The Redwood gazette., 1918-05-01
LOYALTY.
(Bv Bliss Carman)

IF the whole dutv of man could be told in one
word that word would be loyalty-the duty
i of standing by. Loyalty to the past, loyalty
to the present. loyalty to the fuure, is some
thing that is obligatory all of u.s.
Our duty to the country at this time implies
a LOYALTY to all it's traditions of freedom and
high-hearted justice which fought for by
our forefathers; which have been preserved for
us: and which we have been accustomed to en-
ioy all too thoughtlessly until now. Now is the
time to stand by them with every word and deed
Our duty to the man in the trenches, and to
every other American at home, means loyalty
to the demands of the present. In the hrst
place our loyalty to the man In the trenches
implies keeping him in good heart Not only
must we send him constant words OF cheer, but
the damnable treachery of doubt and pac11sm
and Germanism, which keeps trying to spread
itself through the press and by spoken rumor,
must be stopped and abolished-utterly swamped
in patriotic enthusiasm. Whenever you hear a
doubling whisper of disloyalty, nail the whis-
perer as liar and criminal, and know you are
doing your country a service.
Part of our duty to the men in France is to
make the profiteer and the striker understand
that they are disloyal crooks; and to block their
selfish and disgusting game by any means nee
essarv There is no choice between the man who
is willing to profteer and the who is will
ing to strike for wages, in the present
crisis They are equally despicable the lowest
of the low If shame will not restrain them,
they should be drafted and set to work at a
decent wage and profit.
Our duty to American posterity, or our dis
loyalty to the future must consist in passing
on to the coming generations all our national
ideals unimpaired, in leaving to them the lnstl-
tutions of freedom which ourselves have
found invaluable. What they may do with those
institutions under new conditions is for them
to say But at least we must leave them as
good as we found them.
We are fighting now to preserve our national
life, our civil rights, and our homes and fami-
lies from devastation and ruin. When we have
succeeded in that, I believe our first duty to
posterity should be to shut the door on Euro
pean immigration. The vague and dreamy ideals
of internationalsm are snare and delusion.
We can best serve the world by preserving the
United States a nation, with it's laws and
institutions and customs and standards unde-
based by the ignorance of those millions of re-
fugees who will wish to flee to us after the war
If we leave the door open we shall be swamped
The German agent and the Bolsheviki should
be barred.
Another immediate duty to posterity is the
establishment of universal compulsory military
training-not for the purpose of maintaining a
huge fighting force, but for the purpose Of
rearing race of men who shall be physically
fit for the arts of peace and for all the duties
of citizenship. To perpetuate the present lack
of universal training of any kind, would be tc
do a great unkindness to the coming men Of
America.
These are all immediate duties to which we
can set our hands and wills-which we can dc
now.