Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-09-22
i" GOVERNMENT SHALL NOT
PERISH"
The Nation Shall Have A New Birth
OF Freedom Of the People and
By the People.

The United States has learned a
/ great deal about itself since the OPEN
! ing of the war 1t has learned, for
/ instance, that the nation has great
need of preparedness for war, when
war impends, but it has learned also
that there is such thing as prepared
ness for peace, and in either case that
preparedness cannot stop short of a
condition of thought, a national unity
of purpose and idealism. wherein
every individual of the aggregation
that stands as the nation shall feel
himself in accord with the idea Of
government and individual freedom
that has its expression in the term
United States of America
Long before the war opened the
need of this kind of unity was gen.
orally recognized. but the conditions
seemed to defy analysis. There was
much talk of the melting pot"
many observers were agreed that the
United States had been taking in its
unregenerate thousands from over
seas much more rapidly than it could
obsorb them and there was increas-
ing apprehension over the fact that
vast numbers of newcomers to Amer
cia were growing up here in colonies
where they were, unfortunately, re-
leased from many of the restrictions,
that would have bound them in their
former homes, and yet were out of
reach of those influences which
should have been leading and train
ing them toward the assumption of
the responsibilities without which no
individual can be true citizen of the
American Republic.
In the heat of this war, citizenship
everywhere has been tried as in
furnace In the United States, as
elsewhere, citizenship has been newly
evaluated, if not newly defined. Like
patriotism, it has once again been
seen to be not cheap thing TO be
lightly assumed or cast aside, but as
i'm other great periods of the worlds
history, it has been seen and recog-
niZed as a vital allegiance, personal
alignment, a pledge, binding the COM
ponent individuals of a nation, in eff
lCNls W SCCh lilC SOOQ VI CoNh Ny
working for the good of all
Now that the experiences of the war
have brought clarifcation in the ma
tion thought on this subject. a ma
tional movement is getting under way
to correct the errors of the past with
respect to the development of citizen
ship, and to forfend against errors of
the future Schools, social settle
ments, labor organizations, civic as
sociations, are being correlated in
nationwide effort ITO reach the So
called alien elements of the popula-
tion of this great country with new
and more friendly and more sympa
thetic interest The purpose will be
to give the newcomers greater incen-
tive and opportunity to meet and
mingle with those who are already
imbued with the ideals for which the
nation stands; to offer instruction in
the history of the nations origin and
development that shall lead alien resi-
dents to true understanding of the
American idea of government, and
that shall bring them, surely if slow
ly, to the status of good citizens.
This work is one that should not be
limited to any class cr any profess
sional group 1t is one that can well
be kept in view and aided by personal
effort on the part of all classes and
all individuals. For in some such eff
fort, perhaps exclusively, lies the
hope of continuing democracy effec-
tive, and those who sincerely give
their services to their country in this
wise. whether in war or in peace, are
surely contributing to the end that,
in those oft-quoted words of Lincoln
at Gettysburg. "the nation shall, un-
der God, have a new birth of freedom,
and that government of the people,
by the people, and for the people,
shall not perish from the earth. -
(Christian Science Monitor)