PROVERBS TO BE REVISED

Evening Star, Issue 16676, 7 March 1918, Page 4

PROVERBS TO BE REVISED

IF ALLIES LOSE THE WAR. George Ado, playing Santa Clans to the National Security League, has contributed 'A Holiday Messngb to Our Young Fighting lien' to the league's educational «im-P-aign of patriotism. The message is that losing the war means reversing ail the proverbs that hare grown out of humanity's experience. Mr Ado- reverses a few to show what, he means. His Christmas present follows: [By George Ade.] "Wo must win the big war or els© revise all moral codes, rewrite all proverbs, and adopt a brand-now set of rules to govern, conduct. Wo have accepted certain time-honored adages as self-evident truths. Wa found them in_onr early copy books, and wo grew up on them, and repeated them so often that naturally we came to think that they could be relied upon. Then Germany came along" vrtib. an intcnsly modem variety of ethics, bearing the label of Kultur. The new medicine is not taken internally or nibbed on as a liniment, but you have it shot into yon by a large gun." Unless we refuse to take the treatment, everything that wo ever believed in will he overruled, discarded, and thrown' into the alley. If Germany is not licked to a standstill wo might as well beain to memorise and humbly accept the following: Dishonesty is the best policy. Be as mean as a skunk and 'you will b« happy. Bleo-fd are the child murderers, for thoy shall inherit the earth. Bo sure- you are right handy witih firearms, then go ahead. An evil reputation is better than riches. Truth crashed to earth -will not rise again if the crushing is done in a earperior and efficient manner. Bo virtuous, and l yon will bo miserable. Thrice srmed is he who goes axound picking quarrels. Might makes right. He'll an earth, and hatred for all men. Bo unto others as you suspect that they might do tiirto yo"U if they ever get to be as disreputable as you are. God helps the man that helps himself to his neighbor's hou.-e and his fields and his unprotected women. Those don't sound right, do they? The old ones that we'lea.rned first of all are not yet our of date. Suppose we don't roviso them.