Life — June 7, 1917 — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

“IT WAS A GOOD TIME WHILE IT LASTED” Germans can believe, and finally, to leave his wife and children and disap- pear. The break between the Germans and the rest of mankind is extraordi- narily deep and complete. No doubt the German mind will come right again sometime, but not, perhaps, until it has gone to the utmost limit of wrong, ard expended its last ounce of strength to make good in that direction. We have two duties in relation to it—to discour- age it with all our power from the hope that it can work its crazy will on the world, and to welcome it back to sanity whenever it shows symptoms of returning health. Such symptoms are sure to appear. They exist already, but have hard work to make them- selves manifest. We can aid them by disclosing, whenever practicable, that it is the cure of Germany that is the pres- ent object of the war, not her destruc- 'O have the onion speculators in- dicted will hardly bring tears to many eyes. To go round and buy up onions at a fairly high price from willing sellers and sell them, presently, at an advance seems an innocent stroke of business. Somebody must handle the crops, and there is a lawful profit in it. The trouble this year was that the 987 onion handlers were too successful, and that they were organized for a kind of co-operation that brought them into unfavorable relations with the Sherman Act. Working together they controlled the existing onions, and fed them out in limited quantities, at prices five or six times more than they paid. It is unpopular to find so extrava- gant a profit in public necessity, and in any troubles the onion speculators have got into with the law, they will have to cry their own tears, for the public will have none for them. Big profits made out of extremities of need produced by the war are not popular at this time. The great ma- jority of our traders and producers seem not to be looking for such prof- its, but disposed rather to make their first concern the successful prosecu- tion of the war and to let private ad- vantage sit for a while on the back seat The strenuous efforts of the banks to place the Liberty Loan are a fine ex- ample of devotion to public duty. The spirit of the great leaders of business is admirable. ORD NORTHCLIFFE: says it is not a war but a series of wars that is proceeding. Just so; and hard it is to keep track of all of them at once. There is, for example, the war between most of the newspapers and the formidable spectre of Censorship, represented by Mr. George Creel. We are all used to the idea that when a country is at war the newspapers should be restricted in what they may print. They should not publish news that will aid the enemy. TI ministration is quite keen to have a Jaw that will forbid them to do so, One such law, drawn by the Depart- ment of Justice, was introduced in Congress, and enthusiastically beaten. Proceedings to get a better one have not prospered so far. What seems to be needed is a training camp for censors. Censorship calls for brains and training rather than for lists of specific prohibitions, comicbooks.com