The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1917-07-27
OUR COUNTRY
by Henry Dwight Sedgwick
of the Vigilantes

War is hateful and a mad thing It
embodies the maximum of human wick
edness and human folly. To turn this
strange and wonderful experience, life
which we came and the darkness to
which we go-that offers to man a
beautiful world to look at, the bound.
less interests Of knowledge. the happi-
ness Of friendship, the enjoyment of la
Dor, the blessing of the deeper affec-
tions, to turn all this into shambles
and hatred is monstrous, the doing of
devils.
But the wickedness and waste of It
must not bind us to some good 70 be
got from it.
/ In the first place there is Russia re.
deemed from tyranny, there will be
| Germany we hope, rescued from her
military madness and at home there
Will be some recompense for our priva.
tions and sufferings The country will
be consolidated as never before: East
and West North and South, will find
sectional differences well nigh obliter.
ated. The western farmer will find the
Wall street banker a man devoted to
the general good, whose chief fault Is
not to be a revolutionary reformer, and
the Wall street banker will feel that
the western farmer should have his
economic condition ameliorated. People
may live three thousand miles apart.
but common emotion will make them
neighbors, far quicker than steam and
electricity
Then we hope that the incidence OF
taxation will fall on luxuries during the
war and will continue to fall on luxur-
les after the war so that now and
hereafter to indulge greatly in luxury
VIII be the sign Of Stacker in patriot.
ism
Then we believe that a league OF
democratic nations will be the begin.
ming Of a real human union, will real.
ize the old dream of Christianity-a
Christendom in which all men shall
be brothers; that no nation will seek
TO Keep market solely for itself, that
protective duties will be suppressed by
international amity, the sword be beat
en- into ploughshare, and military pre-.
paredness be regarded as the last rem.
nant Of the Middle Ages.
But most Of all our country will have
a greater significance for all Of US. Now
we are conscious that we are Irish.
Germans, Italians, Swedes, men Of
Jewish, English, or Scotch descent: we
feel that we are parts of a composite
whole, that America is a sort OF agglu.
ftngfiOn nf rafaaao sol lya, al.
dom from the old world. The war will
change all Of this II is common suffer.
ing and common sacrifice that creates
nation. Not common blood, nor com.
mon speech. nor a common literature.
nor Shakespeare and the Bible, but II Is |
the fact Of having striven and suffered
for the ideal which the country holds
up, that creates and sanctifies a ma. !
tion.
All this taxation, all the Liberty |
Loans, all the gifts to the Red Cross
all the partings with our soldiers anl
sailors, all the blood to be shed, all the
wounds and death to be endured. viii
consecreat the citizens of America, will
unite the forty-eight states, white folks
and colored rich and poor men OF
German with men Of French descent.
men OF English with men OF Irish |
blood, into one great self-conscious or.
ganism. animated by a purpose higher |
and nobler than the purposes OF ordl. |
nary men. and will give TO each Ameri |
ON the sense Of a great personal re
sponsibility, and great personal self.re-
spect, because he is a citizen Of such n |
regenerate nation.
Such good as this we must not lose |