Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-03-12

We'll said that the true conception of
| patriotism is almost the opposite of
| the common conception, and that true
patriotism is the joy which the people
of a nation feel in contributing from
their special advantages to the well
| fare of humanity. This is the true
and larger patriotism which our re-
public needs in this and every hour
OF temptation to pride and selishness
and buster
Every great institution of society
and every social sentiment runs the
same danger as the sentiment Of patri-
otism. There is nothing more sacred
/ than the family. the home; yet any
home may become SO absorbed in itself
and the problems of how its members
shall get on in business or society
| that there is no room in that home
| for thought of the city or the nation
or humanity. for all those sacramental
| things which make home life itself
noble and uplifting. AS concerns patri-
| otism, it is all Il question of the gra-
| dation of our patriotism. This repub-
| lie nearly lost its life because for gen
erations it was half made up of men
who placed their state patriotism be-
fore their national patriotism and
| counted themselves Virginians or Car
| olinians before they We're Americans.
| We face a similar problem today in
| a larger field, Our nation is brought
| into closer and more responsible rela-
| lions today with the other members
| of the great family. of nations than
| Massachusetts stood with Mississippi
| 20 years ago; and as the danger to the
nation 20 years ago was from men who
| felt that their chief allegiance was
| due to their state before their nation,
| SO the danger today is from men who
| do not know and feel that before they
are Englishmen or Germans or Amer
| leans or Japanese, they are men. cltl-
zens of the world: and if any nation
| is cherishing ambitions or policies
which make in the long run against
| the welfare of humanity it is cherish
| ing policies which in the long run
make against its own welfare and
| safety. The commanding cause of the
| world today is the organization of the
| family of nations, as the commanding
cause of America in 1857 was the or
sanitation of this family of states.
|
| time began who has thought so pro-
| foundly Upon the problems of life and
| the universe as to earn from his fell
| lows the title of philosopher wtSo has
not sooner or later become politician.
| This is inevitable, because no man can
! think profoundly without becoming en-
gagged by the problems of society and
| his fellow-men. To-day, after two mil
1 Xa'-
Laws" are read vastly more than his
"Parmenides." and Arstotle's Poll
| tics" and Ethics are read vastly
more than his Prior or Posterior
Analytics. Dante, the first great mod
ern man, wrote DE Monarchia" as
well as the Divine Comedy" and the
| subject of it was the organization of
| the nations of Europe in justice and
peace. Emmanuel Kant, the greatest
| of modern philosophers, was busy in
| his last days with the same problem,
and when we read his great tractate
upon Eternal Peace" and his other
political essays. we find that they all
have to do with the great problem OF
the extension of law beyond the ma
ton to the information. We shall make
an end of war, he said, and disarm the
nations and conceive our political re-
lations and obligations in world terms.
That is all that is really meant by the
peace movement, which to-day has De-
come the commanding cause OF our
time The peace movement means SIM
pIv the growth of law The largest
unit which we have yet got orSaniZea
is the nation. To-day's obligation is
to organize the family of nations ana
to elevate and expand our patrlotic
sentiment to that human standard.
Internationalism does not mean a
poorer nationalism any more than 1T
meant 20 years ago that Massachu-
sets man who placed national SOW
ereienty above state rights loved Mas
sachusettS less than the Virglnian
loved Virginia I'M fact, the great IN
ternational leaders in history have al
WAYS been the conspicuous patrlots'
and of this Mr.. Mead gave many Illus
trations We need, he said, deeper
patriotism and a higher patriotism as
we'll as a broader patriotism. EVERY
one of us needs deeper conservation 10
the service of his own city, state anu
nation; for it is only as we make our
own nation pure and true that we can
make 1t streng and influential in the
councils of the great family of nations.
The great curse of the old patriotism
has been that it identified itself so
largely with ideals of war. Men nave
thought of the soldier rs the cfiief ex-
! ponent and instrument of patriotism
and forgotten that the historian and