Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-05-01
PiFFLlNC ON THE VOLCANOES
EDGE

We been nearing them talk about the
Liberty Loan here" said the young
man who came broken through the fire
OF the western battlefront. ave watched
the crowds. And ! never know whether
to laugh or to curse till my voice cracks
OF TO walk out in the street and stone
them. Their world is rocking under their
rect and you can't make them believe i'll"
Those who have seen the war continue
TO look with a sort of secret horror at
the complacency that still lies like a
numbing curse upon America. And now
surely something is grievously wrong
with the heart or the mind of Philadel-
phia.
A maniac is loose upon the other side
OF the world. At his back are seventy
million "laves, maddened with their own
7ufferi~~s and their own fears and with
the posons that have been fed to them
for two generations. They have butch
cred their way through the green peace
OF unoHending countries. Europe is
afiame. Every one knows all this. They
Know it in China, in Central Africa.
They know it at the poles. The fires
haven't reached us here only because
men have flung their bodies in its way to
hold it back. Millions of men have
fought like demigods from motives Of
sheer pity. Soldiers without number
whose names you never knew and never
will know have withered in the blast to
keep your home inviolate. Nations have
gone singing to doom-to save others.
Yet here the overworked men and
women who are aiding the Government in
the issue of the third war loan must talk
of these things and write and strain to
make themselves understood as an auc-
tioneer might do to dispose of a spurious
watch. Over and over again weary
voices must be raised to reiterate what
every one should know-what every one
does know in his heart. Still Philadel-
phia is behind Chicago, Minneapolis and
st. Louis--behind dozens of other cities
in the relative extent of its contributions.
America cannot plead doubt or lack
of understanding. We have had front
seat at the tragedy Belgium went by
mutilated in her rags, with her blinded
children in her arms. France followed
with her million orphans and refused to
let any of her matchless torment show in
hel shining eyes. Britain is now receiv-
ing upon her own bosom the blows meant
for all the world A new divinity has
transformed men in such exalted serv-
ice as this. Europe has endured pain
more terrible in its reality than the
fevers of nightmare. Every day the
forces that stand between America and
destruction provide the raw material for
a new literature of heroism, for song and
legends that will inspire humanity for
centuries to come. What numbing
influence afflicts US here if we must have
such flaming truths as these translated
into the terms that tired statesmen use to
sell pianos or sewing machines - into
terms of selfishness and material benefit
and rank utilitarianism
Every aspiring hope of civilization is
in danger of being trampled out like a
dead ember-snuffed like candle. And
we must be waylaid at the movies,
stopped in the theatres. lectured and
heckled by the devoted few who really
understand what it is all about before we
are willing to lend a little money at high
interest to the cause for which nations
already have given up the best of their
livesl
There must be a new method. Such a
condition of apathy is shameful and
intolerable. 1t cannot be much longer
endured. Philadelphia, New York and
other cities that persist in blindness and
soforifc contentment will have no right
to complain later should the Government
cease pleading with them and quietly but
firmly take as much of their money as it
requires for it's own salvation and theirs