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coA LOOK ROUND.
co A LOOK ROUND. The All-Highest Humbug. [By II SENTIEL. "] THERE is a story printed on this page to-day which all should read man, woman, boy, and girl. You will find it under the heading The Artful Dodgers." Turn to it, read it and re-read it. Tell your neighbours about it. And remember it when next you hear some foolish person say: 4' Let us make it easy for the Germans to begin negotiating for Peace." This st.pry con- firms the suspicion-nay, more, the con- viction—we have long held that the Kaiser's first Peace Note (that which he addressed to the Pope), on the strength of which he and his Ministers have constantly assumed a virtuous pose, was all humbug. Prince Pless told the Kaiser's American dentist that the Germans never meant the Note to be accepted as a basis for Peace negoti- ations, and that if the Allies bad shown any disposition to treat it as such the terms would have been quickly stiffened in order to make its rejection certain. And, soon afterwards, the Kaiser said practically the same thing. Why then was the Peace Note written? The answer is plainly given in the revelations which the American dentist has lately made. The Kaiser wanted to embroil the Allies and the peoples of the Allies in a controversy over peace. He wanted to split them up into factions, and to make it difficult for the respective Governments to explain to their peoples why they had rejected the so-called German 44 offer." Because he thought he saw signs of this result the Kaiser laughed hilariously at the success of his trickery. It was all part of the subtle Hun pame to try and breed discord amongst the Allies, so that being able to command no unity of purpose and no unity of effort they might fall easier victims to the German military campaign. Happily, the states- men of the Allies were not taken in by the German bluff; they stood firm when the opinion of some of those whom they represented was inclined to waver; they scented the wickedness behind it all. And so the Kaiser laughed too soon. It is a rather happy coincidence for the Allies that the American dentist's story has been made public just now, at the moment when the Kaiser's Armies are being hammered back towards the Fatherland. The Kaiser piped his first Peace Note because he thought it might help to disintegrate the Allies and open the path to victorv for his armies. He failed then. But he is sure to try again, not so much with the hope of conquest now as with the hope of saving something from the wreckage of his plans which may leave him a nucleus for beginning all over again. If and when he does, we shall not forget how he laughed hilariously on the first occasion, and we shall know the course to take to make him laugh this time on the other side of his face. The Kaiser may try his best and worst to lay the foundations for another war, but now we know his game and our answer is summed up in two words: "Never again Great as is the news from the battle front we must not lose our heads. 44 Keep Steady must still be the order of the day. Each one of us must con- tinue the fight for freedom-the worker at home no less than the fighter in France. We of the armies behind the Armies must still put our all into the scale, and keep putting in our all until the victory is assured which alone will enable us to say the job has been done and ivell done. President Wilson sounds the keynote of our resolution 44 We solemnly purpose a decisive vie- tory of arms." That means we must fight on with undiminished energy, using force to the uttermost in the battlefield. It means also that every one of us at home must be ready to make more and more sacrifices for the common good. We must still go slow on food, we must be prepared to go very slow indeed on coal, we must do with- out scores of the little comforts that seemed to be so indispensable in time of peace. The men at the front make the big sacrifices we only the little ones. But the little ones in the mass are the foundation on which the big ones may be more effectually offered, and the end will be such a compensation for it all- the end of war and the end of that tyranny of despotism of which the All- Highest Humbug is the head and front —that one day we shall marvel that exhortation to make sacrifices willingly was ever necessary.
I MR. GOMPERS. I
I MR. GOMPERS. I Grand Old Man Who Leads American Labour. I [By W. G. FITZGERALD.] I It is no ordinary man whose word has for thirty years been law to the working millions of the United States. In all but name bam Gom pers is a Cabinet Minis- ter a moulder of American po licv; a Lower of strength to La bour all the way from Arctic Yukon to the Mexi- can Gulf. I consider Wood- row Wilson themost aristo- cratic and un- appro a chable Chief Execu- tive who has ever reigned at the White House in a national crisis. Yet Wilson him- self travelled three hundred miles to Buffalo in order to extol the Old Man (Gompers is now sixty-nine), and set forth his patriotic courage, his large vision, his statesmanship, and genius for team work on a vast scale." I can see the Old Man deprecating the Chief's eulogium with characteristic mur- mur: Go—go—go! In no country on earth-it is, of course, a contincnt--is Labour so difficult to handle as in the United States. Millions of the workers speak no English at all, and the clash of State and Federal laws makes organisation and protection extremely difficult. His Secret. I r In this enormous welter, the haggard and sturdy little figure of Old Man Gompers stands out like a luminous buoy in a furious sea. Life is a struggle," he tells American Labour. But remember that impatience to win all may lose us everything." Sam is the apostle of sanity and moderation; this is the secret of his abiding hold. He represents the aristo- cracy of American workers—perhaps three millions out of thirty millions or more. Everything for the nation," is Gompers' war-time motto, but nothing for private pront. This thick-set, jerky little man, with big glasses and forthright speech, is assuredly one of the incorrupt- ibles. When he was earning £4 a week, Governor Hill, of New York, offered Sam the post of Commissioner of Arbitration at three thousand dollars a year. He talked it over with the wife and declined. He also refused a nomination to Congress. Cannot Be Bought. I The biggest plum ever offered to the Old Man was from a great manufacturing con- cern. This was a cash douceur of 45,000 dol. ( £ 9,000), and the life tenure of a sine- cure job. But Sam is a man with a mission, and to that mission he has clung ever since 1882. I will not pretend that Gompers is not comfortably fixed," as our new Allies put it. His salary as president is X.1,200 a year; but the workers know that the Tsar of Labour is assuredly worthy of his hire. He had no schooling, this Dutch-British Jew, beyond four casual child-years in a primary school over in London. That child was a cigar maker in our own East End. He was a pacifist in America's neutral time; but as the German plot thickened the sagacious Wilson called Sam to Washington, and made him a member of the National Defence Committee. Straight Talk for Germany. I In the name of American Labour," says this rugged veteran of a thousand I "wars" to the German people, "I say you cannot talk peace with us now. Nor shall you talk of International Conference. Either you smash your autocracy or we will smash it for you." That is 44 plain United States and open diplomacy with a vengeance! The Democratic Spirit. It is safe to say that if Tsar Gompers were not 44 behind the President like a stone wall America's avalanche of aid would b3 halted, or even dissolved. His robust voice rings out above the anarchy of I.W.W. leaders and extreme Socialists of the West. It shall be our task," he ordains, to interpret America's demo- cratic spirit and purpose in this conflict to our fellow-workers—especially to those of foreign birth—and to combat every form of propaganda which tends to weaken the loyalty and devotion of the masses and their willingness to strive and sacrifice for the nation at this critical hour." Self-Educated. As a lad in America, young Gompers educated himself. There were books propped up on his work bench, so that- as he recalls, I used to forget whether I'd eaten my lunch! He is now the master of three languages, and his Washington war work begins before dawn. America has profound respect for Samuel Gompers. Universities like Harvard and I Cornell invite him to lecture; the Secre- taries of War, the Navy, and Labor consult him, so do the bureaucratic chiefs of ship- ping and aircraft, ordnance, munitions, and transportation.—7i'?ortM? by per- ) tMW!'c? from the Pall J?a? Gazette."
A CORNFIELD IN FRANCE, 1918.
A CORNFIELD IN FRANCE, 1918. Instead of the Reapers of peace there are the Tanks of War. [British official.
IOUR WAY WITH PRISONERS.
OUR WAY WITH PRISONERS. The Germans circulate all manner of falsehoods about the cruelties we practice on prisoners of [British Officio, war. Toe worst we do them is here pictured. Our doctors vaccinating Austrian prisoners in Italy.
THE WAR IN ITALY.
THE WAR IN ITALY. t Wrilish Official. British soldiers 08 an Italian mountain. Notice the white zig-zag: up the mountain side. it is a "ha'r-pin" roa j up which supplies have to be transported.
THE ARTFUL DODGERS,
THE ARTFUL DODGERS, I A Sidelight on the Aim of German Peace Notes. Last week we gave on this page some extracts from the book which Dr. Arthur N. Davis, the Kaiser's American dentist, has written about his life in Berlin. Those extracts revealed verv intimately the Kaiser's high hope that in the Great War he was going to secure a position from which he could grind the- whole world to his liking with the aid of his military machine. They showed how callous the Kaiser was to the enormities- committed by the Germans in their pur- suit of frightfulness. They helped us to a better appreciation of the terrible tyranny which the All-Highest of the Prussians was ready to thrust upon civili- sation if only his dream of World Power were realised. Further instalments of the American dentist's book have since been published in the" Times," and in one of them we get a searchlight on the cynical purpose which the Germans had in view when they began their first skirmishings in the Peael3l Offensive. When people sat in the American dentist's chair thev seem tc- have talked very freely to the dentist. There was, for example, Prince Henrv of Pless, a man well known in England. because he lived much in this country before the war. and was married to an English lady verv prominent in society. (She is a sister of the Duchess of West- minster.) Prince Henrv of Pless callea on the American dentift soon after the Allies had "turned down" the Kaiser' ? first humbugging Peace Note, and he iet himself go with amazing frankness. This is how Dr. Davis tells the story :— Of course they refused it he declare! in tli2 most satisfied manm r.N We knew that they would refuse it. We wanted them to refuse it. If they hadn't refused it we would have made our terms so harsh that they would have had to refuse it. But i. accomplished its purpose iust the same: L-t the French and English into hot watei trying to explain to their people why they didn't make peace when Germany was willing to do so. In this way we may be able to split the Allies. Russia is going to quit, any way. There's going to be a revolu- tion, and we'll be able to throw all our forces on the Western Front and crush the enemy there I I always liked England, but Lloyd George is ruining that country, and LOW he'll have his hands full explaimng why he doesn't make peace. If this had been left solely as a story of Prince Pless we need not have paid much attention to it. Who is Prince Pless any- how? we might have scoffingly enquired. But Dr. Davis goes on to say that shortly afterwards the Kaiser visited him, an said practically the same thing. We've got the English and the French Governments in a nice predicament,' he said trying to explain to their people why they don't make peace.' He laughed hilariously as he added, They're wild with rage at us for surprising them in this way.' 1. The Kaiser, we may suppose, is laughing on the other side of his face now. It. was only for a short time that the first Peace Note had any success in embarrassing the; Allies. It did for a time give a stimulus to the activities of people who could not or would not see the sinister purpose behind it. But that stage is past now The peoples of the Allied European nations, and the people of America too. are no longer to be fooled with Peace Notes. The Kaiser from the first Las believed that if he could not succeed m smashing up the Entente by the use of the sharp Prussian sword he could stf. achieve his purpose by disintegrating it with poisonous peace propaganda. H. still clings to that hope, but we have learned a few things during the war. aiM one of them is to beware of those Artful Dodgers, the wolves who come along iL. sheeps' clothing.
I A SOLDIER'S COUNSEL.
I A SOLDIER'S COUNSEL. I WE MUST PRESS THE ENEMY HARDER THAN EVER. Major-General Sir Fredk. Maurice onaers (in the "Daily Chronicle") this sound advice to us all in these days of victorious fighting on the Western Front:— t. Now that the enemy is yielding is the time to keep up the pressure on him, and therefore there is greater nccd than ever for even/ economy irliieli.,ire can practise and e\crj< I ffort we can make to release men for the fro-n". The enemy is on the down grade, and w." have just been told that he has had to lareahl- up eight divisions and to appeal to despised Austria for help. That process of oreakirur up divisions must continue, and will 0. hastened as a consequence of Sir Douglas Haig's last victory, but it does not mean thas the pnemv is exhausted. "Without Austria's help he has 196 divi- sions. which is about what we Allies have. It is true that the average strength of our divisions is greater, particularly that of the American divisions, but the difference in strength is not yet sufficient to enabl") Foch to strike the coup de grace. A Foch is not yet, by any means, at the end of his resources, and it is legitimate to hope for still better things this year, but the way to make certain of them is to allow no slackening in our efforts. The worst we have I now to prepare for is the postponement 0; complete victory, but it certainly will be post- I poned if we are satisfied with extravagant predictions of success, and do not back the qlorious deeds of our men in the field M the very, limit of our power."
A "VILLAGE" IN FRANCE, 1918.
A "VILLAGE" IN FRANCE, 1918. Instead of the loveliest "illa?e of the plain it is a desolation of ruin. Our soldiers advancing (British official. mi wauliOu-iy I Getmans,