Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1918-01-10
Success Depends Upon ReaIiza-
ton of Vital interests That
Are at Stake.
NEED LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS
People Can Maintain Enthusiasm
Through Patriotic Leagues In
Each Locality, says James
M. Beck.
BY JAMES NJ. BECK,

TO make trip to the middle West at
the invitation Of patriotic societies In
Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chica-
go, and st. Paul. In each of these
cities addressed large and represent
alive meetings on the issues of the
war. Four of these cities had an ex-
ceptionally large population of foreign
birth or immediate ancestry, that of
Cleveland alone aggregating, as was
informed, rs per cent of its whole pop
ulation.
AS one who from the beginning Of
the war earnestly advocated the par
ticipation of the United States In the
world war In defense of the basic
rights of civilization, / naturally looked
with great interest to the nature OF
the response which / might receive
from audiences gathered, In most cases
by public invitation, to hear a discus
sion of these issues.
If there Is any apathy In the middle
West, these audiences gave no indi-
cation of it.
So far as my experience and obser-
walton In those cities justifies any
opinion-and ] appreciate how dan
gerous such cancellations are-I
found loyal and ungrudging inten-
ton on the part of all classes of
American citizens to support their
country and its president in this most
righteous war.
1t was especially gratifying to see
how the best of the American youth
had arisen with vigor and enthusiasm
to President Wilson's inspiring call to
arms.
Much to Be Done.
Nevertheless there is much TO be
done if the interest is to be maintained
and America is to play a large and
noble part in the greatest of all wars.
There are many ways of developing
this interest, but I know of none that
Is SO well adapted to its object as the
plan proposed by DR.. Ellery G. Stowell.
the distinguished historian of Column
bia college, who some months ago
commenced to develop patriotic serv-
ice league in his own congressional
district. The principal object of this
league was to give the civilian an OPP
portunity to support at home the work
of his soldiers in the field, and the
results which followed Doctor Stow
ellis movement In his own COMPRESSION
al district (the nineteenth of New
York; were so gratifying that SINH
lar local organization was commenced
in the seventeenth district, and the or
ganization has already made an excel
lent beginning.
1t seems very desirable that in ev-
cry congressional district there should
be such patriotic service league, COM
posed of its best citizens, who will
unite to promote the objects of the
war, to secure enlistments, to interest
the masses liz Americas vital stake In
the war, to combat seditiou, to In
crease subscriptions to governmental
loans and the Red Cross, and In all
other possible ways to support the
armies of America in the field.
War in its actual operations has be-
come a matter of mechanics, ehemis-
try, and industrial organization, but
fundamentally it remeias, as 1t has
always been, question of psychology.
No nation ever conducted a great war
to a successful conclusion unless its
heart was in it. For this reason a
very serious work remains to be done
in this country, and that is TO inter-
est the American people, as individu-
ais, in the causes and issues Of this
titanic contest and its supreme I'M
portance to the future of the United
States.
Not All United In rs.
A somewhat similar condition ex-
listed when our Republic was founded.
The great problem was TO interest the
people of the colonies in the struggle.
That struggle has become such an epic
that we are apt to think that all Amer
icans had equal zeal in defending the
constitutional rights of the colonies.
The fact unfortunately was to the con-
trary. John Adams, long after the
revolution had been brought to sue
cessful conclusion, estimated that at
the beginning of the struggle one-third
of the colonists wanted independence,
about one-third were very much OPP
posed to it, and about one-third were
in a state of opportunist expectancy,
waiting to see on which side the bal
anee would fall. While Adams was
something of chronic Pathfinder and
may have exaggerated, yet at the be-
ginning of the revolution cur people
were no more of one mind than they
are now.
The great patriots of the revolution,
men like Jefferson and Washington and
Franklin, formed what they called
"Committees of Correspondence" in ev-
cry different locality and thus they CO.
ordinated the work of different local
tiles and, as the crisis developed, there
passed from community to community,
through these committees of CORE
spondence, the intelligence as to what
was expected and what would be re-