Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-02-29

ticularly while so many people are
talking in a way that obscures counsel
and is entirely off the point.
1.-THE point in national affairs GEN
tlemen, never lies along the lines of
expediency. 1t always rests in the
field of principle. The United States
was not founded upon any principle
of expediency; 1t was founded upon
a profound principle of human lib
erty and of humanity, and whenever
it bases its policy upon any other
foundations than those it builds on
the sand and not upon solid rock.
1T seems to me that the most en-,
tightening thing a man can do is sug-
gested by something which the vice
president said tonight. He complained
that he found men who, when their
attention was called to the signs of
spring, did not see the blue heaven, did
not see the movement of the free
clouds, did not think of the great
spaces of quiet continent, but thought
only of some immediate and pressing
piece of business. 1t seems to me that
if you do not think of the things that
lie beyond you and away from and
disconnected from this scene in which
we attempt TO think and conclude. vol
will inevitably be led astrav.
Il would a great deal rather know
u-ha TO
quiet firesides all over this country
than what they are talking about in
| the cloak-rooms of congress. l would
great deal rather know what the
men on the trains and by the wavside
and in the shops and on the farms are
thinking about and yearning for than
hear any of the vociferous proclama-
tons of policy which it is so easy to
/ hear and so easy to read by picking
/ up any scrap of printed paper.
There is only one way to hear
these things and that is constantly to
go back to the fountains of American
action. Those fountains are not to be
found in any recently discovered
sources.
Senator Harding was saying Just
now that we ought to try when we
are 100,000,000 strong to act in the
same simplicity of principle that our
forefathers acted in when we were
100000 strong. l heard somebody say
i do not know the exact statistics
that the present population of the
United States is 100000 If there
are 100000 thinking the same things
that the original 100000 thought, the
100,000,000 will be saved for an illus
trious future.
They were ready to stake every
thing for an idea, and that idea was
not expediency, but justice. And the
infinite difficulty of public affairs gen
tlemen, is not to discover the signs
of the heaven and the directions of the
wind, but to square the things you dc
by the not simple but complicated
standards of justice. Justice has moth
ing to do with eXpediency. Justice has
nothing to do with any temporary
standard whatever. 1t is rooted anC
grounded in the fundamental instinct.
of humanity.
America ought to keep out of this
war. She ought keep out of this wa
; at the sacrifice of everything eXcep
this single thing upon which her char
acter and history are founded, he
sense of humanity and justice. If sh
sacrifices that she has ceased to b.
America; she has ceased to entertain
and to love the traditions which hav
made us proud to be Americans, ant
when We go about seeking safety a
the expense of humanity, then | 70
one will believe that l have Away
been mistaken in what | have con
ceived to be the spirit of American
history.
You never can tell your direction
except by long measurements. Yo
cannot establish a line by two posts
! you have got to have three at leas
to know whether they are Straigh
with anything, and the longer you
line the more certain your measure
ment There is only one way in whic
to determine how the future of tn
United States is going to be projecte
and that is by looking back and see
ing which way the lines ran which lie
, up to the present moment of powe
, and opportunity.
There is no doubt about tina
;c
E honor in America is. The roll of hor
or consists of the names of men VIII
have squared their conduct by ideal
of duty. There is no one else upo
the roster; there is no one else who's
O name we care to remember when "
o measure things upon a national seal
;, "And l wish that whenever an in
; pulse of impotence comes upon Il
. whenever an impulse to settle a thin
4 some short way tempts us, we migl
= close the door and take down SON
y old stories Of what American idea
lists and statesmen did in the pas
G and not let any counsel in that doe
:, not sound in the authentic voice
a American tradition. Then we shall /
certain what the lines of the futul
are, because We shall know we al
steering by the lines of the past v
q shall know that no temporary cor
veniences, no temporary expedienc
4 will lead US either to be rash or to |
!, cowardly.
Il would just as much ashamed i
II be rash as l would to be a cowar
G Valor is self-respecting. Valor is CT