Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1918-08-05
SOUL OF AMERICA
RICH WITH LOVE


All mefeenary motive In our pdrtie
patton. We want tor ourselves neith
pr territory nor indemnity bur justic
OF the whole world. If nation car
commit itself to such a program 4ul
be minus soul this is certainly
! topsyjuryy world as far as mora
values are concerned
! You will remember that German
proplgandists had France a degener
/ ate nation France was bound rapidly
for the scrap heap of impotency NoI
long aeo I heard a vlric Reputation
hof this lie DR.. SaiIIons a powerful
French preacher, declared that France
got her name TOR gaiety and friyoIity
from half acre in Paris BUT say
Paris is pcrpetnated for tourists they
comprise the bulk of FITS population
The real France is the thrifty. plOd-
ding, home loving peasant living in
/ the numerous villages and upon the
farms of France These have pas
tionate love for their country. for
their homes and freedom. Ana il
is from these homes that the poiln
have come out to struggle on The bat.
Tie lines France has given two mil.
lion of its choicest sons who nave
gone down in battle and rest under
the war-torn soil Think of il! Two
millions Why if they passed You
walking in fours and at the speed Of
1--WE miles an hour they would be a
week OF days and nights in passing
! heard an American audience Of two
thousand try to sing the MarSelllaise
In the presence OF this French preach
er lie could not sit stil and hear
bis national anthem slaughtered He
jumped to his feet and with fire IN
his eyes and voice he sang it as II
ought to be sung Frame has a sou.
and all the world know it,
Thank God America has 4 soul, too
We are not glued to leshpots We
can produce a president Who electri
ties The world with his enunciaton ot
high moral aims for a nation We can
produce Gen. Pershiug who can
stand at the tomb of Lafayette ana
voice the sentiment of America in
the soul touching words, Lafayette.
We are here We can mobilize, arm.
instruct and send an army of a mil.
lion and three hundred thousand
across a thousand mile of water thru
U-boat menace in little over a year
And IN sending them ii is not like
driving unwilling slaves. Those men
are intelligent as to why they are
going and they incarnate the spirit OF
crusaders of righteousness
America has a sould Ii we could
read all the letters that mothers pen
their sons at the front and the let
tiers the boys send back to their moth
ers we would know It better A Mas.
sachuaetts mother who has a son in
the l0ith regiment wrote under date
of April IL to the commander eX.
pressing her thanks for what ,he
regiment had done in the Apremont
woods. In her letter this paragraph
occurs:
When my son left his home he
took a great big patch Of each days
sunshine with him He has been
the tenderest son of an invalid
mother We have been Chums for
twenty-five years reading, study
ing. thinking and loving together
| never shed a tear over his being
away. ! know his great heart could
not stand to see love home and
woman outraged and destroyed
know he Is only a type Of every
man In your command, and il he
dies 1t is as one of an army of
noblemen"
know, when we look out upon con
temporary lie hero in our republic
we sometimes grow skeptical as to
our nation having a soul We do not
have TO read Bryco's American Com
monwealth' 70 see the glazing de-
fleets OF American democracy We do
not have to look very far to see au,
tocracy rampant, politics corrupted,
vice brayenly commercialized and
kindred evils But even if our de.
mocraCy is far from ideal we have a
soul and world happenings mean its
awakening. The hour is come to de
mons,rate 10 the world we have a
big soul here in the homeland as
well as on the battle front,
A German she'll fell In the midst Of
French company aud almost deci.
amted the company The captain saw
hi, men lying all about him on the
ground stricken down by the she'll
and he cried, Dead men. rise up,
And they did That company. most
of them badly wounded responded
to the captains call They stood up
and kept the German hOrdcS back
until rclnlorccments came.
II Is time to cali out to American
cjtI2ena, Dead men. stand up q"
Show thai you have a soul Move
out against the enemies Of our form
ot government and usher In a new
day for America and the world
iva, riVwo line valet.
IN crnnt ainnl Nnr.s NJ pNtehnrrf