Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1918 — PHILOSOPHY OF WALT MASON [ARTICLE]

PHILOSOPHY OF WALT MASON

Of the nineteen wounded soldiers returned from France that were quartered at West Baden last week in the big Sinclair hotel, now known as U. S. general hospital No. 35, eight are Jlndiaiiuans — Sergt. John W. Williamson, Privates Fred Schmidt and Walter W. Gardner of Indianapolis; Privates Lawrence Sea s, Greencastle; Roman E. Gutsgell, Jasper; Charles Beck, Rochester; Charles Wethington, Jeffersonville, and Alva Shrader of Winamac. The latter was struck in the head by a piece of shrapnel and a part of his skull was torn away. The surgeons say that he will come around alright but he has absolutely no recollection of any of the incidents connected with his being wounded or where it happened. Slowly his memory Is working its way back. Another contingent of wounded soldiers arrived at West Baden Sunday.

Giving as his reason that his expenses have greatly exceeded his income and that he must return to <civil life in order to recoup his jmrsbnal finances, Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo, who is also di-rector-general of the railroads of the country, has . tendered his resignation to President Wilson and will return to the practice of law in New York City, it is announced. The resignation has been accepted but no successor has- been named as yet. Mr. McAdoo is a tvery able man Indeed, and even the opposition press, now that he has resigned, admits this and regrets that he has done so.

Loss or 145 American passenger and merchant vessels of *354,449 tons .and 775 lives through acts of the enemy during the period from the beginning of the world war to the cessation of hostilities, November 11, is shown by figures made public by the department of commerce's bureau of navigation. The report does, not include several vessels, the loss of which has not been established as due to acts of the enemy. Nineteen vessels and sixty-seven lives were lost through use of torpedoes, mines and gunfire prior to the entrance of the United States into the war. Lee M. Ransbottoni, former auditor of Starke county, was in Knox a couple of "days last week. He was arrested in Minnesota recently, and taken to. Crawfordsville to answer a charge of perjury in connection with the sale of $5,000 worth of fraudulent gravel road bonds to a Crawfordsville lady. Friends have furnished the $2,500 bond', and his victims are permitting him to return to his farming interests in Minnesota in an effort to "make good” the losses. —-Pulaski Co. Democrat.

The war department has emphasized that soldiers being discharged from camps receive pay in full and traveling expenses at the rate of 3% cents a mile to their homes. They also have a 2-cent rate on all railroads. This statement was made because some men in uniform in cities near camps have been reported soliciting aid from civilians with pleas that the government has discharged them from service with no provision for their return home.

Are claims of sacrifice all fibs? I see around me men and dames who have much fat upon their ribs, and costly rags upon their frames. Their silks and feathers still they flaunt, and wear fine lids upon their domes, and talk of how the wolf of want is howling by their humble homes. We eat as much as in the times when peace was here, with all its charms, before the Prussian’s beastly crimes led Uncle Sam to take up arms. And when we’Ve stowed away a steak, and packed some pie and pudding down, we think we ve made some tyrant quake because the bread we ate was brown. The clothes we wear, it seems to me, are just as gaudy as they were before our boys went o’er the sea to fill the air with German fur. We’re just as keen to blow the mon as though we hadn’t any foes; we take in every brand of fun from prize fights down to movie shows. We talk as though our souls were set on putting Wilhelm on a crutch, but have you seen a fellow yet who looks as though he’d'suffered much? We’ll talk of sacrifice, no doubt, until the morn of peace has dawned; and meanwhile very loyal scout should miss no chance to buy a bond. Service Flags, one, two or three stars, for sale at The Democrat office. H