The Springdale news., 1918-05-17
THE WAR AS A MELTING POT.

of our foreign immigrants. While the need has been great that this foreign ele- ment be fused with the national life as quickly as possible, there is yet another phase of American life wherein the melt ing pot can render great service, and that melting pot will be developed in the war upon which we have entered. Until recent years America has been distressingly provincial Not provincial as whole, but provincial by sections. The down easter looked with suspicion upon anything having it's origin outside old New England. The southerner view ed all parts of the country save the West as alien territory, and only had toler- ance for that section because 1t was made I'D largely of his kinsman. The citizen of the Middle West has always been convinced that creation ceased with the completion of his territory, and so 1t ran The thoughts and customs of the various sections were antagonistic, and 1t was only grudgingly that either could be brought to admit that there might be anything of merit come out of the other.
 All this the war will change. We will no longer be nation of many elements all antagonistic and out of sympathy. We will no longer waste our energies Tn berating and belittling our neighbors because, forsooth they may not view all of life with our eyes
 In France there are today young men from every part of this country fighting side by side sharing the same dangers and the same death. As the war pro- gresses their numbers are increasing. Each is learning from others, and each IS unconsciously learning to see life from the others viewpoint. As the association progresses, many common views will be developed, and where antagonlsm exists, close and intimate contact will gradual ly but surely bring each into harmony with the other
 When this war is ended and our boys come home, 1t will not be crowd of pro- vincials we shall welcome, but an army of osmopolitans-world citizens, we may say. These men will have probed to the bottom the character of their fellows and learned all there was to know of them. And in that knowledge they will each have found much of value when full ly understood, and will have learned to appreciate to the full the good points of all
 The war will complete what our great
 
 will make of us at last one compact na- tion, all Americans together, all with a common interest, common love and common destiny.
 The bare fact that President Wilson has asked Congress for authority to raise an army of four millions of men, should strike some people in this country with severe jolt "Oh, it will soon be over,' or |. burden of the song of the Would-be slack CT. With 1t he attempts t. get by in his p,'ful evasion of the calls of hls govern lnent for the rnstinted suel ort of loyal sohs. President Wilson wou', never call for such an army had he tk,. least hope that the end was in sight. We have been assured by the Allied leaders that IT strength must be thrown into the fray before victory can even be hoped for. And with the calling of this immense force, the companion call will go out for those left at home to sustain these arrn- ies in the field Our sons, our brothers, husbands and fathers are going lover there.' Mark we'll the man or the Wo- man who seeks by any preteXt to escape his or her just share of responsibility for sheir support. Yes, the hour has arrived when we must include the women in this grave responsibility. No one who can by any possible means contribute has now the right lag behind. Slothfulness inac- tivity, wastefulness, idleness, must be obsolete words in the vocabulary of Americans until our boys shall have for ever put to rest that accursed nightmare of Prussianism.