The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1918-02-14
Vision
Greatest Present Need of
American People.
BY Amelia Josephine Burr
Of the vjuiIantes,

What is the present need Of the
American people? l would say a
duickened sense of proportion, n revised
! and improved standard of values, zeal
according to knowlcdgc-in a word.
Vision We need to understand that
The cause for which We are fighting
Is more than national more than in
dividual--no less u thing than the sliv-
ing. growing quality Of the world
spirit-a cause so great that our own
worth today is measured by our service
to that cause. Once we realize that,
Cncc we see ourselves In the right re-
lation to the great need that claims
us, there viii be no more clamor of
Il choose this, | want to do that" Our
only word win be What can do?"
One Of the recent recruiting posters
tcrsely phrases the situation.
Don't Enlist without Thinking.
Where do you fit?
Find Out
Then enlist to help win the war.
Where do you fit? Where will you
be the most help in winning the war?
in France. perhaps. bearing hardships
that are glory to you. suffering in
body and triumphant in soul. AT home.
perhaps, carrying on with the little
DUH things that few notice unless they
are left undone, trying to remember
when you resent your own stodgy COM
fort that 1T really does not matter
whether you are comfortable or in
pain. The thing that counts is whether
you are putting all your strength into
tx,l, IL Iz.
two extremes--the service that no
body can help recognizing and the
service that sometimes does not recog-
nZe itself-there are u hundred kinds
Of effort, all needed. A. Red Cross
worker in France tells Of the women
who applied to him for positions-ex-
ecutive preferred. One had come over
because her husband was monotonously
good. Another, because her husband
was monOtonously bad. A. third be-
cause her husband had died and she
was lonely. There was work at home,
crying for those women to do it--but
they were thinking less of what they
could do for France than what France
could do for them. There is no room
for such slackers in the world today
This war is not a drug for sick nerves
nor u stimulant for jaded emotions. It
is the sternest reality the world has
ever seen, because Of the issues 1t in
wolves. We need the spirit of service
that is willing and eager. to do those
thankless little Jobs which are neces-
sary to tho great whole.
In the hospital at Neuilly, there is
n In cha NF hft
linen room. She has drudged there
patiently and faithfully since the war
began. The wondering and admiring
pilgrims to the miracle workers of the
wards have nothing to do with her
Only "70' Pau, the one armed general,
when he visits the hospital goes al
ways to the linen room, and salutes,
as one brave to another. He under
stands. But there is many a linen
room sister who has no great hearted
old Pau to encourage her. What Of
that. 1t is not praise that counts, not
even Pau's-it is the cause that claims
our best and most effective labor, and
IL Is the cause that shall judge us, not
cur fellows. One longs at n time like
this to be obviously doing the right
thing; but we must remember that
when 1t is because of the speech of
others we do the thing asked Of us, If
the energy which goes to that doing
means the leaving undone of any bit
Of our own special job. by just so much
have We sacrificed the cause to our
own little love of praise or fear of
blame.
Can you do the great, hard, glorious
thing? Do 1t. and thank God that it
is given you to do. Can YOU only be Il
drudge, u chinll- filler? Be it-and
| thank God, YOU too, that YOU have a
place in His Service.