New Britain herald., 1918-07-03

] During the spring of 1917 certain groups of patriots in the East, par 1 tcularly in New Y YOrl< and Boston, did
 a great deal of worrying about the
 Middle and Western states. These
 EaSterners would come together at 1 luhcheOns and committee meetings, 1 ana after getting into a condition of 1 corrective depression about the apathy o1 the country, they would appoint 1 one of their number to act as an ora 1 tOrlcal commission. "RudiEcr, go out ] there,' they would say to him. 'Ru- d1ger for Gods sake, go out and rouse the Middle Vest" And Rudiger would go cut on his rouSing expedi- ] tlOh and make speeches before Com fnerclal Clubs. and at larger meet fngs. and then go back home without having noticed that the Middle and Western states were already passing their quotas for enlstmcnts of fight ing men, whereas Rudiger's own state at that time, had filled just about a. third of It's own quota.
 However, the Rudigers were not all Fasteners. About 100,00O,000 peo- pla seemed 10 feel that the United States did not realize that it was ut war Rudiger's name was not legion,
 
 that he was almost the only person in America who "comprehended the full seriousness of the situation." He got a sombre satsfa ction out of his forebOdings. 'They1l see!" he would predict. "They'1l wake up and find out what they're in for. some day when it's too late maybe; but 1 tell you they don't know what it means! They're at war with the greatest mil itary power in the world, and they're sound asleep! l tell you it drives man almost crazy to see, as do. what this war means, and then look about him at all these millions of peo- pie behaving as if therc weren't any war at all!"
 East, West North and South, Ru- diger got the habit of scolding. He felt that he had the whole war on his one pair of shoulders. For day he might forget it a little, and go out and play golf. Then another day would come, when the weight 'of the war would lie heavily on him. and he'd see some other Rudiger playing golf, and Rudiger would watch him from the clubhouse Veranda, and groan and scold. The big dunder- heads!" he would splutter. They just can't realize it! Nobody's doing anything, Nobody's even worrying!
 Yes; almost all of us had a touch Of Rudiger in those days. We imagined that we felt the war more than our neighbors did; the thought made us irritable and there was vast scOld- ing. We produced many thousands of editorials and posters founded on the YOU theme. The Kaiser will get If n don't subscribe to the Red Cross, or if YOU don't buy Liberty Bonds. Are YOU doing your duty? If not YOU will be painted yellow.
 Of course, this going after YOU in such an ObStreperOuS way was cOnSid- cred by advertising experts to be the most effective form of rousing, but in the light of later events one may venture to express a doubt and to cX- press also an opinion that the YOU campaign was inspired mainly by it's conceniality with the nervous irrita hiIitv Of the time It was Rudigerisn. Whereas, what has really made things happen on the great scale is neither the attack on YOU nor YOUR sus- ceDtibility to scolding, but the WE, ITS and OUR spirit.
 When a poster shouts at me, you aren't in the trenches, I am apt to feel a little anta gonism. and my thought may he. What business is it of yours, you poster man, or adTert1S- ing specialist? YOU aren't in the trenches. either. YOU are as safely at home as anybody, and YOU have not the right to be screaming re- breaches and warnings at me. YOU don't know what I'm doing or trying to do for our cause. YOU seem to think it's more your war than 1t Is mine. and YOU think YOU have to wake me up. and YOU make me tired," Or if Pm a selfish and gnat- brained person. the kind at whom the YOU shooting is chiefly aimed. my emotional process may take tNls form: Gut out the bull! Yelling YOU isn't going to get me to do anything I don't want to do ou can't work me, 'ho'."
 Of course. there were individuals who had to be shamed into war ef- forts. and no doubt the YOU work helped to get them into line. but the really important American pronouns have proved to he those of the hrst& person plural. It was WE. US and OUR that reached those citizens whom we formerly called German- Americans" If was WE. LIS and OUR that left nothing of the hyphen and the hyphon had only Smarted the redder under the mustard plaster nroroun vOtr. When the 'German- Americans'. as we called them tound that OUR country was at war. they erased the hvrhen. They might have remained "German- Ameri ms. if we h, j ro,o +o war with any country eX- cent Germany and this is one great benofi+ that Germany conferred upon ,,s when she alta cked us: she killed the hvphen. She counted on killing if and so far her calculations were ----.-.-+ ro.,t -I,, is mi nleaSea with