Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1918-02-22

crushed every vestige of popular gov
ernment and inaugurated and perpet-
uated rule OF blood and iron.
"For seventy years they and their
SUCCESSORS built up and cemented a
military state which denied every
principle of democracy, adopted ag-
gressive conquest as it's chosen law of
growth, trained it's people from child
hood to willing obedience, utilized all
human science to make its armies
and navies irresistible. and openly
prepared to subjugate Europe and
dominate the world.
When its preparation was complete
and the time ripe, it struck the long
medit;,ted blow.
For over three years its develish
doctrines translated into develish
deeds have filled the world with blood
and tears and immeasurable desola-
ton.
Yet l call you to witness that IS
these awful months of carnage and
rapine have heightened into years,
as nation after nation have been
dragged into the furnace of affection,
the cause, the nature, and the great
issue of the struggle have become
clearer, simpler, more luminous, and
riore inspiring.
cat first it may have seemed to
many simply another European war,
the natural outgrowth of national
jealousies and economic rivalries.
Slowly to our eager eyes and ha-
rassed minds the curtain has been
lifted, and the true issue revealed.
The altar fires of sacrifice have purg-
ed our suffering dcmocracies of sell
fish aims and consecrated them to n
higher purpose. till with the revolu-
tion in Russia and the entrance of
the United States into the struggle,
the war has been lifted to n spiritual
plane.
1t is now a worldwide conflict be-
tween liberty and despotism. between
right and might, between applied
Christianity and brutal paganism.
between the democracy of the twen-
tieth century and the autocracy of
the middle ages.
If it ends in the complete triumph
of democracy, it should be the last
great war. Never have the free peo-
Piles of the world been SO united, new
er have the sacred rights of the weak
been so widely proclaimed and ac-
cepted, never has so fair a hope il
Eliminated the worlds horizon; never
before, in such entire accord. have the
lovers of liberty in all the world,
statesmen and social reformers, finan-
ciers and day-laborers, Catholic and
Jew and Protestant, so dedicated their
energies to q common purpose. Where
ever on. the globe are found human
hearts that love human freedom
in hoary China and alert Japan, in
New Zealand and South Africa and
Australia, among the mighty DEM
ocracies of North and South Ameri-
co, in rock-ribbed England and he
roic France and Bleeding Italy, there
are our allies battling with us for lib
erty and justice for the future peace
of our storm tossed world.
"The teachers first duty. therefore,
and his first obligation is to get his
mind right. What is the second?
"2. Let this knowledge so affect
your emotions, so kindle your love of
human justice and liberty, your love
of home and fireside and native land,
and your moral indignation against
tyranny, treachery, cruelty and op-
preston that your whole being catch
es fire and burns with passionate
devotion and the spirit of self-sac-
rifice. There need be no cold neutral
ity or indifference when great moral
issues are at stake. While pitying
the individual German suffered as an
individual, recognize moral indigna-
tion as force making for righteous
ness in the world, and make no eff
fort to check or cool your passionate
indignation against cruelty, treach-
cry, tyranny and rapine, and the dew
elish sytsem that has turned them
loose on the world.
"The second element Of your prep
aration, therefore, is To get your heart
right, till service becomes a privi-
lege, self-denial pleasure and your
resolution hardens into steel. The
third is to transmute knowledge and
feeling into fruitful activity.
with mind and heart prepared,
get your hands to work Enter at
once upon one or more definite lines
of patriotic service; Food Conserva-
tion, Red Cross and Relief Work, Y.
M. c. A. War-Work, the purchase of
Liberty Bonds, Thrift Stamps. mail
ing literature to soldiers, assisting
Registration Boards, aiding drafted
men and their families. loyalty back
ing all Government agents and all
Government Agencies, and cheerful
ly submitting to inconvenience and
hardship. Translate thus the vivid
ness Of your knowledge and the devo-
tion of your heart into every posi-
BILE form of active service.
These three are the duties and priv
ileges of every patriotic citizen. Now,
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