Fergus County Democrat., 1916-05-18
THREE YEARS. WORK As
CHIEF EXECUTIVE Of j. S,


small town, all have to do is to
go there and they at once line up to
be counted. might, in census TAX
ing year. save the census takers a
great deal Of trouble by asking them
to accompany me and count the people
Oh the spot. Sometimes, when | am
most beset, | seriously think of rent
ing pair or whiskers or Of doing
something else that will furnish me
with an adequate disguise, because |
am sorry to find that the cut of my lib
is unmistakable and must sail under
false colors if am going to sail in
cognito.
Yet, as have matched my expert
ences with my anticipations, |, of
course, have been aware that | was
taken by surprise because Of the prom
inence of many things to which l had
not looked forward. When we are
dealing with things that to us as
Americans are more or less calculable.
Ihere Is great variety among our cit
izenshtp, il is true, a greater variety
even tnan had anticipated; but after
all we are all stepped in the same at
same environment, we are all more or
less affected by the same traditions,
anu moreover, we are working out
something that has to be worked out
among ourselves. and the elements are
there to be dealt with at first hand.
But when the fortunes of our own
country are, so to say, subject to the
lhcalculable winds of passion that are
blowing through other parts of the
world, then the strain is of a singular
and unprecedented kind. because YOU
90 not know by what turn of the wheel
OF fortune the control of things is GO
ing TO be taken out of Your hands.
1t makes no difference how deep the
passion OF the nation lies, that pas
SION may be SO overborne by the rush
Oh fortune IN circumstances like those
"hich no" exist that man feels when
MS own affairs are not within his own
hahdS. You can imagine the strain
upon the feeling of any man who is
trying to interpret the spirit of his
country when he feels that the spirit
cannot have it sown way beyond a
certain point, And one of the great
est points ol strain upon me, il may
ne permitted to point il out was this:
mere are two reasons why the
chiel wish Of Americans is for pcace
one Is that they love peace and have
nothing to do with the present ouar.
rel, and the other is that they beliava
the present quarrel has carried those
engaged III 1t so far that they cannot
be held to ordinary standards of re,
spohsibllity, and that therefore. as
selne men have expressed il TO me-
SINCE the rest OF the world is mad why
should we not simply refuse to have
ahNthlhg to do with the rest of the
WoFIu III the ordinary channels of ac.
lioh' NhF not let the storm pass and
'i'eh' when it is all over, have the
reckonings?
hhoWlng that from both these
points oi view the passion of America
Was lof peace, | was, nevertheless.
aware .hat America is one of the ma
1oiis OF the world, hut one of the CHIEF
nations Oh The world-a nation that
grows more and more powerful al.
most IN spite of herself; thai grows
morally more and more Influential,
even when she is not aware of il. and
'llat II she is to play the part which
SUE most coNets it is necessary thai
she Siioaid act more or less from the
polll OF view OF the rest of the We rid
IL can not retain my moral influ-
/ ehce over man except by occasional
~ Knocking him down, if that is the
only basis upon which he will respect
me, then, for the sake of his soul. |
nave got occasionally to knock him
down.
You know how we have read tn
isn't 1t in Ralph Connor's stories of
western life i'll Canada THAT all his
SKY pilots are ready for fracas at
any time, and how the ultimate sal
walton OF the souls of their pari,hion-
ers depend upon their using their fist
occasionally. II Il man will not listen
TO you quietly in a seat, sit on his
neck and make him listen; jus, as
always have maintained, particularly
IN view of certain experiences of mine,
mat the shortest road to boys moral
sense Is through his cuticle. There
Is direct, and. if may be permitted
! the pun, fundamental connection be-
tween the surface of his skin and his
! moral consciousness. You arrest his