Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-11
"THE RIGHT THING"
Some Observations on Grip and Telephones,
War, Soldiers and the Aver.
age Citizen


AN who had examined the first Ameri'
can prisoners taken in France, reported
to his overlords that we, as a people
were mpossible-quite! He had been
regarded with the utmost insolence by
youthful infantryman, who was
brought to him under guard. Obviously
Americans were undisciplined! He had
asked about the number of Americans on
particular sector. ASK Pershing,'
said the soldier. The captive was pressed
to tell why he and his comrades entered
the war with such enthusiasm. "lt's per-
| America. ave merely want to do the
! right thing
The German division staff was in
| formed that "the Americans did not
| know why they were in the war" The
intelligence officer of the Huns couldn't
understand the meaning Of "the right
! thing" The simple creed embodied in
that epic sentence of American slang
its splendor and its universal inclusive
ness-was beyond him.
Is it in their reverence for "the right
thing" that democracies are ultimately
triumphant?
Here in Philadelphia, because of the
confusion of war and epidemic, the aver
age citizen is being tried out much less
harshly than his younger brothers-in-
heart overseas. He, too, so far as he
is being tested, is showing a patient de-
votion to the right thing that serves
somehow to stimulate faith in all the
processes of democracy.
Your average citizen is experiencing a
lot of new sensations. His movies have
been cut off. He has been told that he
mustn't go to the theatre. He has been
severed for an indefinite period from his
cocktail--if he happens to be one of the
sort that mingles with cocktails. He isn't
permitted to go to church. He cannot
have enough sugar in his tea. He has
been told to put away his motorcar on
Sundays and to invest all his spare
money in Liberty Bonds. He has been
taxed, taxed again and retaxed. He has
moved placidly backward in an atmos-
phere of resignation and formaldehyde
to the conditions of his youth, when he
was poo, and when self-denial was his
portion. He has given up his sons and
he has been left often in great loneliness
or greater grief Yet he has never once
been heard to utter a complaint.
Now he lifts up his telephone and gives
a call number and gentle voice asks:
as this call absolutely necessary?' Your
average citizen hesitates and replies, as
often as not: mo. l only wanted to talk
to a man about golf clubs. I'll wait
THANK you," says the far voice. How
those girls maintain their patience and
their good manners in times like these
is beyond understanding. The average
girl and the average woman know what
is meant by "the right thing
The citizen who couldn't telephone
says no more. He will realize dimly that
the voice he heard was not girls voice,
but the voice of his own intelligence,
made audible and authoritative by the
social and administrative system which
he has created out of his own desires.
Later along he may decide to go out to
the club in his automobile to arrange
about the golf clubs. But he hears that
at some hospital or other there are tired
nursing sisters who need fresh air after
eighteen hours of vigil in the wards So
he offers his car to them instead and lets
the golf clubs wait fixing.
1t used to be said that democracies
were not only inefficient, but cruel. Those
who were clever at that sort of patter
often tried to prove that men who lived
under free government lacked social con-
sciousness-that the democratic citizen,
so long as he was we'll fed and warmed
and housed, cared nothing about the
troubles of his neighbor in the next
house.
Can that ever be said again Of Amer
lea or France or England, who have so
wonderfully endured for ''the right
thing? Is it love of 'the right thing"
that differentiates us from the Germans?
As the average citizen here and abroad
has gone along cheerfully, asking no ques-
tions, making no complaints, he is serv-
ing "the right thing" which, in this in
stance, is the common good of human
ity-in the house next door, in the hos
pital around the corner, in France or in
Belgium. 1t isn't for a theory of gov
ernment, but for "the right thing" that
men have done heroic things without the
pretense of heroism. For this they have
fought in the air or marched into the
fire and been wounded or killed
The principle seems to have been un-
known in Germany. If the Germans had
known what an American soldier meant
when he said he. was Gin the war merely
because he wanted to do the right thing"
Germany might not now be watching a
half-mad emperor wailing his prayers of
desperation amid the ruins of a nation
that has broken under the weight of a
worlds hatred.