The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1918-12-09
A GREAT TASK

If the peace conference attempts to restore or reconstruct
nations it will have on its hands a great task. What has not
been done by the people themselves will be doubly difficult TO
do by outsiders. The fact that the people themselves have not
accomplished the task shows that there are serious obstacles in
the way OF ethnlc or geographic unity, without which nation
building is seldom successful The word nation is often confused
with the word state. The first is from the Latin nascor and
refers to a similarity OF birth, blood, language, etc. The second
is a political creation through which peoples Of different nation
ahtles are brought together for governmental purposes without
regard to ethnic homogeniety. This sort OF a political ediiice is
not difficult to construct if the various elements are disposed to
do it. In this country we have the Englishman, the Cclt and the
German, the Latin, with some japanese, Chinese and Indians,
but these have all abandoned allegiance to former political
organizations and become Americans in spirit and sentiment,
whether, as in the case of Oriental races, they become politically
Americans or not. This government, great and strong as it is,
could not last if we had an English division in one section, a
Celtic division III another, a German division in another. These
people may have their racial peculiarties and political %predilcc-
tons, but politically they forget or abandon them for the
American idea and philosophy of government. In Europe, which
is merely the western peninsula of the Asiatic continent, the
different races are more tenacious of hereditary ideas and
opinions, and do not find a solvent as different races and nation
aliteS do in America. Hungary and her immediate %n"ighbors,
Tor instance, are peopled by Magyars, Wanoons, Germans,
descendants of the Romans and Slavs, These do not assimnate.
Each wants to be the dominating factor. This diversity,
amounting to hostility at times, has kept Russia from becoming
a stable political unity, and ethnc diversity has destroyed every
attempt at political unity from the days Of Tamerlane to the
present. Romes political constructive genius was great, but it
could not abide. 1t attempted to superimpose universally upon
diversity, and failed. On three occasions Rome ruled the world.
Once by force Of arms, when the Romans were at the zenith Of
their power. Twice by the force of ideas, through the unity Of
religion, and again by the unity of law. Romes philosophy was
to conquer and then Romantic the world, but neither the force
OF arms nor OF ideas could do this. IT new political unltes,
called national states, are to be successfully organized and con-
Quoted, the people of these territories must turn their backs on
the past, and their faces to the future. Old things and ideas
must pass away and give place to what is new. This means the
political reconstruction of the world, a herculean task, it must
be admitted, but one that cannot be shirked if peace and per-
manency are to be enjoyed. We, in common with the rest of
the civilized world, hate the Germans, but this does not mean
that everything German may be eXtrpated and driven from the
world. What the German has given to the world that has been
tested and proven pragmatiC and useful and necessary, or con-
tributing to the ~wel-being and happiness of the human family,
will remain; what has not stood the test will pass the same as
the unnecessary contributions OF other nations have passed
automatically and unnoticed. Blot out everything German and
the German name from the world, and they would steal back
through Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, IIaydn's Twelfth Mass,
Schilers poems, Goethes writings, the Teutonic idea of feder-
aed government and many other German contributions to the
benefit Of mankind. They may subjugate and impoverish Ger
many and execute the kaiser, but not Handles music. Nothing
from that nation that the world has tested and Endorsed and
made its own will perish. Into the deepest sea with the U-boats,
the poisoned gases, the poisoned wells, the torture OF women
and children-the world were the better without these, The
valuable products Of German genius will remain,
No doubt the great conference regards itself as a constructive
agency, and while it will be commended for destroying every
thing that is evil, it must not pull up the wheat with the tares
What is good ought to be preserved for the human race.
In this modern convocaton Of the gods there is much work
TO be done, and it should be gratifying to Americans to
realize that when seated around the table on modern Olympus
the representative of the United States will be the Jupiter.
W. can spare Our president for a while-for months il
necessary. We are not children who will fret and worry in his
absence, and it may take years to complete the big Job. 1t will
pbe for the benefit Of the world and in the centuries to come il
American ideas prevail. This young giant of the Western worlt
is also of the Aryan race. 1t has crossed the seas to a new
continent, and has removed farther from the influence O.
Oriental %ineptitude than any other people, and it has solved the
problem of government and the happiness of those living undo
At better than any other nation or factor in the political unite
,of the world. 1t is well that our achievements shall flow bacl
to be a lamp unto the feet of the older nations, to lead ant
enlighten them, The God of Nations has prepared us for thu
work, and destiny points The way,
"Pubiture" is a new word invented to describe fine mas
lOf matter which is constantly being mirneOor,ched ,,L: