Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1919-03-05

qUcSI VI MANY WIZ 1lSlSuSu " Tic
reading.
During the last year and a half
many of us have discovered America
anew-have begun once more TO take
thought of the ideals of Lincoln, of
Washington, of Thomas Jefferson. We
have looked with new vision upon the
ideals up on which the government
was founded. By whipping Germany,
we have saved our ideals from de-
struction by them and from corrup-
ton by ourselves. Those "unalien-
able" rights of the Declaration of In
dependence have become ineXpress-
IDLY dear when saved to US at the
price of thousands upon thousands
of precious young lives.
The highest ideals in the world,
when put into practice, are no better
than the men and women who pro-
fess them. If our individual charac-
ter is now less great than our indi-
vidual responsibility and opportunity,
then the ideals of democracy are not
due to march on through us.
How can we, here in Lancaster,
further the ideals of democracy? We
might as we'll get it down to that, be-
cause it is folly to indulge in far off
generalities when the test of our sin
cerity as true Americans lies right
here in this community.
Our first duty is to shake off the
lethargy that has gripped us since the
signing of the armistice, and reno
bilize our enthuS iasm and wholeheart-
edness. A country worth sacrificing
and dying for in time of war is worth
the best that is in us when the war
is won. True, we are sick of nerve
strain and establishment 1t is ev-
err easier to fight than to carry on
easier to fight than to profit from
fightjng-than to reconstruct after
destruction We long to drop back
into the old careless, materialistic
days of before the war-into our al
most animal independence upon crea-
ture comforts.
But, we must right about face! We
cannot say that the whole world shall
be changed while we remain as we
have been. If we do not change we
are unworthy of the sacrifice that de-
mocracy has offered up for us-and
the war it not won for us.
The first great task awaiting us is
Americanization. Just as Abraham
Lincoln saw that this nation could
not exist half slave and half free, we
now see that we cannot exist half
American and half alien. All who
dwell within the United States, espe-
cially all who are citizens, whether
native or naturalized, must be Amer
lean. To make them Americans must
be our most urgent responsibility
The four great agencies for dissem-
mating and keeping pure the ideals
of American democracy lie in the
home: in the school; in the commune
ty gathering and in the ballot box.
Our great opportunity as women,
lies in the home Or" lob is to make
American ideals living, breathing
force. We must teach our children
that democracy means equal Justice.
the protection of the weak against the
strong-fair play for everybody We
must teach them that the ideals of
America are sacred. spirituality
which they cannot afford to leave out
Of their lives, something to be cher
ished, and passed on unblemished.
We must teach them respect for the
symbol Of our ideals-the flag.
We must teach them that the great
things of life are not the things that
can be bought with money-that
money is good only when it does good.
During the war, many of us exper-
fenced for the first time the joy that
comes from giving Fundamentally
and unreservedly to an unselhsn
cause We must not again hold be-
fore our children the old selfish creed
that our monev is our own to do with
70
them a new creed, to which they and
we shall subscribe and which shall
say, 'The money | have is not mi la
to do with as | like-for the commun-
ity in which live, backed by the SOW
ereignity of the United States Of
America, created for me the cOndl-
tions under which I coul,l have it, and
I acknowledge my obligation to trans
late that money into terms of on
munity and nationwide benefit"
But before we can be worthy to
teach the ideals of democracy, We
must become true democrats O1r-
selves. We must refuse to recognize
a silly social order imported from the
CO.. upt royal courts Ofs Europe, and
which obtains in greater or less de-
gree in every city in our land We
must emancipate ourselves from
cliques and snobbishness, and erase
from our vocabularies such cheap
mouthnps as upper class and ''iow-
err class" Democracy knows no class
distinction. In it's eyes all men are
created free and equal. We cannot.
true, AL be placed in the same cate
CORY, but the only distinction that q
true American can acknowledge le-
tween human beings, is not of wealth,
or of position-but of the soul.
In the work of furthering the ideals
of Democracy the public schools have
most important part to play. Those
of us who were actively engaged in
the various war drives found it bit
unsatisfactory trying to turn unsym-
pathetic, selfish, Indifferent citizens
into burning patriots over night. We
were made conscious of our sins of
Neutrality-suspicious. that the teach
ing of patriotism throughout the years
of our democracy should have been a
more vital force. Had we been bus