Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-01-18

- 70; there is no end to subscribing" because
N we have gone to war and all rules are
Off" The rules of peace-time, when we
thought money something sacred to our
selves, when thought that it was our own
money, because had earned it, or because
somebody had willed it to us, because invest
ments had made it, for us-those are the rules
which most particularly and violently of"
Nothing could give much greater shock than
the discovery that "our own money" does not &C
ually belong to our own selves after all, but does
belong (and will certainly go) where it is most
needed by the nation. This is matter plainly
revolutionary and OF the greatest dlnlculty anu
even painfulness, in regard to our mental adjust
ment to it; and yet it be proved with the ut
most simplicity. Thus: No one can interfere
with the distribution of his money where 1t Is
most needed by the nation, and go without shame
both inward shame and notorious shame. That
is, he has done wrong, and knows it himself, and
moreover his neighbors know it. Why is tnls
true, if he has only kept tight hold of his own
money? If it were his own, 1t wouldn't be wrong
for him to keep tight hold of it. No. the war IS
proving to that all money belongs where 1t IS
most needed by the nation and not where 1t is
most desired, sefshly, by the individual. And in
war the nation needs money most where money
will do the most good to the soldier.
We say, 81 gave to the Red Cross" No; that
is a mistake: we didn't "give." Money consists
of markets or chips representing accumulated
labor, and when part with money we release
stored-up labor; that is, form of energy. The
Red Gross is working for u.s. it is working for the
most vital possession that have, in time of war,
our soldiers. When we gave money to the Red
Cross we merely transferred some of our energy
to another form of energy. War is teaching
us to say "our' and not mime" for it is only as
a part of the whole that individual has value
in a nation at war.
nation at war is not nation going about It's
usual business in its customary way while an army
fights for it. That would be like man who sits
in an armchair and reads the paper, with one
groping fist engaged in conflict with an enemy
This will do we'll enough when the hostile party
is child, and it thus we fought Spain in '9S,
and thus we subdued Geronimo and Sitting Bull;
but this war is the World War; 1t is being fought
edge; and if nation is not nation at war
with its whole soul and body then it is nation on
the way to pay the price for Indifference to warn
ings that blaze its whole sky blood red.
The army is truly but the cutting edge of a ma
ton at war; the full strength of the nation must
sharpen it after battle So much is mere self-pres-
ervaton. What helps the soldier helps the nation
The nation depends upon him and he depends upon
the nation it is all engine and If one part fails
the whole will fail. The foot is much in battle
as the cutting edge of the weapon in the hand; the
laborer at home is much part of the war as the
soldier What helps the soldier helps me- Again,
therefore I do not give when / do my share for
him. I must, for myself, do my share "fOr him
7 must for my children. | must for my nation
or shall have none, be part of I am in bat
tie when the soldier is in battle; and he will not
fail unless ] fail him. He has gone the limit;
he is the cutting edge and he fails long
war the soldier is not beaten until the nation is
beaten.
An unbeaten nation, nation which means not
to be beaten, keeps its soldiers eft, morally and
mentally and physically. If it doesn't do that it
rs peaIen, or IS going to be besten-and let not