The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-10-04
THE MARCH or THE GRAND
ARMY OF VETERANS.
Il the End Of . Disorderly Epoch In
American History at Hand?

WASHINGTON, d. c.. October "A
visitor in the national capital at the
time Of the Grand Army review Is
bound to be stirred to q searching con-
sideration Of the quality Of his
A~mericanism. Every gentleman who
IL to sit in the next session Of Congress
should have been present as those
time burdened defenders Of the Union
repeated their grand march of nifty
years ago. Never were h pathOs and
glories of patriotism so commingled.
The question arose in the minds of
many spectators: Is the country Of
to-day the country these fine men
fought for? Through disQuieting re-
Elections. it In proper to say. the ques-
TONERS came in most cases to a re-
assuring conclusion.
America was made by men. The
pioneers Of this country established q
reputation for the most rugged quail
ties Of manhood. They were shrewd.
they were obstinate, they did their
own thinking. they were practical"
as an old fashioned toadsticker in
comparison with a dainty modern
~penknife. They did lot parade their
virtues in idealistic uniform. As they
possessed in high degree the saving
tense OF humor, they managed to get
along mighty well. The Southern
%aristocrat, the Northern intellectual
might equally well pretend to preside
over the uncomfortable destinies of the
rising nation. Later. Dickens might
make fun Of the pigs in u streets
and the hotel Hobbies irrigated with
tobacco juice, Of our and our
malaria, but the boy on the canal tow
path or the rail splitter In the back
woods might be headed for the White
House; and OF houses less exalted the
man was the natural and acknowl-
edged head.
Elbow grease and the unmatched
richness Of a virgin land made the
dollar tree spring and sprout and bear
abundantly. Then Americans began TO
travel. Europe stopped sneering and
began to envy. perhaps hate. We ac-
quired an ''effete East" OF our own,
and a leisure class" and problems Of
the %"unearned increment" We be-
came, or tended to become. q feminine
community.
The Word feminine" Is used here
in the sense 1t has in such expressions
as a feminine number, an even" num-
Der: a feminine rhyme. one ending in
an ~unaccented syllable; a feminine
civilization, the sanity as opposed to
the heroic. Christian perhaps as diff
ferentiated from pagan. II does not
suggest the feminist movement. "wom-
ans rights" woman suffrage" or any
other propaganda of female civics;
not the influence OF women in public
life" in business or the schools. 1t
is the shift in the common character.
or in the obvious and superficial
phases Of the common character, from
the masculine to the feminine quail
ties: not from hard tn soft. but from
reason TO emotional impulse. Pros
perity is subtly corrosive, and corrosion
IL progressive. Courage II turned to
base ends. Virtue becomes strictly
vocal, vice walks openly in rich
raiment. nations become too proud To
tight, "uplift" revels in hysteria with
out shame; cience is less respected
than social science" college profcs.
49, ~ \ pNN'Nl NV ~
ditious utterances draw gate money,
Government is paternal to a horde of
the mertally and morally oblique, rail-
roads are choked TO death. politics Is
peevish or p!ttiing. sensation drives
out sense Nobody IL quite happy. not
even the demagogue. That he never
Is known 10 be happy is one proof of
the unhealthiness Of the feminine
order.
The seat Of such troubles is not the
head or heart. but the nerves. and -,
way to cure disease OF the nerves is
TO forget them. America is beginning
to be weary OF its excuses in the past
dozen years. Mr.. Roosevelt rode the
tide and had no ambition to control il,
Mr.. Taft tried To stem 1t and was
washed ashore. Mr.. Wilson. borne
upon II, seems sometimes to drift with
1t. sometimes to navigate il with COM
petent seamanship. Whether by de-
feat, electoral reputation. or by re-
form in presence Of rude conformation
by grim realities, the Democratic party
as administrative agent for the Amcri-
can people Will recognize after Noyem-
her or 1916 the nations return to It's
senses. In the next session the Demo
cratic Congress must either run the
engine or he run over BY II. tn,
Presidents programme for defence and
for tariff adjustment is now pretty
definitely before the country and the
country will expect Congress to TURF
a discouraGing back to the lobbyists
OF 90 nothing sentiment, fatuous com
placency and deliberate disregard OF
defiance of the rules OF common sense
to take the brakes off the wheels OF
business and To provide ADEQUATE
equipment for the protection OF a
peace loving traveller through scenes
of "unpeaceful violence. To restore tho
masculine" regime.
The essential soundness of mi.
heterogeneously constituted repuhllr
guarantees ultimate return To the goot
habit Of sobrlety We are fortunate
TO have the purge by wal v.cariousl>
performed. II Europe has any rea.
doubt as To the permanence of the
American spirit" a true report n,
the Grand Army reunion and march
should counteract the influence %,
fertile sources OF misinformation and
misrepresentation.