Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-08-17
PATRIOTS AND PATRIOTS

TT is. Interesting to read that Charles M.
L Schwab was wildly applauded" when, in
an address to the Hog Island workmen,
he turned a volley of derisive epigrams
upon what he called the ballyhoo school
Of patriotism
Talk will not win the war.
Mr.. Schwab seems convinced that the
takers will not win It, either. In his
references to the relative futility or mere
speeches and slogan.making he suggested,
by implication, one of the looming duties
of the hour. Plainly the time has come
when It is worth while to look twice at
the more voluble patriots and ask them
few questions. 1t is apparent that some
of the definitions of patriotism now gen.
orally accepted are, in truth, sorely In
need of revision. The symptoms OF that
high virtue need further analysis.
Research, for example, would probably
show that the men who tried to swindle
the Government In raincoat contracts
figured conspicuously, at some time or
other, in what we are accustomed TO call
patriotic rallies and puffed out their chests
and raised their voices in song at flag
raisings. The men in Philadelphia who
are accused of prostituting the processes
Of free government in the Fifth Ward
know how to thrill holiday audiences with
familiar metaphors founded on the starry
banner.
1t may be that a great many men of
the ballyhoo school are not conscious hypo-
critics. Often enough they are fooled and
hypnotized by the sound Of their own
voices. But as the war goes on 1t Is ap-
parent that a good many scoundrels are
| seeking their accustomed refuge behind
| the flag.
The workmen at Hog Island must have
had some such conviction-some remote
feeling Of doubt about the too rhetorical
patriot-or they wouldn't have applauded
their big boss as they did. Only man
of Schwab's dimensions would dare to
question the professional flag.waver openly
before a mixed audience. since the flag
waver invariably insists that the attack Is
not made upon him, but on the colors
1t Is a fact, nevertheless, that no single
slogan nor any of the speeches that have
become familiar nowadays begins to eX.
| press or even suggest the ends, aims and
purposes Of this war. Too many men ap-
pear to regard the war and the national
| anthem and the flag itself as incidents In
the large scheme Of their own self-suff
ciency Yet the man who Is truly honest
seldom resorts to the trumpet to advertise
his virtue Truly great men are always
the last to admit their own greatness.
man whose experience has been such as
to lead him to the spiritual state wherein
patriotism begins who sees his country In
the large and feels all of its greatness
and its mystery and sensE the obliga-
tions of his citizenship, isn't likely to
resort often to the patriotic speech"
The subject is too big for easy utterance
| It might be said that patriotism begins
with a sense of affinity with the soil that
has been so kind to everybody and sc
productive Of high and noble things as
to compel reverence. fidelity and endless
devotion in those it has nourished. Pa
triotism too, involves pride and rejoicing
for the youth Of this land, for the things
it has done and more particularly, fol
the shining things 1t hopes to do: it is ar
inspiration to unselfshness.
Really great patriots serve for the mos
part in silence or even in secret. They
see their country in the future. They Dc
not brag 1t Is not by what a man says
that you may Judge his patriotism. 1t |:
by the way he votes. by the way he pay:
his taxes, by the manner in which HI
says good-by to his son in uniform. Faith
hope, charity pride, strength. generosity
and fidelity make patriotism. And these
are virtues that never can be properly
interpreted in Grassland oratory.