368 THE KING’ S BUSINESS German brutality and German outrages are true. O f course, we have the very best authority for believing that they are true, but if the powers that be pursue the course of lying in other matters, people will begin to distrust them in these matters. There was great complaint in England in the early years of the war about the follies of the censorship. No one questioned that there was a need of a wise censorship, but the censorship was conducted in such a way as to deceive only the English, not to conceal anything from the Germans, for they knew the facts. Lies never pay in the long run. Last week (March 12th) the papers of the whole country raised a storm of protest against the decision of the Government to hereafter keep back information along some lines from the public. The papers were advised by the Government to learn wisdom from England’s experience, but seemingly it is .the Government that needs to learn wisdom from England’s experience, for it is now widely agreed that England’s press censorship was foolishly conducted. From the very start this press censorship has been the weakest spot in our own Government’s conduct of the war. But there has not been recently such outrageous mistakes as those o f the early days when romantic and utterly false accounts o f experiences of troop ships with -submarines were given out. S EVEN BEERLESS DAYS A WEEK. Our, very active and very competent Food Administrator has been asking us to have one meatless day a week and two wheatless days a week, and two porkless days a week. Why not request, or even demand, seven beer less days a week. A large amount of food stuifs is going into beer. We were told at the outset that only barley was going into beer and that barley was not good food for man, but now we are being urged to use barley! Why not conserve all our barley for the use, of men and cattle instead of wasting it, and worse than wasting it, in beer ? Why not save also the coal that is being wasted in breweries, millions, of tons annually? Why should people go hungry and why should they go cold, and why should factories and mills shut down in order that the breweries may have barley and coal to carry on their, not merely useless, but positively destructive business? If barley is an inferior food, why not then require that the fields that are used for raising barley be used for raising something else? G e t d ru n k , k il l , a n d be gu ilt le ss . Dr. T. D. Crowther, of Hartford, Conn., in a long and ably written article in “American Medicine” bitterly opposes the holding of men account able for their crimes if they first get drunk and afterward commit the crime while they are drunk. He "contends that a man who commits a crime under the influence of alcoholic drink is ‘ as irresponsible as an insane person and should not be punished, but given medical treatment. His reasoning is very specious, but carried out to its logical issue, all that any one would have to do, if he wanted to kill somebody and not be held accountable for the murder, would be to get drunk. It is true, as Dr. Crothers contends, that when men do commit crimes under the influence of alcohol, King Alcohol is responsible for the crime, but who is responsible for the man’s putting himself under the control of King Alcohol? Men do not have to drink, even though they have inherited an appetite for strong drink, they do not have to drink. There
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker