Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1919-01-30
LET THE EAGLE SCREAM

bread and saved sugar and been
rather boastful about our stay-at-
home sacrifices. We have had our
village heroes-an officer promoted
on the field of battle, a private deco
rated by the general for valor. The
official envelope has come to some of
our homes and then blue stars in our
service flags have blazed into gold.
But even death had not really made
the war a concrete thing to many of
us-it was something half realized, a
shadow by day, an oppression by
night, blur on the familiar outlines
! OF life.
Last week khaki-clad boy of 81
CROPPED his way back to our town
hind but undaunted. And through
his blindness we have learned to see
many things clearly.
| There is no Sentimentality now
about the Hun in our town; no
peace ithout-repentanca and "a ton
ment talk: no remoteness about the
Dattlefelds no Snug self-satisfac-
ton over our personal savings and
sacrifices. We know why our army.
that since it took the first step for
ward has never taken one backward
in retreat, is called this mans ar
my" It is mans army. Moth
ing could sum it up better; nothing
finer could be said about it. Yet
last spring an American woman nov
elist who was lookedon in Paris
wrote an article picturing our pro-
vinciality in the death struggle our
hour, our fundamental lack Of seri-
BUSINESS. 1t seems that among 9TH
ers she had talked with a roughneck-
ed doughboy who could not speak
Bostonese, who was really quite too
American---and what would the cul-
tured poilus think of us? Oh, dear.
Besides, it wasn't any use-the Ger
mans had us licked and even if they
hadn't we were headed for the Stone
Age and raw meat. No more open
plumbing, jazz bands or best sell
ers-we were on our way back to
being trilobites in the primeval
slime. But while the stuff was Oh
lsehsretgdHushrdl shrdl shrdlu
the press our provincial roughnecks
did some pretty bits of fighting and
made the world safe for best sellers.
1t is true, perhaps, that we got in at
the eleventh hour. but it is also true
that shortly thereafter it struck for
the allied cause.
Our achievement at home has been
marred not so much by our early stu
pidity and blundering-gross an din
excusable as they were-tas by the at
tempts of some men to make political
capital out of them. The blunder-
ers and profiteers must be brought
to book, not by politicians for par
tisan purposes There is little diff
ference between those who have
made money out of the war and po-
litical profiteers of any party. Per-
haps the boys will have something to
say about all this when they get back.
In their anxiety to damn the demo-
crates and the president-and even
his best friends do not hold him to
be above criticism-some men have
gone to the length of minimizing and
deprecatng the whole American eff
fort, including the achievements of
our men in the field. They have
been ably seconded in this bv Ame-
erican expatriates. ribbon chasers
and observers who were too far away
20 comprehend the true significance
of events, or so near that they lost
all perspective on them. But We
have seen on reflections of this in the
attitude of the allies. Men who have
fought side by side with high hero
ism are too broad minded for this
civilian meanness. They have gen
erously recognized the Importance of
American help and the valor of our
army. Nor have the leaders and
the press of the allies withheld one
word of the Draise due to- their own
armies or sought to minimize their
national achievements. though they.
too. have had their blunderers and
T their profiteers.
It has long been charged against
Americans that they brag. But on
the whole our press is rather more
given to playing up our worst than
our best side Still We do brag. So
do the British, the French and the
} Italians each nation in its own pc
| culiar racial way, though good
deal. of this European self-apprecia-
tion that has come to our attention
is quite American in its directness.
1t is right and proper that the al
! lies should express pride in their
men They have suffered all things
and done big things. And any Am
erican who does not brag about our
mans army is not worth fighting for,
let alone dying for. They have
made it possible for us to hold up
our heads before the world and.
adapting the old Roman brag, 10 ex-
claim. "Ciyis Americans Sum"
! Let the Eagle Scheam The Sat
urday Evening Post