New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-06-28
UNORGANIZED AMERICA
Our Money-Making Efficiency Not Applied
in Government and Politics.
To the Editor of The Tribune.

To the Editor Of The Tribune
| Sir: When il comes 20 making money the
American people are efficient and thorough.
When it comes to thinking Of their country
they take it out in cheering for the Grand
Old Rag" We live in the past. Looking
backward, we go forward in the general direc-
ton of the future.
We are national only in hypocrisy and
cgotism. Our egotism is due to ignorance;
our hypocrisy to ndividualism. The Melting
Pot is a boast We think through our pockets.
native and foreign born. We are not assimi-
latve. We are A conglomerate-u norganized.
Trade, labor, capital have recognized the
necessity Of national organization in their
respective fields in order TO produce results.
Their members do not dissipate their
strength. As workers in the same line their
interests are best conserved by delegating
their individual power 70 organization. Yet
it remains for US, as a people, TO attain cor
porate national government productive Of re-
suits.
As a people we are doing business very
much as we did it hundred years ago. Our
governmental organization Of the stage coach
period is governmental disorganization TO-
day. The old wooden model Of the eighteenth
century is grooming and creaking under It's
load OF twentieth century steel.
Tradition blinds US. Tradition Is besuti-
full thing in its place Tradition, however.
has no place In business Our government Is
our business. We are the government Yet
we are careless Of waste and Indifferent 20 or
ignorant Of the antiquated system that lays
burden upon each one Of us in the end
We are still the Confederation Of Revou-
tionary times. In the true sense OF the word
we are not a union, though the states, physi-
cally, are bound together with bands Of steel.
Time, distance, space are annihilsted. Com
munication is instantaneous Social and
commercial intercourse is country wide But
progress is halted. Artificial state barriers,
local interests, ancient forms of Federal gov
eminent bar the way.
Laws, laws, laws, laws within laws, laws
against laws, law counterscting law, a wilder.
ness Of law. Forty-eght sovereign states
burden the country with forty-eght different
sets Of clashing sovereign labor, trade, trust,
suffrage and what-not laws. We are free
people, by our sovereign state rights free 20
sack the national treasury. We have laid
the cupboard so bare that We cannot afford
navy-our national life insurance. We are
spending so much money for local purposes
on an ever-increasing pension bill that we
have not the means Of supporting an adequate
standing army. Continental army, universal
service? No. not when we can fatten the
home towns militia payroll at Federal ex-
pense.
As a free people we are won't 20 feel su-
peror 10 natives Of foreign lands That SUI
perority is often misplaced. There are for
eign nations that. out Of chaos not unlike our
own, have evolved governments more repuo-
lican. more Efficient more beneficial 70 their
people than we have ever known.
Modern civilization has crowded US into
community Of nations. If we would put our
house in order against the coming Of neigh
bors We must re. together. II We would re-
sist foreign encroachment Of national rights
we must resist local encroachment on ma
tonal rights First. then. let US forget the
cheap "Amercanism" Of a political campaign
Let US avoid hypocrisy Let US apply praeu-
cal American business efficiency 20 the gov
eminent Of the country. That which Is oeN
for the individual is not best for people pu'
tina. which is best for people IS best Tor the
individual Let US perceive that out OF ma
tioral organization our individual wants vi"
best be served.
The place in the sun for which Germany -
aggressively striving is ours, but we cannot
passiyely hold IT, Foreig organization
laughs in the face Of licensed individualism'
VIC must deny ourselves license and Organize
as a people 20 obtain liberty, both individual
and national, both human and material. la
truth, we must become nationality II We
would survive as a nation. We cannot blink
the facts. EDWARD G. LONCMAN
Brooklyn. June IS. 1919 ->s6&