Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-02-16
CHATTER OF. TEN MILLIONS

IT is the glory Of America that there are
- 100000 men in it peculiarly fitted by
q training and natural ability to run this
+ war. The man who rubs shoulders with
you in the trolley can tell all about the
mistakes that are being made and is ready
to prescribe a remedy. Some hundreds
d Of writer's Of fiction, who market their own
material and make a living out of it, are
I back Of the battle line with notebooks and
pencils and their expert opinions may be
read by anybody who has two cents to
Invest in newspaper.
In any corps of drafted men may be
rifound bankers. lawyers, engineers, boot
blacks authors, statesmen, loggers ice.
men and students. Every one of them
has done some thinking for himself and his
4 mental processes are not going to quit
functioning simply because he Is under
privileged class that does the thinking,
and 1t thinks only in terms of discipline.
Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to
do and die" The American expects to do
and die IL necessary, but he is going to
reason why before ne does either. Theg,
are ten thousand critics in America where
there is one in Germany That, we say,
ID the glory of America.
When the Phoenicians invented the al
phabet they immortalized speech. The
Epartans at the same time were inventing
the word "laconic' and giving 1t meaning
BY the institution of a militarism more
rigorous than that of the Hun today.
Sparta, however, is only an incident in
the history books, but Athens, which
standardized the alphabet and used it, is
still the mother Of arts and eloquence,"
and the glory Of her intellectual influence
fought with Sparta, civilization fought
with barbarism. That war is being fought
over again today on larger scale.
What is civilization? The subjection,
we should say, of mere brute force to
mental control. The spear the sword, the
bow and arrow. the gun, all were inven.
stions to overcome inequalities of strength,
TO give weak man dominion over the beast
and to put him on an equality with his
neighbor. A David with a pistol is always
as mighty as Goliath. That is the secret
Of social organization. We do not make
men equal by law. but by putting into
their hands the instruments of equalization
and teaching them their use. The Hun
has planned to reverse this process and
induce an international inequality, with
himself supreme. 1t is as il the inventor
0f the gun had gathered a force and
armed It, thus bringing the world into
subjection. as Cortez did Mexico. The
Hun built an enormous machine gun with
individuals as his material and launched
It against the world before the world knew
what was being attempted. One of the
attributes Of that machine is perfect obedl-
enee and no complaint. The world is fooled
machine Is without error or blunder.
Our Government will receive and ought
TO get all sorts Of criticism. Hurting in
,yectives is the great American pastime.
Our Government can even endure mag.
nif1cent insults. but it cannot endure the
translation Of captious criticism into cap
edge Of our endcavor to new sharpness
:is ideal. but when the file right-angles the
.edge It Is disastrous and intolerable. To
>get rid OF a few well-meaning old dodos
who have inherited important bureau
chairs Il great objective, but a general
upheaval is not. Besides. things move SO
fart. Some Of the charges OF Senator
chamberlain. for instance. were as damna.
,bly true when he began his attack as they
~pre damnably false by the time he fin
Shed Il. We crowd now cycle OF events
y - stil talking OF the exile to Kansas
0onersl Wood. tho wire brought news
~ being wounded in France, While
,<elphIa debates whether or not the
III hss fallen down. General Pershing
- three times the allotted number
reed not worry about the clatter OF
rlllion Ths incohsrency Of their
orI1nIx tranalatsd into dsnnite
s - I'm ~ -