The Topeka state journal., 1916-05-01

by the few simply because when the
emergency comes, we must improvise
at whatever cost the things that for
our sins we have failed to provide be-
fOrehand- We cannot afford to leave
this democracy of ours inefficient. If
we do it will assuredly some day go
down in ruin. We cannot afford to
tolerate with cynical indifference the
pork barrel theories of government so
dear to the hearts of politicians of the
baser sort. With a wealth of billions
of dollars, and a population of one
hundred million, we cannot afford to
be in a condition of utterly unSta BILE
social and industrial equilibrium, nor
to see our sons grow up stepped in
spirit of mere selfish individualism
sense of cooperation, or firmness of
purpose. We have great individual
capacity. This we must keep. But we
must train it so that we shall have
great collective capacity, so that there
may be that collective democratic
power and discipline without which no
great modern democracy can perman-
emily subsist.
For Better Americans.
We must not only do away with sec
tionalism but We must see that our
land really is a melting-pot of citizen
ship and that all people who come
here become Americans and nothing
else. We have equally to dread the
sleek, well-fed materialist whose be-
all and end-all in life are ease and
comfort; and the base, selfish man
who thinks only of his individual ag-
grandizement; and the foolish boast
full, wordy sentimentaIist who with
amazing ignorance fancies that Ameri-
cans armed only with words can sue
cessfully oppose strong and brutal men
with rifles.
Our national character is in the bal
ance. Americanism is on trial. If
we produce merely the self-seeking,
ease-loving, duty-shirking man vvheth-
er he be a mere materialist or a mere
silly sentimentalist; if we produce only
the Americanism of the CRATER and
the mollycoddle and the safety-first.
get rich quick peace e-at-any-pr
man, we will have produced an Amer
lean faithful only to the spirit of the
Tories of 1776 and the Copperheads
of 1861. and fit only to vanish from
the earth Love of ease, shirking of
effort and duty, unwillingness to face
facts. the desire to comfort ourselves
by words that mean nothing-aH these
spell worthlessneSs while our civiliza-
ton lasts. and spell also a speedy and
an ignoble end of that civilization. In
this tremendous crisis OF the world, if
we think we can sit apart do nothing
utter lofty platitudes, and devote our
selves only 10 money-rnaking. we shall
surely go down with a crash l ask
YOU of the West to take the lead in
the effort for a robust and virile ma
tionalism, fit and ready to cone with
all possible dangers at home and
abroad. I appeal to the spirit of sane
common sense which faces things as
they practically are, and 1 appeal also
to that spirit of idealism which sees
great goal and struggles toward that
goal. I ask for military preparedness
as an arm to help the soul of the ma
ton. 1 ask for it to quicken the national
conscience to help the national dis
cipline. I ask that we prepare our
selves within: and we cannot prepare
ourselves within unless we also pre-
pare against danger from without
Yo hate the waste and blood-spflling
Of war. So do I. You cannot hate