New-York tribune., 1918-01-13
oiantes Make a Nationwide Search For Enemies Within

canvass. my efforts would undoubtedly have
borne better fruit.
"The speaker was q mining camp preacher
whose promised salary was 80 small that
the earnings of his son, trapper-boy, alone
insured credit at the company comnils3afys
As matter Of fact, the parson rarely eols
lected to exceed One-half OF the amount prom"
sed him by his flock.
"Knowing all this, 7 had decided not to 9sb
him for a pledge but across him un-
expectedly in the timekeepers office and 1eiS
that | might enbarrass him if | ignored
him in the presence Of the timekeeper
"To my question, Nv ould you like to make
a contribution he promptly replied, Most
certainly; isn't this my war;
Gone remark led to another. until finally
he gave me this: DO you know, l believe
that we cannot win this war until every last
man realizes that this war is personal matt
ter and that as such it requires maximum
personal effort; by effort do not necessarily
mean sacrifice.
"'Ask the next man that you meet to tell
YOU what he has done to help win the war
and you are more than apt to embarrass
him; he may not be Stacker: slackerS arc
not in the majority by any manner OF means,
but somehow he doesn't seem to understand
that the things that he might do could affect
the result Of the conflict What possible
effect could one or two more tons of coal
have on the final result, anyway" he says
to himself if he is a coal miner; and men
in the other occupations have similar views.
"'The inability of the average man to real.
! ize the Importance Of his "bit" toward tho
successful conduct Of the affairs Of his town,
his state his country and his world is posi-.
lively pathetic. Preachers have always real.
/ lied this, but the is bringing it homo
to many other men; before the end it will
probably be brought home to all men.
Take the white slave" evil. or the
liquor evil, or the curse of grating politi-
clans, FOR illustration. How could any one
Of these things exist if every one opposed
to them would make some effort to stamp
them out? Ninety per cent of our popu-
lation, at least, are bitterly opposed to these
, things, and that 80 per cent could easily
, stamp them out for all time in few weeks
if they made the effort; still, year after
year these evils continue to take their
! frghtful toll. Mr.. Average Man shrugs his
l., shoulders when he them mentioned in
. his paper and then promptly turns his atten.
tiou to the next column, and the thing passes
from his mind.
: And in that way Mr. Average Man is help.
= ing 10 win this up to the present time;
he pores over the press dispatches, siEhc
shrues his shoulders, and then goes about hiI
= bus ness.
I have talked to our mine superintendent
| to our Office men and to our miners, and Ehey
all admit that the war is terrible things sti!
| they don't act if they realized that it
such terrible thing. OF course, when thet
sons begin 70 come back manned and crippled
y while still others go to the land from whenc
DC nc traveller returns" things will undoubtadl
!, be different but in the meantime what |
IL price to pay for Indifference!
There IS one consolation think of a
OF klnd Of government we will have when <hi
I'd war makes every one realize his personal q
se sponsbility toward his city, MS state "a
Id his country. a thing that teaching and pref
~ ing haze both failed to do,'"
s---- t.sasa1oD