Life — June 21, 1917 — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

Imperial government, and gives practi- cal significance to the returns of Regis- tration Day. We shall be in the war with fighting men very soon now, and once we begin we shall keep in with rapidly increasing forces until the job is done as suggested in the President's communication to Russia. re \BLUNCE S33 | GR here just now, T deal is being done over though very little, said about it. The men who are doing it are all busy with details. They don't talk generalities about when the war will end or where Russia will come out. They talk very little at most, and that little is con- cerned with what to do next and how The whole war-duty of man as observed, is bein; to do it. is no longer done when he has read the paper. He still reads it, but only when he has spare time. Governor Whitman in this state, having called for a military census registration of all persons between the ages of sixteen and fifty, it is now pro- ceeding. This registration includes the girls, which is quite interesting. Does the Governor intend to draft them? People will be looking up the State Constitution to sce if anywhere there is power to draft girls for military service. All men of proper age are liable for militia duty, but girls in this in so many other respects have been supposed heretofore to be above the law. But there must be power to take a military census of them, for that is be- ing done; and we shall see what hap- pens next. Industrial organization, maybe. In this detail of military preparation our Governor is the pathfinder. We believe no other state has yet come to it. The girls will all be pleased with the forwardness of the Empire State in recognizing their proficiency and im- portance in military preparation. They are more eager, if anything, than the boys to serve the country, especially if suitable wages are connected with the AN ENTANGLING ALLIANCE service and it detaches from home duties and the orders and discipline of Major-General Mamma. MONTH ago the President asked authority from Congress to create jon of Commissioner of Food Administration to be filled by Mr. Her- bert C. Hoover. The bill to do so, and to give the Commissioner the necessary powers, is still before Congress. So is the Food Production bill, which authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture “to make a survey of the food supply of the nation. The purpose of these bills is to safe- guard the necessaries of life; to see that they are produced in requisite quantities, and are not wasted, nor bought up and hoarded by speculators to be sold at an excessive price. The Food Control (Hoover) bill deals not only with food, but with shoes, cloth- ing and fuel. The bills are war meas- ures, and contain novelties that Con- gress is slow to adopt, but the need of them is urgent, and-Congress should cither pass them or promptly devise some other remedy for the situation they were devised to meet. comichooks {feyu)