New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1916-02-23
American Spirit Greatest
Asset Of Our People

AHGeItCUN Optitt WI eUteot
Asset Of Our People
The sudden termination of the presi-
Dental speaking tour through the West
may carry in it's wake complete change
of front on the part of Mr.. Wilson. He
had been billed to speak as far west as
California, but by the time that he had
reached Kansas he seemed to have found
something, which since the very incep-
ton of this sisterhood of states has been
termed American spirit He evident
ly found that the American people will
not view with alarm the aspirations of
any foreign country, just because some
of the big industries fear they are going
to have competition in a field which
they have heretofore had to themselves.
The American people are not military
people, nor people that can be scared
into doing something they don't want to
do or see done. The American citizen
is even more phlegmatic than the Ger
man. Nothing can disturb his equanim-
ity. The home life of the average citi-
zen is systematized and regulated by the
business barometer. Nothing is farther
from his thoughts than war and trouble,
and woe betide him who is the bearer of
bad news.
Audiences made up of that class of
men and women were the ones who greet
ed the president during his recent trip.
The people turned out in great numbers
to see and hear their chief executive,
but when he essayed to tell them that
they must prepare for war against some
foreign foe, he failed to elicit the expected
popular approval. He found that these
men and women were already prepared
and armed with serious thought-not
thought of how to overpower and defeat
their fellow human beings, but the more
serious thought of how to overpower and
disarm those who would embroil this
country with some other nation.
The president evidently was lily advised
when told by his friends in Washington
that he could go out an ony the people,
could tell them and convince them that
this country must prepare for war and
do it now. He started out in the East
with intimations of immediate war which
could not be misunderstood AS he
Travelled westward his words became
more guarded and his set speeches were
changed at the last moment when he
found that he had run up against that
snag of american spirit" While he
found in the East sort of an undercurrent
in favor Of his plans, because of the prox-
unity of munition plants which are keep
ing large proportion of the population
busy, the West remained serene and it's
placidity unruffed Were it not for the
fact that the eastern centers are the hot
bed of foreign intrigue, aided and abetted
by the masters Of finance and commerce,
this cry of preparedness would never
have gained any Roadway and the people
would have used the words Of the presi-
dent OF year or so ago and said that
his worries are merely psychological"
The recent and so suddenly Interrupted
tour of the president finds diametrical
opposite in the position OF the lamented
Mckinley just before the outbreak Of the
Spanish-American war. The entire
country Was urging on the president to
step in to intercede in behalf of bleeding
Cuba. Statesmen in the senate and in
congress derided the president for his
calm position. He was besieged, begged
and threatened to declare war against
Spain, but he chung steadfastly to his
conviction that conflict could be averted
and the sacrifice of American lives be
made unnecessary. Like one other great
president he waited for the enemy, if such
he must be termed, to open hostilities
The blowing up of the Maine in Havana
harbor was the spark to touch off the tin
der of the ''American spirit and McKin-
ley knew his people too we'll to longer
hesitate.
And America was far less prepared for
war than it is today. What was the result?
Troops were drilling while the ink was
still wet on the papers notifying the Span
ish ambassador that he might call for his
passports; thousands were rushed to the
mobilization camps and other thousands
ready to enter the fray were turned back
It again vas that American spirit" which
can not be manufactured by visions Of
glory nor threat of dire consequence, the
spirit of fairness, the spirit of humanity
the spirit Of honesty--the spirit of Ameri.
can citizenship.
A Wisconsin congressman wants tt
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