Omaha daily bee., 1917-02-11

nationally in terms of the whole
United States, its aims, its interests,
and its honor. When America speaks
or when America acts, the whole
world should know that it speaks and
acts as a nation and net as series
of conflicting and antagonistic groups
or sections. When this comes to pass
we shall have ceased to drift in our
international policies and relation
ships"
Drifting in Other Ways.
In other respects, DR.. Butler found
America was drifting, one of them
being with relation to industrial prob
lens. "Our present habit" he said,
lis to let things drift until some acute
crises occurs and then to meet it by
surrender or by compromise, without
any regard to the future but with
eyes fixed only on the immediate pres
emf. The greater part of the public
seems to be utterly oblivious to the
critical position in which the great
railway systems of the United States
have been put, not by constructive reg
ulation or governmental supervision.
but by policies of competing, con-
flicting, and unrelated prosecutions
and pin-pricking, The great railways
of the United States are national as
sets and they constitute the arterial
system of our commercial and indus
trial life. They are asking, and they
should quickly receive, single, con-
sistent, and we'll orderd constructive
oversight and regulation from the ma
tional government and from the ma
tional government alone. 1t was local
interference with commerce that led
directly to the formation of the con-
stitution of the United States. 1t is
local interference with commerce that
now constitutes perhaps our most diff
fcult domestic problem"
Pleads for New Policy.
DR.. Butler also referred in this dis
cussion to drifting tendencies against
considering great industries and cor
porate undertakings as primarily
something human, and not merely
something mechanical, or material, or
financial. He pleaded for a new policy
to govern many of our economic and
industrial relationships.
In respccr to national service, the
country was also drifting. mo one
can possibly hate the state of mind
and the spirit that are militarism more
than l do" said he. "And no one
would resist more actively and en-
phatically any movement TO change
the peace-loving industrial spirit and
temper of our people for any of the
older forms of militarism that are
now slowly going to their deaths,
let us hope never to be resurrected
on the battlehelds Of Europe.
Obligations and Opportunities.
But there is a call to national serv-
ice and preparation for it which, so
far from sharing the spirit of militar-
ism, are only the voice of democracy
conscious of its obligations and its
duties, as we'll as of its rights and
opportunities. We speak in general
terms of the obligation which every
citizen owes to his country, but what
have we done to make that obligation
plCIiSC duu " III Sdtn SltlLCll " us
charge it? What have we done to
render more than lip-service to the
democratic principle? Compulsion is
not foreign to the spirit Of democracy,
although democracy uses it sparingly.
Democracy lays its hands on the
child, and for its own protection as
we'll as for its good, says that he and
his parents must discharge a certain
obligation through attendance upon
the elementary school. Through such
compulsory attendance, the state en-
deavors to protect itself and each in
dividual citizen from the dangers and
limitations that attend illiteracy and
the lack of all intellectual and moral
discipline. In the light of our present
experience, why should not the ma