New-York tribune., 1916-01-01
1916, America Right!

and one aspiration above all else.
For them the first wish will be that
the next twelve months may see their
country neither TOO proud to fight nor too
selfish 70 sacrifice; that it may see their
nation restored to the faith and the honor
which are its heritage from the men and
women who in other generations have
given their lives, their treasure and their
happiness that there might be in this
Western Hemisphere a noble and endur-
ing democracy.
One generation after another Of Amer
ican men and women have kept the
faith, have played their part large or
small, but always honorable. in the reali-
zation of the dreams of those who laid the
foundations of the United States in the
struggles that stretch from Plymouth TO
Santiago.
For nearly century and half free
nation on this side of the Atlantic has
contributed its part TO the common effort
of all mankind and borne its share in suf-
fering and in sacrifice of the cost Of free
dom and justice.
Those who have lived and died as Amer
leans. giving all and enduring all, have
lived and died in vain if the mean, the
sordid AMI the selfish permanently dom
mate American life or American citizen
ship. They have died in vain and we
shall be false TO all that America has
meant TO her own sons and daughters and
70 the whole world if the spirit and the
nurpose that has ruled and directed Amer
lean public life and policy in the last year
continues its control
Rpt every American who loves his coun-
try and believes in the ideal for 1t that
comes down to us from the past will see
in the New Year promise and an op-
portunity. It is false thing altogether,
this policv and religion of selfshness, Of
ease. of comfort; it is false doctrine
altogether that those have taught US who
have believed that we desired only dollars
and prosperity and cared neither for
honor nor for the lives Of our fellOw-men.
It has been an easy doctrine to hear,
pleasant policy to pursue, but it has led
us far away from all that was noble and
honorable in our past and it has made the
United States an object of contempt
among the nations, a disappointment and
grief to those who loved this country
and believed its professed devotion to the
cause Of democracy and the laws and
duties of civilization.
The New Year brings no greater duty,
10 braver thought, than that which Is eX-
pressed in the resolution to restore the
old faith and the old gospel of liberty, un-
selfshness, sacrifice, in the determination
90 do that which each individual can DO TO
make good the sacrifices and the aspira-
tons of the millions of men and women
who have lived and died under the flag
that is ours, believing that it was sign
and a symbol to the whole world of cour-
age, Of unselhshness, of the patriotism
without which nations are Of no meaning
and no value.
Grief, disappoin merr shame, these have
come to all true Americans in the year
that is gone. In the moment of great
peyi!, in the hour when all that was best
in life and in civilization was at stake
when the very structure Of cur democracy
and of democracy in the whole world wa,
endangered, the American people have
turned their backs upon duty and chosen
the easy road Of safety and prosperity
when men and women Of tie nations pro
Tossing the same faith and the same creed
we're giving all for the cause of humanity
and civilization.
Those who led Us, those who controlled
our destinios and directed our government
have thought Ill Of US, believed in oui
baseness and sought to prof. by minister
ing to our sclfshness. Their offending
must be punished, their betrayal must b'
followed swiftly by the sentence of polii
cal death. Those who have tsaihcked j!
American honor must be cast forth froa
public life into perpetual exile.