The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1917-09-13

| be violated at will when this observ-
ance "becomes inconvenient, how
long indeed would or could private
morality endure? How long would
if be possible to enforce in business
and in ordinary human relations the
principles of the sacredness of con-
tracts, and Jehovah's stern high doc
trine that he who would dwell in his
holy hill must be man who swear
eth to his own hurt and changeth
not?"
But what about our allies?" some
one asks. You say it is a war be-
tween democracy and autocracy; and
yet is not our chief ally-Great Brit
ain-itself monarchy, governed by
king?" 1t is important, We think,
that the facts in this case be clearly
stated. England, in fact, is probably
truer democracy today than the
United States itself. The king is a
mere figurehead, stripped of all real
power. He doesn't even write the
speeches or messages read in his
name. The real ruler Of England is
not King George, born to the purple,
but Lloyd-George, the Welsh lad born
in poverty and reared by his cobler-
uncle and made Premier of England
by the power of the common people!
Some Englishmen advocate the aboli-
ton of the kingship and the substi-
tuition of a president as in our case,
but the sufficient answer is that no
body in England wants to give
British ruler as much power as an
American President has!
And then there are our other al
lies-France, glorious immortal
France! the land which glorifies senti-
ment and honor and the things of the
spirit as Germany glorifles force and
blood and war! Some say that al
ready the French people have made
such sacrifices, have offered up so
MANY gallant sons on the bloody al
tars of this war, that they can never
again be a strong nation; that they
are irretrievably weakened. Yet
even if that be true, she is neverthe-
less immortal: and when men have
forgotten Thermopylae they will still
remember Glorious France standing
beside the Marne and throwing her
own bleeding body against the ad-
vancing Huns and thus saving the
future of mankind for higher civil
lization than would ever have been
possible but for her self-immolation!
Moreover, it is our faith that Rus
sia will yet justify the high hopes OF
her friends. We shall not be sur
prised to see esta blished within her
borders the most advanced democracy
this world has yet seen-a govern
ment intent on establishing a more
genuine equality among all men than
any other nation now enforces. And
when that is done, we cannot but
believe that something of the same
leaven will begin it's work among
the German people,; that they will
free themselves from the hypnotic
spell of a brutal autocracy unworthy
of them, and that out of it all will
come at last the realization Of the
poets dream of the time when
The war drum throbbed no longer,
and the battle flags we're furled
In the Parliament of Man, the Fed
Grafton of the World!''
1t is in service to such high and
holy cause that America today sum-
mons all her sons and daughters.
Millions will answer the call to the
colors, but to millions of others at
home there open up opportunities
for patriotic effort hardly less def
mite and no less real. Let the en-
battled farmer think on these things
as he entreats the fruitful earth for
it's utmost yield of food for
his homeland and its allies! Let
the housewife think on these things
as she does her part in conserving
the nations food supplies in her own
home And let boys and girls, young
men and young women, think on
these things as they set themselves
to their own not unimportant duties
the duty of avoiding all idleness
the duty of using every possible hour
in some really fruitful service to
America and to humanity in this
hour Of need!
In the language of President Will
sons own concluding words in his
wonderful war-message to the. Ameri-
can Congress:
1T is a fearful thing to lead