The Penn's Grove record., 1916-06-16
THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY
Attorney General WeSCOtt Sounded
The World Wide Mission In Nom
Mating President Wilson

CnulSHhdyeu Dy Ine caldmltleS or war,
unmoyed by vituperation and vain de-
clamation, holding to the pure altar of
truth, the schoolmaster is statesman, the
statesman %inanc6er, the fnanNier the
moral leader of democracy.
Tn nation is at work. The nation is
at peace. The nation is accomplishing
the destiny of Democracy. -Four years
ago the nation was not at work. With
resources boundless, with a hundred mill
lion people eager to achieve and do.
languished, industries halted.
men were idle. The country struggled in
the. tolls of an inadequate financial sys-
TEN. Credit was at the mercy of piracy.
The small business man was bound hand
and foot. Panic hung like a storm cloud
over the business world.
Now bursting granaries, teeming fac
tories, crowded railways and overladen
ships distribute wealth and comfort to
uncounted millions the world over. Pro-
duction outruns the means of distribu-
ton. Thu parallel of American pros
perity is not found in industrial history;
nor is it causeless. 1t did not decend,
like a merciful accident, from heaven.
1t is not due to the devastations of a
revised tariff. 1t is not the result of
dtotA I IC6AoAhbIOhs ~ dliIOI NC AZ
tributed to the manufacture of war ma
t~erials, constituting a bare FIVE per cent
of the volume of national business. War
is destruction, not production. War cur
tails international trade. War depress-
es industrial energy. When the Euro
pean cataclysm struck the world, mora
toria fell like a blight upon many of the
neutral nations, but not upon the United
States.
There stands the astounding pheno-
menon of American prosperity. What
is its explanation? The Euclid of fnan-
cial theory worked to a demonstration.
measures for the country's relief. He
promptly put into effect the legislative
expression of a great program. He did
mot talk. He did things. He dynamited
the monetary dams and let credit flow
to the remotest corners of the land. its
spray dashing even upon foreign shores.
He released the nations resources and
set the energies of all men free to exploit
them. He destroyed commercial slavery.
He struck off its shackles. The pros
perity of the nation is the product of
! craftsmanship and financial genius.
FAmerican credit is now limited only by
its own honesty and capacity. The cause
being undisturbed, the effect must re-
main. The s~choolmaster is statesman,
the statesman is financier, the fnancier
is emancipation. With Lincoln, the eman-
cipator of the chattel slave he will live
forever as the emancipation of the com
mercial slave. =
War with any European nation would
have set the world aiame and stopped
the march of progress for a century.
Would anyone have had it so in order to
affirm a "virile A~mericanism"? Is a
'.yirile Americanism" bloodshed, destruc-
ton, the horrors of war and its uncer-
tanties? The substance of civilization is
the arts. the sciences, literature, philo-
sophy, industry, the domestic virtues,
freedom, religion and peace. But this
is the substance of American national
ism. 1t knows no national boundaries.
1t vet lives in the trenches and broken
homes of Europe and pervades its very
thrones. Therefore, America lives in
the trenches and broken homes of Europe
and its thrones. The s~tupepdous con-
fagration is consuming the errors OF
statesmen and dynastics it is not con
suming the substance of civilization.
Civilization is a unity. War with Europe
would have cut asunder the moral
forces that bind the nations apd lett
an age of darkness, anarchy and des-
pair. Standing on the immutable fnHn+
dations of such Americanism, the school
master and statesman, with comsum-
mate skill, a skill that commands the
admiration of the world, direct the forces
of civilization, not with arms, but with
reason and moral pressure against the
excuses of "a belligerent world. With
preternatural poise and clearness OF
49, ho SC ni1atinU America through
the rushing storm. Who can deny the
existence of a moral design in the uni
verse? Who now can question its full
6llment? Who now can close his eyes
to the destiny of democracy to make the
principles of civilization dominant, to
bring the warning nations of the earth
together in lasting peace? Ihe passions
of men die. The truth lives. America
has called to Europe; Europe is re-
spending 10 terms of a revitalized civil
cation. The sublimest picture in civil
history is that of a plain American citi-
zen manoeuvring with the weapons OF
reason and humanity against the navies
and armies of the c%ontending nations,
and bringing them in accord with the
principles of international law. The
American standard of peace and justice
now floats on the sea. OF
what avail all the wealth of our beloved
land if it had been consumed in the de-
structiveness of war? What avail the
travail of human progress for ten thou
sand years had not the schoolmaster and
statesman been pacifcator? His achieve
ment Is so vast that ambitious men are
blind to Its reality. But the plain mil
lions, of all creeds and ~nationalities re-
cognize in it the imperishable glories of
a Christian civilization. 1t ~glorifies the
peasant and king alike. TIL school
master is statesman. the statesman is
fnancier. the inancier is emancipation.
the emancipation is the paciicator of
the world.