Adventure Magazine Cover, April 3, 1918 — page 186: what you’re looking at

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

184 Every minute of the war America needs our support. When the Administration makes mistakes America needs our support all the more. If the Administration asks less of some other citizens than it does of us, that does not free us from our obligation in full. We set up this Administration to lead and command us; it stands now for our country. We may not like it or ap- prove it, but we owe it our loyalty and support, poe erty to America divides sharply into two duties, Our first duty, at any minute, is loyal support of whatever Administration is at that minute in power, unquestioning obedience to whatever laws are at that minute in force. Our second duty to America is to see to it that what- ever Administration we have chosen for her does its duty as fully as we should do ours, sees and corrects its mistakes when possible, sees and removes its incompetents always. ‘These two things constitute pa- triotism, loyalty to America, to the people. But the second duty must wait upon the first; we have no right to point out the mistakes of the Administration if we ourselves have made the mistake of fail- ing to support that Administration as i stands. America needs money now, Buy Liberty ‘Bonds, Don’t just complain in advance about how the Administration is going to use that money. You have no right to any voice in that until you have done your part and furnished some of that money. Your duty now is to buy Bonds. WE. KNOW that much of our money must go to remedy the results of the Administration’s stubborn or stupid refusal to prepare in advance for the war, that trying to do in months what should have been done in years means the loss of much extra money, time and effort without any extra returns, But that colossal blun- der of the Administration’s can not now be undone. We must not make a blunder ourselves by not doing the best. we can now, Buy Bonds, After that, see to it that as many as possible of the Administration who were responsible for the tragic blunder of Unpreparedness are forced from office or at least never again entrusted with public office in America. But while they are in office, support them. Buy Bonds, Adventure 4 ee the investigation by Con- gress we begin to know who are the incompetents responsible for national mis- takes and delays. Our duty is to insist that power be taken from the hands of incompetents. We know, for example, if the head of the Ordnance Bureau is incompetent, that not only should he be removed, but that his incompetency argues the incompetency of Secretary Baker who retained him, either knowing his incom- petency or else so ignorant of the condition of one of the most important bureaus of his department that he did not know of the incompetency of its chief, his direct sub- ordinate for whom he is responsible. Sec- retary Baker’s incompetency seems suf- ficiently established in other ways. A pacifist Secretary of War who for three years refused to prepare at all because ‘‘the war was three thousand miles away” is bad enough, but a Secretary of War who, after nearly a year of American participation, is still three thousand miles away from the war and three million miles away from any real comprehension of its needs is too lim- ited mentally for the country’s fate to rest so largely in his small hand. If you are convinced of the incompetency of officials, itis your duty to call for their removal. But that is only your second duty to America, Your first duty is to do your own part well and fully. Buy Bonds, WE KNOW that Congress and the Administration have not equally dis- tributed the financial burden of the war. There are those who believe there should be no excess profits from war or other industries when most of us are losing by the war, not profiting from it. In the present upheaval of economic conditions, with practical ac- complishment dependent so largely upon individual effort and stimulus, an eighty per cent. tax, as in England, would seem wiser and productive of quicker, better and big- ger results. But not less than eighty per cent. Most of us believe that the hundreds of millions of such profits already made should be the first money spent for Liberty Bonds, since what earned them is so large a part of what the war is waged to pro- tect. It is our second duty to America to force Congress and the Administration to distribute the cost of the war more fairly and justly, But it is our first duty to support the distribution as it stands, Gomicsdoo S (C©@