New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-05-14
No Drive Needed
To Win Western
Men to Colors
Personal Service Is Taken
Merely as a Matter
of Course
City Recruiting Lays
In Country People Respond
More Quickly to Call for
Enduring Peace
Snecinl Correspondencel

Kansas City. Mo, May 13.-It is an
cid story that if you want to know the
real drift Of sentiment among the peo-
pie you must get out into the country
side.
have been out in the highways and
byways, seeking to gauge the drift OF
current thought The most striking
feature was the effort in the large
cities to induce an enlistment that
seemed TO falter and hesitate.
There were and are drives for the
navy and endless recruiting campaigns
fer the army. yet the results seemed
distressingly futile.
i is easy enough TO say that the
people had lost their sense Of duty
and obligation and were palsied by the
state of ease and comfort. but the talk
heard disclosed deeper and truer
reason.
In Missouri, in the Southwest, from
Chicago to Cincinnati and in other
places the story was ever the same
Of slow growth in the general con-
ception Of the possible seriousness Of
4 situation that may await US.
There was rarely any excitement as
to whether the possibilities were Of
such a real nature as were constantly
portrayed.
IL was a peculiarly Western state OF
mind that needed to be shown, and only
that. The rest was easy. Nor did the
plea of doing something for your coun-
try because your country had done so
much for you seem altogether convinc-
ing.
There we're many VINO conscientious
~ had been doing much for many years
to make that country a better place to
live in to whom that plea was super
fuous.
The real query often unexpressed,
was, show mucn does the country need
me-" That was the cruX of the situa-
ton. In truth any convincing appeal
10 the West (and to the American peo-
pie, for that matter) must be made to
their ideals if it is to go home.
In the last analysis patriotism is an
elemental and apparently inextin-
guishable sentiment, as opposed TO a
sentimentality which is sometimes
mere sound.
As the dread possibilities of the sit
uatlon slowly percolated into the gem
eral consciousness, it was interesting
ID note the sudden growth of resolu-
ton, especially among the younger
men. All along they had discussed the
likelihood of personal service as 3 mat
ter of course.
Instances that came under my own
ken were numerous. One, young
married man, graduate of one of the
state universities, full of anguish be-
cause a slight physical defect seemed
to bar enlistment along with his class
who went in to a man.
Another, young travelling sales
man, had only one reason, evidently;
some one had to go. so there was no
/ reason that he should not be that one.
The "call,' of which you hear much,
/ reached these men. and therea fter
there was but one course.
That is the spirit of the West, espe-
cially of the rural West.
The West has no illusions about war.
1t knows war only as green and
sinister reality-a thing of beastIiness
and savagery, and of horror unspeak-
able. The old cant about the glores
and heroics of conflict is as extinct
in the West as fire among the thorns.
All the pomp ana circumstance of
glorious war are but empty phrases to
those TO whom war is n dire necessity.
only to be entered into because there
is no other possible alternative, and
because it seems the only possible road
to an enduring peace.
So it is that recruiting has gone on
in the country in far greater proper
tionate measure than in the city. For
to the country it is a serious, dreadful
business, only to be entered into
soberly, advisedly and in the fear Of
the Lord. because there seems no other
way out.
Ii is too serious business 10 be
talked about unduly, too serious to be
made the subject of heroics, too serious
for anything but great sacrifice and
a great self denial, concerning which
there is no delusion among those who
whole -heartedly have made their choice.
As the realization spreads of the
potential dangers OF the situation so
will the soberly thinking West respond
in kind.