Judge — July 13, 1918 — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ee a eee een BSS I a a | t li CRS a (EDIT OR TA LY po Comment Grave and Gay on Thi: 1GS as They Pass F< rinc Our Goat HE war has put two great words in circula- tion—camouflage and morale. The first of these is clever; the second is of overwhelm- ing importance. “Morale” is a word that should be re- peated every day by cach one of us like a sacred formula. It should be studied as one studies his own cleanliness. It should be carried in the pockets of the mind like a rabbit foot. It is an amulet of victory. It is the armor and fortress of those of us who have got to fight the Hun “over her Each of us is personally responsible to that word Morale. On our courage and our grit rests the future of the Republic and the fate of the unborn. There is a significant and humorous phrase known as “getting his goat.” This is Morale translated into the poetry of the street. To “get a person's goat” is to break down his morale. To “kid him,” to frighten him, to bully him, to smash his courage by threats, to “strafe” him all this constitutes the machinery of unnerving him. This is what Germany is attempting to do with the United States today. She is trying to break down the morale of the American people. She is trying to “flus- ter” you and me. She is trying to “get our goat” by raiding our seaboard commerce, by hinting of air raids, by dire threats of torturing our boys who fall into her clutches. Her agents, working everywhere, are like a gang hired to cry “Fire!” in a theater for the purpose of starting a panic and rifling pockets. This trick suc- ceeded in Italy. The latter lost the battle of the Isonzo because Germany had broken the morale of non-com- batants by the subtlest of propagandas. It is not enough for those of us who cannot be “over there”’ to buy Liberty Bonds, War Stamps, pay our in- come tax, observe wheatless days 9 and lightless nights. We—each of us, man, woman and child—should submit ourselves to a personal regi- men. We are soldiers in the hom trenches. The boys “over there look to us for the steel of courage, the fearlessness born of strength. Their physical eyes are on the en- emy; but their mental and heart eyes are on you and me. Each one of us lives today in a tent made up of nerve, muscle, and will. Look to that tent each day. The mind, the nerves, the will—the forge-fires of the morale of nations Drawn by Witrreo Joxes Tue Pincn or War and individuals—rest on a healthy WHEATLESS WEDNESDAY 4 EEE SE TY NY = body. Each moral and physical weakness in these times is a crime against the nation and against tnat superb army that we are sending to the front. The whole nation should go in for fresh air, cold baths and physical exercise. ‘The enemy is looking for the moral and physical slacker. The draft has whipped millions of weaklings into men. It has put knuckles into their spines. We who have not the privilege of standing on that battle-line can fight the Hun at home with a steel network of nerves wrought from a daily system of mental and phys- ical exercise. And there is the Great American Smile, glittering like the sun on a forest of swords! Study the game of Germany in this country since the very beginning of the Great War. A systematic game to “get our goat.” The sinking of the Lusitania, the raids on London, the threats made by the Kaiser to Ambas- sador Gerard—what were they but Germany's ‘“ Look out, you Americans! All her activities, from the shooting of Miss Cavell to the latest explosions in our munitions factories, were her attempts to cause our morale to crumble. General Grant once said, “I can win this war if the people back home don’t run.” And that is what Pershing and the great American army back of him are thinking today. Each one of us should begin the day like a soldier. With a heart of fame cased in nerves of steel, see that you are 100 pe: cent. Hun-proof. JUDGE-MENTS What makes a man feel cheap is to have his wife find out that his business isn’t important enough for government operation. . . We owe everything to the Fathers forgiving us awrit- ten Constitution. Without it, how could we be sure that a a great reform measure is unconstitu- tional enough to be the real thing? The war has Brought sheiie such an era of good feeling and national unity that it isn’t good form, when you dine with a political opponent, to employ a non-useful person to taste the food before you partake. * * . The Food Administration, has asked the hotel men to reduce the number of dishes. We hope they'll begin by reducing the number of forks at swell dinners. We always did feel that the head waiter is on to us when we use the wrong one. comicbooks.com