Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1916-05-05
AMERICA'SSPIRIT
IS RE-AWAKENED
GOD Forbid That We Should
BE Drawn Into The War;"
President Tells Womens
Encampment.

National Service School Military En-
compment for Young Women.
In concluding, the President voiced
warning that the honor and integrity
OF the United States canot be tam
pered with. He prayed that the coun-
try should not be drawn in to war,
but declared that if it should be ain
the great voice of national enthusiasm
which would be raised, all the world
would stand once more thrilled to
hear the voice of the New World
asserting the standards of justice and
liberty"
The Presidents address, in part, is
as follows:
1t is with unaffected pleasure that
come to greet you as you have as
semDled for the interesting things you
are going TO do. l have ALWAYS felt
That there was very much more in
splratlon in things that were voun-
tarily done than IN things that were
done under official direction and by
official summons. You have volun-
teered to come together without Of
hcial suggestion, III order to study
some things which, while theye are
characteristic OF the sort of comfort
and assistance which women have
been accustomed to offer, are, never.
theiess in this instance associated with
a very great national conception and
duty.
we, of course, are living in the
presence of conditions which we can-
not yet assess, because they are un-
precedented. The world never wit
messed such war as is now convuls
ing almost every part of the world,
except this part which we particularly
love and Un1l1 cnal- - g.,
and the very foundations of the ordi-
nary life of nations have been dis
turbed, SO deeply disturbed that no
man can predict what the final set
tlement will be. And if this war has
done nothing else, it has at least done
thls: 1t has made America aware of
dangers which most of us had dream
ed unreal, and has made us aware
mat the danger of our own time is
nothing less than the unsettlement of
the foundations of civilization
Civilization does not rest upon
war. 1t rests upon peace, it rests
upon those things which men achieve
by cooperation and mutual interest
IN one another. 1t does not flourish
in the soil of hostility and antago-
nism, and world war is Il war in
the presence of which civilization
holds its breath and wonders if il will
itself survive. AS we see these great
issues joined, we on one side of the
water are done this great service: We
are reminded of our spiritual relations
not only to this great struggle, but
particularly to this great nation of
wnlch we constitute parts. And our
spiritual relation to the rest of the
world is determined by our spiritual
relation to America
You have come togcth T. to be pre-
pared for any unusual duty which
american may call upon you to per-
form. But what has moved you to do
this? You duty to your country. But
what is the foundation of that duty?
What do you conceive America to be }?
When you come to the last searching
analysis we do not owne any duty
except to things that we believe,
and the glory of performing our duty
toward America is that we believe in
America, and we believe in America.
because venture to say it with en-
tire respect for the other peoples and
other Governments-thiS Government
was Established with special purpose
such as no other Government ever
avowed. This Government was estab
lished in order that justice and liberty
might belong to every man whom
our institutions could touch, and not
only that justice and liberty should
belong to America was concerned and
her influence involved they should be
extended to mankind everywhere. So
the inspiration Of serving America is
very profound inspiration.
"Have you not thought what might
be the outcome of this great strug-
gle, so far as the nations already en-
gagged are concerned? an you not
imagine the great awakening that has
come to country like France, for ex-
ample! How much more intensely
every Frenchman and every German
feels the national compulsion than he
ever felt it fobere? How much more
he feels himself not an idividual, but
a fraction Of great whole? How
much moro his blood springs to the
challenge of patriotic suggestions? {?
Flr is not fighting for his own life. He
is sacrificing his own life, or willing
to sacrifice it, in order that greater
life than his might persist-the life
of his nation.
$50 in American we are getting al
ready the indirect beenfit of that sug-
gestion. We are beginning to realize
how a nation is unit, and that any
individual Of it who does not feel the
impulse of the whole does not belong
to it and does not belong in it.
I'VE have heard a great deal about
divided allegiance in this country, but
before we discuss divided allegiance
in its political aspect we ought to let
our thoughts run back to what were
perhaps our divided allegiances in
respect to our relations to each other
America has been brought to such
point of diversifcation of interest
of occupation, of objects sought that
she was in danger of losing the con
seriousness of her singleness and soil
darity. There were men pulling al
cross purposes in regard to their pri
vate interests and their public en-
deavors in this country long before
the war came to remind us that VIZ
were single nation, whit single
duty and a single ideal, and the frs
thing that has happened to us is tha
xtya houa oil kont, ra,t1ln1 L., ,