Der Deutsche correspondent. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1841-1918, 1916-08-22
AMEnIcA,s OPPORTUNITY.


lOl OtHlSulDCls
No one can doubt that the inn
mediate future of the world will be
crowded with quick changes. Every
true lover of America must wish the
United States to play a part in those
changes which will be worthy of her
ideals and her character Almost
alone among the great nations Of the
world she will be unhampered in
meeting a great opportunity.
In the first place, her resources
are unimpaired. Not only has the
war and all its attendant circumstan-
ces made no hurtful drain upon her
men or her materials; it has even
enhanced her skill and added to her
resources, because of the very cir
cumstances of her situation, cut off
from her usual trade with many
parts of the world and called upon
to supply what she never supplied
before, to the nations engaged in the
great struggle not only, but also to
her own people. She has developed
industries that she had before neg
lected, has found new uses for her
material and new material to use.
She has thus been enabled to realize
what she can do more fully than
ever before, and to do it better than
she ever did before. No other nation
will stand quite so ready as she to
serve the world in every work of
peace and development.
In the second place. she will prob
ably Of necessity be the chief re-
lance of the rest of the world in the
field of finance. Probably the chief
no ~ In, Ixrf4, !,
sary for the great reconstruction
which will have to follow the war
will fall to her. When the war be-
gan America was, striking the large
balances, debtor nation When
the war closes, she will be a creditor
of all the world. Her financiers will
have it within their choice to play
a part they have never played before
in the ecomnomic development OF
other nations and of distant regions
Of the earth. 1t is to be hoped that
they will have the vision to accept
the opportunity with farsighted cour-
age and a quick adoption to the new
conditions.
In the third place, I think it is
evident that the United States will
understand herself better than she
ever did before. The war and all it
attendant circumstances have cried
her wide awake to both the dangers
of her life and its enormous possibil-
tiles and advantages. There have
been many things to disturb us dur
ing these two years of long drawn
out tragedy. We had not realized
before that there were certain el-
ements in our citizenship which had
not in their heart of hearts devoted
themselves in full loyalty and alleg-
lance to the country of their adop-
tion. A new problem of disunion,
more subtle, more difficult to meet
with direct checkmate and correction
than the old problem which culmi-
mated in the Civil War, has engaged
and disturbed our thought, and VIC
have realized that we must devote a
new energy and ardor to binding to-
gether the forces which will produce
a new union, union of spirits
triumphant over every alien force
and sympathy. But this very dis
covery, this very anxiety, has
quickened the pulse Of every loyal
and devoted American throughout
the length and breadth Of the land,
whether his birthplace was on this
side Of the water or on the other
A new and wholesome force has
arisen amongst us of thoughtful,
watchful, energetic patriotism, and
/ venture to think that the nation
is better prepared on that account to
face the problems of a new day in
which it will marshal all its energies
and assemble all its resources to en-
able the country we love to play the
part it should seek to play in the
counsels and actions of the great
world
Fortunately, America can play her
part in the days to come unseliishly
and impartially, because she covets
nothing that other nations have un-
less it be their skill and knowledge
in some OF the undertakings of
science and industry, and these
things she can obtain, not by con-
quest of force, but by the mere care
full use of the extraordinary capacity
of her people. She can produce like
skill and knowledge for herself. That
is one Of the things these days of
struggle and interrupted trade have
taught her. She has nothing that
she wishes to take away from the
other nations or the world, ana She
Is better prepared than she ever was
before to make rich contribution to
the development Of other nations.
The opportunity is at hand, there
fore, for which she has waited. Her
principles are suited to the freedom
Of mankind and the peace of the
world She can now exemplify
those principles in action with a new
leadership, a new opportunity to ex-
hibit them upon great scale. She
can now afford an example of energy
in justice as well as in enterprise, in
fair and honorable competition, in
thoughtful adaptation Of her resour-
ces to the needs of the world, which
may help to inaugurate a new era in
the intercourse and friendly inter-
dependence Of the peoples OF the
world
That she will rise to this great op-
portunity no man who knows her
can doubt 1t should be the pride
and thoughtful purpose OF every
American so to equip himself with
Iyrouylodvo and en- IN prroo HE own