New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-04-06
Everything
When at last the President said:

- y >H~~~~E3
When at last the President said:
We are nozo about to accept the
gage of battle zcith this natural foe to
liberty, and shall, If necessary, spend
The zchole force of the nation to check
and nulli!y its pretemsioms and its
pozcer. The zcorld must be
made safe for democracy
it seemed to us that never had the tongue
of democracy been more eloquent. Surely
never was its soul more stirred, and
never was the thrill of anticipation
sooner lost in the pain Of effort.
year has passed.
In collective effort there should be
some sheer JOY of participation. We
have experienced almost none of that, not
only because the degree of our participa-
ton has been disappointing, but because
all intermediate emotions have been over
whelmed by the sense of increasing ne.
cessity-the necessity of greater and vet
greater effort.
There has been also the sense Of
failing.
We wish to speak of that.
The account is in dispute. On one
side is the record Of things accomplished.
On the other side is the reckoning of time
wasted away. People are torn between
desire to appreciate one set of facts
and feeling Of anxiety over the other.
From almost nothing we have built an
army. We have moulded the concrete
ship. We have fooled the highest power
airplane motor in the world. We have
designed U-boat chaser to be built like
Ford cars. We have poured out our
money uncomplainingly.
Are these not achievements to be proud
of? May we not derive from them
sense of participation?
eyes," say these.
NO." say those.
These are they who think that for the
sake of greater mass effort the heart
must be kept lifted up.
Those, on the other side, think gri1nly
OF the heart and are dissatisfied with
anything short of the utmost. To them
it seems that nothing is really achieved
1t time is wasted. What shall it avail
us to perform miracles if they are all
too late?
Throughout this controversy, of which
there will be enough elsewhere, runs a
sense OF failing. The emotional, the al
most hysterical, manner in which the con-
duct of the war continues to be defended
is owing only partly to the bitterness
with which it has been attacked. and
otherwise very largely to the same sense
OF failing that gives rise to the criticism.
Only by an effort of detachment do we
ever get far enough away to see our
selves. We are all much alike-pessi-
mists and optimists, those who criticisa
and those who defend.
The tendency to boast and the passion
for self-castigation are the two ends of
the same<thing-namely, the spirit of
youth, which though continually failing
never fails, but through trial and error
triumphs at last.
In the same way the sense of achieving
and the sense Of failing are the two ends
Of one thing, which is the intuition of
The heart knows steadily what we
shall do. 1t is not afraid to be heroic
and sentimental. The mind is conserva-
tive, logged and pessimistic.
We prefer just now to speak Of those
things of the heart wherein the achieve
ment is already spiritually complete.
Our going to war was an act inspired
by quality Of faith unacknowledged in
the world since the Holy Crusades. We
cut ourselves off beforehand from anv
possibility of material advantage. The
President said:
NE are glad to fight for
the ultimate peace Of the zuorld and
for the liberation Of the people, the
German people included.
NE hare no selfsh ends to serve. NE
desne mo conquest. NE seek no in
demnitaes for ourselves, no material
compensation far the sacriGces we
shaA freely make.
1t is simply glorious to 70 to war like
that. No people in this world ever did
more romantic thing.
That we we're unarmed seemed az
nothing. That to carry a modern war
1000 miles across sea was in itself =
unique undertaking-that vas nothing.
either.
Then 1T vas necessary to think of an |
army. What happened? In this indi-
yidaslistic. .undisciplinsd. political, ton
Ekx,pnandsd country ye passed a con.