Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 86, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1915 — DEMOCRATIC NEWS LETTER. [ARTICLE]

DEMOCRATIC NEWS LETTER.

[By Lew Ellingham.]

MILITARISM IX AMERICA. [By Elbert Hubbard.] America today is in less danger) of being attacked by a foreign foe than it has been before tin 100, years. Just now the fighting men of the world are very much occupied. Militarism is slowly, surely committing suicide. I The whole world is sick of war—especially those who are in it up' to their celluloid collars. They! would all get out of it if they possibly could and save their faces. Lifting the lid off of hell was ai terriffic and costly blunder'. Who is to blame most is not the question.' All Europe was in it. Let them divide the disgrace. The best thought of the world today is turned toward disarmament. These vast killing machines and aggregations of ' men organized tor murder token the age of the Pterodactyle and Ichthyosaurus. Nature's animals once had terrific a.raVs ol teeth, claws and beaks and carried on their backs a protection that was Zeppelin-proof.

So long as these terrific animals existed there was no place for man. And there will never be a really firsjtrclass race of men as long as wealth and science co-o»>etate for killing purposes. Gradually things have' modified and refined themselves'’until we find that the unseen is more powerful than the seen. Thought is supreme. is ruled by sentiment. Beauty, romance, poetry blend into a harmonious whole, and We have the world of business—and business is the science of • huina,m« N service. And yet- we find the strange anachronism of the best ingenuity of man being utilized to invent instruments of death and destruction. Well does President Wilson take the stand, that this is no time for Americans to “mobilize.” It is sor 1 us to show the world of truth. Thrice armed is he who knoyvs his cause is just.” President Wilson>.. attitude in standing firm -.and not giving way to the hysteria of demagoguery, representing press and politics, is eminently wise, right, excellent and altogether lovely. Tlie President’s acttJojj. will go down in history to the credit of Woodrow Let this be carved on his monument: . : / “He Set His Face Firmly Against the Transplantation of. Kruppery Into America.” „ We are a peaceful people, and the way we can manifest our peaceful proclivities, and prove to the world

that we are what we are is by ‘ following our regular occupations and not, increasing our armament —especially in view of the fact that the expression, “preparedness for war spells peace,” has been found to be futile and fallacious. It is our proud boast that along J.iHRi miles of frontier between Canada and the United States no soldiers are stationed. Unfortunately at the present moment this is not exactly true. . There is a little squad of soldiers at. Fort Erie, opposite Buffalo, recently placed there to guard against a possible "Germanic invasion.” Just the other day two peaceful duck hunters in a boat on Niagara river were shot to their death by soldiers on the shore. ’ That this circumstance was most regrettable has been expressed by the Canadian government and the Canadian press, again and again. it was all just a matter of “preparedness.’’ C

Game wardens are not given to calling on the military arm. . Greenhorn soldiers, filled with the war spirit, igorant, but zealous, seeing the two men in a skiff armed with shotguns, scented danger. They were boys' of'the bulldog breed, and had had it drilled into them thai England expects -every man to do his duty. So they saw their duty and "they done it.” And two fine young fellows, who were out for a duck dinner, went tc their death and there was crepe on the door cf two modest little cot-, tages in the city of Buffalo. So much for, preparedness!

The incident is trivial, comparatively, save to the families involved, but the moral is ntfvious; for there were men in Buffalo who stated boldly that if they could get their hands on a few high-power rifles they would answer those Canadian soldiers shot for shot. And there you are! - President Wilson is right. And men and women who prize peace and iiate war, who love their homes, their families, their,’ Country, and who realize that production, transportation and distribution spell civi-lization-—these people are one with the sentiments of President Wilson when he says, “Less armament rathei than more!” And when all Europe has hysteresis, we better not quit farms and factories and prepare to fight. > “

r Indianapolis, Feb. 2,—-The close of the third week finds much progress in the real work of the general assembly. As stated before, the number of bills introduced in the house is a third less than at this period of the 1913 legislature. The record of the lower house reveals the fact that already the axe has fallen on fiftyfive bills, that number having been either killed in a roll call or were reported by committees for indefinite postponement. Of the most important that has passed the house perhaps the anti-lobby and election of county superintendents by direct Vote of the people, take the lead. Another bill that will prove of interest is the raising of the amount now allowed by mortgage exemption, the increase being from S7OO to $1,200. This latter bill will be watched with a great deal of interest when it reaches the senate. The visiting committee to whom was referred the" important duty of visHttng and investigating all the departments of the state and its institutions, have about- completed their recommendations, each of which takes on the form of a bill, and in this form will be presented to the ways and means committee of the house. In other words Jffiese are the regular and specific appropriation bills, and these bills form the basis of the most important of all legislation in every general assembly. The regular appropriation bill will be ready for committee action by Monday or the first of the week, and this bill contains all the necessary items needed for the future administration of state government. When this bill is out of the way, specific appropriations will be taken up and dealt with according to the merits of each and every demand. Specific appropriations deal almost entirely with institutional requests, although it includes everything of a special character. Both these bills will be well on their way during an early period of the session.

Only the session appropriation bill calling in amount for one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, has been signed by the governor. By the time this is being read by the many thousands of readers of the one hundred and ten newspapers giving it ,space, there will be one more bill that will be a law, and it is none other than the anti-lobby bill. As this bill carries an emergency clause, it -will be a statutory law of the state just as soon” as the governor affixes his signature, and receives from the secretary of state a receipt that it is filed in the archives of that department. It may be that there was some method in tfie madness and haste with which this proposed legislation was hurried through the channels of law making. The legislature is right now on the eve of encountering what will likely prove to be the most bxciting time of the session. The steam railroads and that means all their high' officials, their lawyers and their legislative lawyers will' overlook no bett. in getting the sanction of this legislature for the privilege of repealing the two-cent railroad fare and receiving in lieu thereof a two and a half cents fare. Right in the midst of all this turmoil comes the strongest lobbjj of the session and their demand is a racing bill. This bill is the outcome of the efforts made in Lake and Porter counties, where a company of Indiana and Chicago capitalists have twice been in conflict with the governor of Indiana in their efforts to make book-making part and parcel of their racing events. The bill that is now ready to pop and be presented to this general assembly is ed to be an effort to make racing respectable and to make it one of the pleasures to be enjoyed by all the citizens of the state, no matter how fastidious and straight laced one might be. As there is likely to be some controversy over such possibilities, it all means exciting times ahead .for tffe legislative solons. In the meantime we have an anti-lobby law.