Evening star., 1912-09-11
All Sections Drawn Together.

THE reason the Spanish war bound
the nation together was that men were
banded together in an unselfish thing
which drew all sections of the country
together in a common service. And SO
1t is with peculiar pleasure that 1
think Of this comparatively bloodless
war; this war which drew us In single
ness Of purpose without shedding too
| much of the precious blood of sons and
our brothers and fathers.
II belong to q political party. For the
time being i represent political
party. but 1 respect a political party
merely as the means Of banding men
have done to the uttermost they have
forgotten parties in a common service.
Not all men think alike. and therefore
| men must give up themselves accord
ing to their convictions and their
thoughts, but the impulse back OF
every one of them must be the same.
II 1t Is indeed the impulse OF patriotic
conviction. And so ] congratulate you
| on having gone to school in at least
| one Of the schools Of patriotism. Not
you have learned that a man must lay
down, II need be, his life for those
with whom he lives. For you have
had the only thing that makes nation
tEreat. You have had vision OF the
common interest.
Deprecates Partisan Passion.
II wish that party battles could be
fought with less personal passion and
more passion for the common good. I
am not interested in fighting persons, but
/ am interested in fighting things. l am
interested In fighting bad tendencies, bad
systems, things that lower all the levels
of our political and economical morality,
and / could wish that these things were
visible and tangible, SO that We wOuldn'
have to fight them through persons. l
wish that they were Of such a sort that
YOU had only to hold them up to let the
whole nation see how ugly they are and
how undesirable. For we must get this
vision before we are true to our politics
the same vision that the soldier gets
that II doesn't make any difference what
mart OF the country he comes from, 1t
doesn't make any difference what his
viewpoint Is, that there is something that
binds him to his fellows which he cannot
break without committing treason. The
thing he cannot break is the Dono OF
common sympathy and OF common under
standing. that he il engaged In q cause
and that only the cause can make him
great.
Setting Glasses at War.
1.-The trouble with this country is that
II has been blind to q war within itself
by a competition OF interests when there
should have been a union OF interests.
The way not to cure 1t Is to set one class
against another The way to cure 1t Is
| to see that classes understand one an
other. that they all know that there Is
such a thing as a common interest which
| touches them all alike.
| "Now. will you men. In having seen the
vision. assist to communicate 1t to the
great body Of people around us who are
Inevitably because OF the necessities OF
life. burdened all day long with the mere
necessity of earning what they must eat
and what they must wear and what they
must put above their heads by way OF
| shelter? We have camped on the field
some OF us; We have been In the battle
We have heard the rattle of small arms
and the dull thunder Of the cannon. and
all the while We have been thrilled
through with this impression that we
were on a mission for the American peo-
pie, and that the arms We bore were typ
/ ical OF a great duty. No man who has
/ slept on the tented field and failed to see
the vision Is a true soldier, and no man
| is a true patriot who once having seen the
vision does not lift IL high for the con-
ltemplation Of his fell0w-men."