SAN FERNANDO

UNION HIGH SCHOOL

SAN FERNANDO, S

WHY BUY LIBERTY BONDS?

As the President said in his Baltimore speech, the country is no longer under an illusion as to the Prussian menace. If the Teutonic Powers should win in Europe, the United States and South America would be the next point of attack of German military power. We should have to fight on our own soil to protect our own wives and daughters from the fate which the women and children of Belgium have suffered. These statements are not based on the foreboding fears of pessimists, but on the carefully calculated conclusions of expert military judges. And this is what makes the great struggle now going on on the western front of such supreme importance, not only to France and England, but to the United States. We are fighting now not only to make the world safe for democracy, but to make our homes safe for our children.

There was an element of romance and chivalry about the first two Liberty Loans. We believed we were subscribing then to aid the abused and down-trodden on foreign soil. It was a kind of a crusade. But there is a grim reality about the present loan. We are buying powder and guns to protect our own firesides, and the sooner we realize this the better. The man who feels that he cannot subscribe now because he is paying off a mortgage on his house must realize that if he does not buy Liberty Bonds he may have no house at all. Every motive of patriotism, human justice, and self-protection should impel every citizen to subscribe for as many bonds as he possibly can.

The Government, with the co-operation of local Liberty Loan Committees all over the country, has much simplified the method of subscribing and paying for bonds. There are four ways in which you can subscribe for and pay for your bond:

1. Čash. Any bank in any part of the country, many depart ment stores, and various other special agencies will take your subscription, take your money, give you a receipt, and your bond will be delivered to you soon after May 9.

2. The Government Installment Plan. Any bank or any other authorized agency will take your subscription for a $50 bond with a cash payment of $2.50; on May 28 you pay $10, on July 18 you pay $17.50, and on August 15 you pay $20. When you thus complete the $50, your bond will be delivered to you. Any amount of bonds may be subscribed for in this way by making a cash payment of five per cent down, a second payment of twenty per cent on May 28, a third payment of thirty-five per cent on July 18, and the final payment of forty per cent on August 15.

3. Monthly Installment Plan. Many banks and almost all large firms and corporations have agreed to sell bonds on the monthly installment plan. This means for a $50 bond $5 down and nine additional consecutive monthly payments of $5 each. Any number of bonds may be purchased in this manner and at this proportionate rate.

4. The Weekly Installment Plan. According to this method for a $50 bond the subscriber pays $2 down and $1 per week for forty-eight consecutive weeks. In all the large cities where there are Federal banks this weekly payment may be carried out through some bank. In smaller places it may often be done by private arrangement with some financial institution or firm.

These four methods are very simple to understand. Those who live in rural districts can easily get detailed information by going to the nearest bank. It should be added that no one need be reluctant about availing himself or herself of the weekly, monthly, or Government installment plan. The word "install

ment" payment has come to have in some instances an obnoxious meaning. It has a patriotic meaning in this case. It is better for the country and for the Government that a subscriber should pay in installments out of his current income than that he should take accumulated savings out of a savings bank or out of the sale of securities and property with which to pay cash. In other words, buy your bonds out of the wealth you are going to earn instead of out of the wealth you have earned. Thus the danger will be avoided of drawing on wealth which is already being used, and we shall all be stimulated to increase our efficiency and earning capacity in order to take care of our installment subscriptions.

THE OPENING OF THE LIBERTY BOND CAMPAIGN

In view of the universal and spontaneous enthusiasm with which the American people began upon April 6 the campaign for the Third Liberty Loan, it is amusing to look back to the predictions of a few pessimists last winter that it would be a matter of extreme difficulty to place three billion dollars' worth of bonds. Unless all signs fail, the Liberty Loan will be raised within the four weeks' limit, and not only raised but largely over-subscribed. Indeed, the reason given generally for the request of Secretary McAdoo that for the present the exact figures as to the amount subscribed should be withheld is that the amount is so large that its publication might deter new subscriptions from those who think there is no need of further effort. As a matter of fact, the campaign has just begun, and will be continued until May 4, with a constantly increasing aggregate subscription. The auspicious beginning should not lead to any relaxation of effort. The Government urgently desires a large over-subscription both for material and moral reasons. Every American, man, woman, or child, who can possibly scrape together fifty dollars should take at least one bond.

Throughout the country April 6 was celebrated as the anniversary of the entry of this country into the world war for liberty as well as of the opening of the Liberty Loan campaign. In the cities and in the small towns everywhere meetings were held, flags were raised, optimistic and earnest addresses were made, and for all practical purposes the day was a new National holiday. The organization for obtaining and registering subscriptions is a marvel of efficiency, and the thanks of the Government and the country are due to the many thousands of bankers, professional men, public officers, and enthusiastic private citizens who have worked like beavers and are continuing so to work for the attainment of success. Much interest was displayed in the happy plan, inaugurated by Secretary McAdoo, of presenting a special Honor Flag to those communities which over-subscribed their allotments. There was an eager rivalry to be the first in each district to receive the flag.

In not a few instances it was possible for a few towns to display the new Liberty Loan flag on the very first day of the opening of the subscription. Telegrams announcing the fact of the over-subscription reached the headquarters of the different districts promptly at nine o'clock on April 6, when the formal subscription was opened. Over-subscription to double the amount of the allotment occurred in some cases. This instantaneous subscription of the total amount allotted was usually made possible by the individual local patriotism of citizens who, so to speak, underwrote the total amount, making themselves individually responsible for it in case the subsequent total of

individual subscriptions did not reach that amount. They ran little or no risk in doing this, and no town has been heard of which is not sure to live up to the trust thus reposed in it.

New York City alone is undertaking to raise for the Loan the sum of $900,000,000, and, while that amount seems almost incredible, much confidence is expressed on every hand that the attempt will succeed.

PERFORMANCE VERSUS PROMISE
IN OUR AIR PROGRAMME

Charges that the United States Government is months behind in its airplane programme were made at a public meeting of the Aeronautical Society of America, held in New York on April 4.

At this meeting a report of nearly twenty thousand words was submitted by a special committee headed by Mr. Leon Cammen, Vice-President of the Society and associate editor for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. While this report was based in part on newspaper statements and interviews with Congressmen and Senators, the Committee is understood to have had direct sources of information, and to have reached its conclusions in consequence of its own investigations. Since members of the Society have repeatedly offered their services to the Government without avail and have found it difficult to secure official information, the Committee decided that the only corrective of mistakes was "pitiless publicity." At the public meeting the following allegations, among others, were made:

First, that the Government has steadfastly refused to utilize the services of engineering experts most capable of working out the best practicable airplane motors.

Second, that Government officials have continually made extravagant claims of what they intended to do, instead of availing themselves of models already proved practical.

Third, that Government officials, in order to conceal deficiencies in aircraft production, have misrepresented facts.

In emphasizing the dangers and delays consequent upon the Government's failure to use available experts, Mr. Cammen stated that it had not been proved that the Liberty motor was an unqualified success. He also alleged that many of the accidents in training air pilots were avoidable by the proper arrangement of schedules and by allotting sufficient space for men in training to fly in. Inasmuch as the State of Texas is greater in area than all of Belgium and northern France combined, there seems to be space to be had; but Mr. Cammen failed to recognize the necessity of schooling pilots in groups, and the real solution in better equipment (such as parachutes) and in better teaching. Another deficiency alleged is failure to train men in advance in auxiliary duties, such as photography, map-sketching, signaling, and machine-gun operations.

Another member of the Committee, Mr. Thomas A. Hill, attacked certain statements which had been officially made. He declared that such statements as that machine production had been solved and the aircraft industry fully developed were untrue at the time they were made and were known by Germany to be untrue. Declaring that the original programme called for the production of twelve thousand planes by July 1 of this year, he said that it was now announced in the Senate that by that time there could be only thirty-seven planes delivered, and that this is the situation after an expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars for aircraft production and after this country has been in the war for a year.

Mr. John Q. Tilson, a Representative in Congress from Connecticut, attributed the delay to the inclination of the Government to experiment rather than to use machines already proved successful.

The President of the Aeronautical Society, Mr. Frederick Barker, announced the belief of the Society that the time had come for the publication of the real facts, in order that the tremendous force of public opinion might be exerted in pressing the Government to reform its methods of aircraft production.

Some of this criticism would have been more effective if delivered in better temper and without being tainted by an effort to question motives. It would have been also no less effective if it had been accompanied by a recognition of the

vast amount of unselfish service that has been rendered to the Government by men who have given their time and strength to the development of our air programme. Some of this criticism is due to disappointment of expectations for which the Government itself was not responsible. Nevertheless, as a sign of impatience at delay and of urgency for speed and for the utilization of every resource, such criticism is a wholesome sign. The Government would do well to take the public into its confidence as far as possible. Americans can stand bad news, but they cannot profitably remain in a state of false security.

OUR NAVY

The Hon. William B. Oliver, Representative from Alabama, may well have been proud to have the recent distinction of signing his name as chairman of a sub-committee on a report to the full Naval Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives. The sub-committee had been appointed to investigate "the conduct and administration of the Navy." A copy of the report lies before us.

Though far more nearly ready for war than was the Army, our Navy was not ready as was the British, for instance. But it was placed on a war footing in a remarkably short time and was soon put to the "acid test."

The expansion of the Navy has been accompanied by a gain in efficiency. The report says:

Our committee undertook this investigation expecting to find that, no matter how well in the main the Navy had made its expansion into a war force, we would find some matters subject to adverse criticism. We brought with us the desire to co-operate with the Navy to one end-success. An examination of the record will show how little occasion we have had to find fault. Some mistakes have, of course, been made, yet the Navy has shown its strength by the manner of their correction.

The urgent demand for a larger increase in the destroyer force of course made necessary a temporary abandonment of part of the Navy ship-building programme. The report says nevertheless:

The Navy greatly needs both scout and battle cruisers, without which our dreadnought fleet loses a large part of its fighting potentiality. We approve the principle and earnestly favor a resumption of the building programme as soon as conditions permit, and cannot too strongly emphasize the importance of providing both scout and battle cruisers.

The principal achievements in the expansion of the Navy we recount elsewhere.

The report pays a tribute to certain special features-for instance, to the medical facilities quickly provided for the war; it says that" the first battle of the war, that against disease, was fought and won by the Medical Department of the Navy, under Rear-Admiral William Braisted."

The Bureau of Construction and Repair put the German interned ships in service in an incredibly short time.

At a time when France has been lending guns to us for our Army it is pleasant to read that our Navy had already done

the same for the navies of our allies.

The Navy has achieved success in holding down the number of submarine sinkings. Depth charges, which the committee thinks may properly be termed "the best weapon against the submarine," have been produced in quantity and are in use by our destroyers and submarine chasers.

Not all the work of our Navy, however, is confined to sea operations. The report includes this well-deserved compliment:

There are to-day on the firing lines in France no better trained, no braver, no more effective fighting forces than our own Marines, . and we hope their number may soon be largely increased. Both officers and men are anxious to go. Thoroughly equipped and splendidly trained as they are in the arduous methods of modern warfare, we feel that theirs will be a service of results which the Nation will always remember with everincreasing pride.

The report ought to be on sale in every post office. In these days of criticism it is specially inspiring reading, for both on the administrative side of the Navy Department, including the great bureaus whose work is noticed in detail, and on what may be called the more strictly military administration of the Navy, the report speaks in simple but eloquent terms of the patience,

Congress has been considering, among others, four important army measures. Two of them have become law-the Secretaries of War Bill and the Furlough Bill.

By the first the Secretary of War is to have two additional Assistant Secretaries. The Assistant Secretary, Benedict Crowell, will thus have two colleagues. The President has nominated for these positions men who have been active in serving the War Department, Edward R. Stettinius and Frederick P. Keppel, the former being the well-known member of the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co., and the latter lately Dean of Columbia University. The Senate has already confirmed the nomination of Mr. Stettinius, and the Secretary of War will therefore enjoy the advantage of having in power the former efficient purchasing agent of the Allies in this country. While he was purchasing agent for the Allies he entered the Morgan firm, a natural step, as the Allies had named that firm their fiscal agent in the United States. As Surveyor-General of Army Purchases Mr. Stettinius has shown rare skill in reconciling the technical requirements of military men with the industrial limitations put npon these requirements by the country's productive capacity. The Furlough Bill, now law, empowers the Secretary of War, whenever he deems it necessary or desirable, to grant furloughs to enlisted men, with or without pay, for such periods as he may designate, to engage in civil occupations and pursuits. This is to enable the country to benefit by the industry of skilled men in the army.

The Senate has passed two important Army measures-the Draft Age Bill and the Draft Classification Bill.

Last May Congress provided for the registration on a certain day, for military service, of all the male citizens of the United States between the ages of twenty-one and thirty, inclusive. The Act ought to have contained a provision for the registration of every citizen, whenever he attains the age of twentyone years. Unfortunately, it did not. Since registration day over half a million young men have become twenty-one years old. Not until the middle of January of this year was a bill providing for their registration introduced. Not until the middle of February was it reported. Not until March 29 was it passed by the Senate, and it still remains to be passed by the House. All these young men before registration, and many others still younger, should have had the opportunity and obligation of some military training. Yet in the Draft Age Bill discussion the other day in the Senate even the mild form of universal training (placing the determination of the periods of instruction with the President) introduced as an amendment did not pass. Perhaps there will be a better chance for some such amendment in the House.

The Draft Classification Bill provides for a draft based on the total number of persons in the various subdivisions designated by the President, and not on the basis of the population of the State involved, as was the practice under the first draft call. An attempt is being made to amend the measure so as to provide for a general exemption of farmers. Such an amendment would go further than the Furlough Law, because it would give deferred classification to farmers as a class.

On April 6, the anniversary of our declaration of war, the War Department announced that the next increment of the National Army would consist of 150,000 men. They will be ordered to report at the camps in the five days beginning April 26. This is three times the number at first planned to be called at this time. The tripling of the number of men called may be regarded, we think, not only as a natural expansion of the original plan, but, in view of the present German drive, of the Government's determination to speed up its war preparations.

IS LYNCHING A GOOD WAY TO FIGHT GERMANY?

A man by the name of Praeger, a native of Germany, who had taken out his first naturalization papers, was seized by a mob near Collinsville, Illinois, while he was in the local jail,

and was hanged to a tree. It was alleged that the man had been making disloyal remarks, and the mob, it is said, intended at first to run him out of town after giving him a coat of tar and feathers; but, finding no tar, they yielded to a suggestion froin somebody and hanged him instead.

If this is a sign of the rising tide of American indignation against Germany and all the atrocious things that Germany stands for, and, in particular, against that subtle and poisonous mode of warfare known as German propaganda, it has at least one redeeming feature, though it remains deplorable. According to newspaper despatches, the Mayor of Collinsville, who pleaded with the crowd to leave the man in the custody of the authorities, declared after the lynching that another man who had been charged with disloyalty had been freed because of the lack of evidence under present law, and that the mob, believing that another seditionist was about to escape justice, took the matter into their own hands. It is true that human nature, like physical nature, abhors a vacuum, and where law for the enforcement of the will of the community is lacking the mob is likely to rush in. It is the same tendency that is seen when, in the absence of correct public information, there is an inrush of rumor. This tendency of human nature is no excuse for those who circulate gossip; and it is equally no excuse for the mob. But it is a reason for the establishment of proper mediums for the dissemination of the truth; and it is in the same way a reason for the enactment of needed laws.

There is no doubt whatever that the law for the protection of the community against seditionists, disloyalists, traitors, and spies is inadequate. Under the law at present treason is a very limited and definite offense. A man may be a real traitor and not a legal traitor, simply because he has not committed those offenses which were recognized as treason when traitors could think of nothing else to do except round up a number of followers and levy war against a king. So a spy is pretty safe, provided he knows how to commit his espionage without encountering military authorities. A man can do an immense amount of damage to the cause of this country in the interest of the enemy and yet escape all peril except that of being indicted under some State statute. Not long ago a man who committed what was in reality an atrocious crime was convicted; but the only law under which he could be punished by the United States Government was the Sherman Anti-Trust Law, on the ground that his act was a conspiracy to interfere with commerce. When the law is so inadequate, public opinion is likely to become impatient, and to tolerate, as it ought not to tolerate, such mob violence as happened near Collinsville.

If such mob violence really did any good, it might be pardoned; but it is not only wrong, but futile. It is now reported that Praeger, who was hanged for disloyalty, had registered as an alien, had really been loyal to the country of his adoption, had been misunderstood by ignorant men who did not know English very well, had not been guilty at all of the things that rumor had ascribed to him, and had even tried to enlist in the Navy, and was rejected only because of his defective eyesight. If this all proves true, all the mob did was to kill a man capable of being a good citizen and to afford the Germans another excuse for more atrocities on the plea of reprisal.

And the very mistake that the mob made is one that the lawmakers themselves may make. In the justifiable reaction against the lack of law for the control of the disloyal and the extinction of the traitor and the spy, legislators are not unlikely to draft measures which may suppress not only sedition but even that wholesome and necessary criticism without which a free people cannot govern themselves and cannot even wage war.

Just because the Germans have lost their heads is no reason why we should lose ours. Americans ought to know how to keep level-headed and just and yet remain angry and determined.

CONSCRIPTION RIOTS IN QUEBEC

When conscription was adopted, it was expected that there would be trouble in the Province of Quebec. Now the expected has happened. At the close of the first anxious week of the German drive in Picardy, the city of Quebec, the capital of the prov ince, furnished to Canada and the world news of street fighting. There is no need to rehearse here in detail the causes for this