Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1918 — VXTSED MATERIAL. [ARTICLE]

VXTSED MATERIAL.

The defeat in congress of the amendment 'of the revenue bill extending the ■selectivedraft to forty years and backward to eighteen, if it indicates anything like a permanent policy of the- government, will place cur country in a nw st anomalous position. The call from overseas is for more and ’more '.men—miiifOps ■ aml ,moremillions-of. tnem.--.; Already- the. newspapers are- reporting from; every section of the country that Cliss 1 of the former draft is : r.leaii.. exhausted. Secretary Baker has stated that we are trans pert! fig troops at? the rate of SW>»#6o a month. The men coming a ? e iu the last j year number -carcely a million, and not nearly all of these Will be listed in Class 1. From where are recruits Coming during the . next three or 'our months? Will We have to go into the lower classes to secure them? Many public men of sound judgment favored placing the age limit at forty or forty-five in the beginning. This, it seems to us, would have been the wiser course. Our country has a wealth of good fighting material between the ages of thirty-one and forty-five. Thousands of these men would make capital soldiers. They are ififired to life’s hard knocks, settled in the'r habits, and with little -raining would be a match for Germany's best. The—people of this country can not afford to J>e Julled into a false sense of security. Just because rhe allies have held the western line, just because they have defeated the great Austrian offensive, is no indication that victory is even remote*

ly in sight. The German machine is still militant and it will take millions of Americans to bring jhe allied armies to a point where real offensive warfare can be risked. There is a vast difference between holding the western line and marching to Berlin. Germany must be greatly reduced and the allies immeasurably strengthened before the latter move can be undertaken—and we must not even dream of relaxing our efforts until this is l effected. Our sihip-building program assures us that transport facilities will constantly increase from now on. Why, then, should all this unused material in fighting mem —material of the very best—be left unused? All the other allied nations haVe utilized all their available fighting force. < Some may ask, who will take the places of these men in industrial life? And we give the Yankee’s answer by asking another question: Who have taken those places in Erfgland and France? We will make a most fatal mistake if we permit the idea to enter the national mind that we can win this war with our surplus. America is going to be forced to trench deeply on her capital before the end comes. Fighting men bymilions and material resources by billions lulled in Shrdlu cmfwyp vbgkqj must be poured into the vortex before we can rest in victory. Germany would be only too pleased to see us lulled into a false sense of security to the extent of even the least slackening of our. intensive preparations. Let us utilize all the latent fighting material as well as material resources.