The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1919-11-22
editorial Comment
On Current Subjects
HOW MUCH HAVE YOU BEEN
Bruce Barton in Red Book.


Bruce Barton in Red Book.
In a certain city Of about hundred
thousand people a confidential survey
was made during the war to deter
mine who was doing his part and VINO
was Sinking. Il discovered this very
interesting fact:
The rich men of the city had come
through splendidly in response to
every appeal; SO had the working
men. But the great middle class to
which most of us belong was doing
as little as it decently could. The
Blackstone of the country" needed
good stiff course Of spiritual osteop-
athy.
The war was great revealer in
matters of that sort. 1t turned US
inside out and allowed us to look at
our inner selves; and most of us had
none too much reason to feel tlattered
at what we saw. We realized sudden
" that almost our whole thought and
energy, before the war, had been de
voted to the primitive business Of
feeding and clothing our own selves
and our own little brood. On Sunday
we dropped trife in the contrtbu-
ton box; now and then. under COM
pulsion, we signed a pledge card for a
niggardly sum. But in proportion to
our incomes we we're really giving
nothing at all.
As the war progressed, snd one
great campaign followed ano n, we
improved considerably, until at the
end we were giving money in
amounts that would have amazed US
few years earlier. And we were
feeling better inwardly than ever be.
ofre in our lives. The question is
now: shall we contlue to live on that
higher plane of generous impulse to
which the war lifted us, or are we to
drop back weakly and be no better
than we were?
You may remember a certain great
passage that tells what happens when
an "unclean spirit" is cast out of a
man. Unless he is doubly on his
guard, back comes the unclean spirit
reinforced with seven others, and
1.-THE last state Of man is worse than
the first" :,
War casts out Of people the evil
spirits of selflshness and OF envyings,
of petty ambitions and of greed. But
after the war the spirits too often re-
turn in greater force. The Revolu-
ton was followed by what John Fiske
termed the Critical period in Ameri-
can history" after the Civil war
came the "bloody shirt" in politics,
graft in finance and ugltness in art
| and architecture, mirroring sordn-
I! ness within. What is to be the after
record of this war? So far as You
personally are concerned, how much
better are you than you were i've
years ago?
There is first-class opportunity for
YOU to answer that question right
now in the Red Cross camapign. The
Semotion OF the war-appeal has pass
ed: nothing but the need remains;
and the need is far away. Has the
war made you enough moro sensitive
to human suffering so that you will
give largely, as the campaign de-
| mands? Or will you be content with
the petty sums Of your pre-war be-
nevolence?
It's worth quite a little serious
thought. before you finally make up
your mind. For by the measure of
your gift you are, in a solemn sense,
measuring your own soul. In the
first great call Of the reconstructin
period for unselfshness, you are
proving by your response to what ex-
tent you have been reconstructed
and how much of that inner recon-
struction is really going to stick.