still go on asking in that voice of childish eagerness, “How long will the war last?”

And the selfish retailer, trader, or financier, fat with gain and ease or lean with avarice, thinking of the effect of peace upon the market, asks, “What would be your guess about the end of the war?’’ And even the thoughtless and the Ignorant and empty-headed, who would otherwise say, “Is this hot enough for you?” or “Do you think it’s going to snow?” say now, “Well, when will the war end?” The Two Types. Test the spirit of these questions by the two types —those who ask them and those who do not. Which is the type of person whom you would trust for character, courage, and sense, for unflinching determination when something has been begun, to “see it through?” I remember leaving Kitchener’s office in London to visit the recruiting at Scotland Yard. Six feet four Inches and 250 pounds of retired British army veteran, hardened, reddened, grizzled, was my escort. That was in 1915. “There’s too much wondering when the war will end,” said he. “My three boys have gone.” “To France?” said I, misunderstanding. “To rest,” he said, straightening. “Killed in action. Perhaps ’tis that which makes me squirm when .1 hear any Britisher guessing about the end of the war. My good sense would tell me anyway. If you see two men fighting, would you put a bet on him who was wondering when it would be over?” “No.”

“Nor L When they ask me when the war will end, I say, ‘Something like a year or two after the Prussians think it time to stop.’ ” , For a contest between two men, two football teams, two nations, or two great alliances struggling in the greatest war of all, over the greatest issue of all, there can be no other doctrine. When John Paul Jones’ antagonists asked him if he was ready to stop fighting and he answered that he had not begun to fight, It was not John Paul Jones but his enemy who was wondering “when it would be over.” No man, no woman who contributes even by innocent, thoughtless mouthing to a mental attitude expressed in wondering when the war will be over is.fulfilling the obligation of Americans to go straight and hard and together for the one united, persistent purpose to which the United States has dedicated our strength. A job is to be done. A job is to be finished. Dangling Peace a* Bait. Germany will be glad at any moment to divert us from the idea that the job is to be finished, when in our judgment it Is finished, and attract us as much as’ possible to the idea that our job will be finished some place short of that by dangling peace as bait for cowards and fools. \ - Here in Washington this policy of

Germany Is understood. It is iht primer lesson in an analysis of Germany’s policies. The state department knows well enough that Germany has tried unsuccessfully endless moves to makfe peace a decoy—to create a morbid appetite among the peoples who have been trying to make democracy safe —an appetite for rest, for an end of deprivation, loss, suffering, for relief from stress, for a temporary comfort bought at the price of principle—the principle of finishing the job. The secret service of the allied countries know well enough that millions of German money has been spent to make Americans talk and think not of the job to be finished but of peace. Some day there will be exposed, in all its extent, the systematic, elaborate methods which Germany has used in an endeavor to poison the opinion of neutral countries and plant among the weaker and more gullible citizens of those countries fighting to rid the world forever of war and the tyranny of militarism the weed of premature peace. It Las been Germany’s purpose to choke the crop of courage and steal the nourishment away from determination.

Trail Is Found Everywhere. The trail of this well-organized attempt can be found everywhere. In Russia, back in the days of the czar, industrial leaders of Petrograd and Moscow who came in contact with workmen, bureaucrats In the offices of government, and officers at the stAff headquarters of the Russian army ftt Mohileff, who came in contact with soldiers recruited, from various parts of the empire, told me that one of the well-defined purposes and special efforts of German agents was to stimulate among the industrial and laboring classes in Russia thoughts of peace, of the comforts, the relief, and the hope of peace, all of which would serve to eat like a rot into the hearts of the people, tolling them away from the will to fight and the will to make a final peace upon sound principle only, and only when the job had been finished. “Men will not fight hard when there is peace talk behind the trenches,” General Alexieff said. And he expressed also almost the identical idea expressed to me by the retired British petty officer who took me to Scotland Yard, when the latter said, “li you see two men fighting, would you bet on the one who was wondering when it would be over?” Should Learn From Experience. The experience of other countries and our own experience with the desire of Germany that her enemies shall thiqk, talk, and wonder about the coming of peace, ought to be enough for us. .

Any contribution made by any American citizen to aid this purpose of Germany is an act which compares with a soldier at the front w’ho turns his face to the rear. Such a contribution may be actually traitorous. There are still constant instances of treason among those persons who stimulate peace talk with full knowledge that they are adding and abetting the enemy. Such a contribution may be morally rotten. There are those who talk peace because peace to their warped souls is dearer than the end for which we have entered the war.

Such a contribution may come from flabby sentimentality. There are still men and women who can only think of the horrors of this war instead of the greater horrors of other wars which are sure to come if we do not now make the menace of Prussian plotting and militarism impossible for the ages and generations of the future. Such a may be the result of a love of the sensational. There are still individuals and even newspapers who seek to attract attention by pretending that they have advance information of the coming of peace. Such a contribution may be ignorant. 1 There are still individuals so benighted that the cause of America is not clear and real in their minds. They fail to understand that America has entered this war to make democracy safe; to guarantee small nations the right of freedom from ruthless conquest; to crush the doctrine that the choice of development of each human being must be wrested away from him or from her and put -in a dominant and autocratic machine of govermpent. Failing to understand the nobility of our purpose, they endure the war passively and prick up their ears at any word of rumor which concerns the end of the war.

Such a contribution may b« merely sloppy. There are those who forget, who do not think, who lapse into lazy nothingness, and as yet far away from the bite of war, ask each other, “Well, when will the war end?” Comforters ot, Enemy. Consciously and unconsciously these are all comforters of the enemy. Upon them and upon their traitorous or lax attitude of mind, Germany depends. She leans upon all “peace gossipers.” Germany has no need to fear a nation interested in peace and always talking and wondering about peace. She may well fear.when every last man and woman of us has no Interest higher, more constant, and more single of purpose than that of finishing the job. l ‘ While she believes she can hoodwink Americans, she will release over andt over again, by petty secret agencies; and by great diplomatic plays for the galleries, her peace poisons. Only when the job is finished, however, can we be Interested in peace or peace talk. The dove of peace that anyone see* flying before that time is Germanstuffed and loadedwlth Prussian poison. - - -V