The Republican journal., 1918-09-12
Saving Democracy Alive.

have seen elsewhere palaces IN ruins,
and statues both of gods and men de-
faced, and yet there are men stlll.-Mon-
taigne
Civil war veterans still tell the story
of a soldier in, their day of battle who
threw a wounded comrade over his
shoulder and he1oically bore him to a
place of safety, not knowing that the
mans head was shot off on the way.
''Thunder." muttered the rescuer, as he
laid down the corpse, II thought he had
head en- him or l wouldn't have bother
ed with him."
1t will be much the same now if the
democracy we are struggling to save is
found to he dead when its rescue is &C
complished. Signs abound that there is
great need of guarding against such IL
asco. TO meet the require raents essen
tial for efficient war making, many
rights and benefits of a free people are
Loyalty given up both by civilians ard by
men in military and naval servie; but no
one should be allowed to forget that this
is done only for the emergency. For
single example, one of the wonders and
glories of the present is the manner in
which young men from all parts of our
vast land and every class have yielded
Up their lifelong and instructive inde-
pendence to the mandatory control of
the officers set over them. They have
done so because this is felt to be the only
way Just now to safeguard the liberty
they love. 1t is of the utmost impor-
lance that all thus entrusted with au-
thority keep this fact clear in their
minds. Democracy must survive this
war to save it-must not have its head
shot off in the process by autocracy,
whether of Hun or homeland breed
else this war will have been fought in
vain.
1t goes without saying, of course, that
efficiency requires the dignifyiEg of the
officer and subordinating of the private.
No sane mind questions the necessity of
the regulations and customs to that end.
Yet in war for the preservation of de-
mocracy it is fatuous, not to say treach-
erous, for the officer to 60 beyond the
military requirements of his position and
penetrate essential violations of democ-
racy in his treatment of the men. To
develop autocracy among ourselves will
simply render our war making abortjve.
Why make public assertion of this truth?
Any one who has had opportunity to OBJ
serve widely and at close range knows
| the answer. Officers are human, and that
means prone to err. In recent officers
meeting in a certain large training post
pointed aGmonition was given against
harsh and unreasonable treatment of the
men.
! A close observer of affairs remarked
not long ago that new aristocracy is
coming in Americs-not, as heretofore,
an aristocracy of wealth, or of family, or
of culture, but one of "officers of the line, ,"
of commissioned officers of the army and
! navy. Doubtless there is much to war
rant this prediction And there is no
reasonable ground Of objection to such
development; for the officers of this war
are picked men, highly trained, worthy of
distinguished honor in days to come by
reason of the great service they are now
rendering. But it is also true, as man
high in authority has recently declared,
that the millions of young men now IN
the nations army and navy will be the
real rulers of our country for generation
to come. All aristocracles, every form OF
autocracy, will surely bow to their citizen
might, in politics, in business, Isn church,
in all our common life. They will see to
it that the democracy they saved in their
youth is not corpse on their hands. All
who command them now will do well to
bear themselves with due regard to the.
high call those men are now answering
and will swell hereafter-the call to save
democracy ahve.-Boston Herald and
Journal.