The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1919-11-12
THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA.


activity of the in seeking to deport from this
country every foreigner who is taking active part in
any movement which purposes overthrow them by
force This is plain matter of sefpreservaton Every
alien who here preaching the doctrine of changing our
form of government in any other way than by the con-
stuonal method of the ballot is abusing hospitality
and is not entitled to enjoy it minute longer than
discover his purpose Not only active agtators who
do the talking writing and organzng but every person
not American citizen who becomes member of any
organization having that its purpose should also be
sent away He is not less menace than the others We
have neither welcome for him. We have
maintained here refuge for the oppressed for those
whose right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
has been denied. We have also welcomed all who have
desired to become of us in spirit anu in fact But
those who here overturn do not come to seek
refuge They do not desire to become one of us in
spirit in fact Therefore in self-preservation we
must send them away and we must do what we can to
prevent any of like ik entering to
to institutions and in that way to democ.
racy the world over.
We must not, however, be deuded by the idea that
VI PAO'S~Uioh
democracy. Something far greater is necessary. We
have many millions with us who not yet Americans
in spirit who have yet INDUCED in revolutionary
talk, have Joined no revolutionary society. They must
be prevented from doing by force but by educa
ton We must make Americans of them in spirit
as have already done so by law to many of them
1t is the spirit Of America which needs preserving not
the form of government.
The spirit determines the government. We must de-
veop the spiritual the life of the nation and in the
individual lives of the people 1t must be given larger
place in proportion to the purely material in the life and
thought of our people Unless do this the civilization
of today will fail did the civilizations Of former days.
not only in America, but in all the world.
Egypt had magnificent civilization from a material
point of vew but IL was worthy live because the
spiritual side of not developed. There
nothing in it to make man BETTER to raise him up to
higher things, and it came to end Assyria and
Babylon followed in the path and met the
fate Greece built up the highest intellectual cviza
ton of the past superior even to the present in the
minds of those who speak of it the golden age but
the spiritual life of the people remained dwarfed and
tual and material increased Rome followed in the steps
Of Greece, rising high intellectually but progress
ing still farther materially but she also followed Greece
in proving by her fall that there is no civilization which
has in it the elements of pemanency in which the spirit
ua side of mans nature is left stuned undeveloped
By intellect by physical force by accumulation Of
wealth. by scientific discovery, by the graces of human
int NV hv oil If
lasting civilization be built up. Germany thought she
had reached the elimination of all these things and pro-
ceeded to assert her right thereby to take the headhp
the world and perpetuae under her dctaon civilization
founded solely upon them She failed because there
in the world enough of the spirit she left out Of
her formula for civilization to bar her way.
The question facing mankind, not a:one America
though here determine the matter for the rest
of the world apparently is whether this spiritual element
of civilization which given to the world 1900 years
ago and has been growing and swelling in it SIM
is strong enough and be developed enough to
throw the reverSon to the material and the antspitua
which manifestng itself menacngy the world
Will the American people in the great formative crisis
now upon them be wise enough and unsefsh enough to
all pIoDleInS crOWulng Tor solution
the standpoint of the welfare and consideration
of the rights and needs of all? Will they sink class con-
'cousness and prejudice and treat with each other
man and man? Will they seek to develop the spiritual
side of the great of the people in this country
native-born well foreign whose spiritual natures
atrophed have never been developed at all Shall
we advance to that higher plane of civilization where the
spirit dominates the material shall seek only the
same material greatness the civilizations of the past at
tanned and then lost?
Solomon said that righteousness exateth nation"