New-York tribune., 1919-02-17
/. S. Must Meet
Europe'sDrea1n
Says DR.. OdeIl
Standard of Democracy Set
by American Soldiers Is
Far Above Us, He Asserts
NotW orthy Now, He Finds
Clergyman Who Aroused the
Church Last Year Voices
Other Strong Indictment

The Rev. Dr. Joseph H. Odel. whose
article Peter Sat by the Fire Warming
Himself stirred the Protestant Church
all over the country last year. preached
IN New York yesterday afternoon An
nouncement that he was to deliver the
sermon drew huge congregation 10
the Madison Avenue Presbyterian
Church, at Fifty seventh Street and
Madison Avenue.
His subject was, "What the boys viii
have for us-what we must have for
the boys" His sermon was stirring
sequel to the Atlantic Monthly article,
which was an attack on the inertia Of
the Church. DR.. Odell said:
"Our men know that they have saved
democracy. There is no braggadocio
IN that statement; but those men know
how they fought and what their fight
ing accomplished. They know the
temper Of American manhood, and they
are coming back conscious that they
have surmounted every obstacle; that
they built roads faster than they We're
ever built before; that they con
structed railroads under circumstances
where it was believed impossible to
construct them; that they have done
everything that was set before them to
do, and that their work won the war.
VIII Be Pacemakers to Nation
They are now coming back to face
with us the old stubborn problems
which some Of us have come to think
are almost beyond solution. From
now on they will be the pacemakers
in our national development, spiritual
and material
There are no illusions across the
sea. Britain, France, italy Rumania
all know that America was the deter
mining factor in the war And they
know more than that. They know that
we have been holding our democracy
before the world as model which ali
should follow They see in the league
OF nations which has Just been pro-
claimed a gigantic and colossal United
States. We have assumed in putting
forward our democracy that it is at
least a little better than the forms of
government elsewhere
Il wonder if we realize what the
rest of the world, especially the OPP
pressed people of the world, think of
America; how they regard US with the
hunger OF envy in their hearts; how
they idealize US; how they most defy
US This is true Of the people OF
Russia and Poland and Lithuania and
Rumania, of all the submerged people
of Europe, of even the Germans them
selves.
Their Picture Exaggerated
"And if we were only as good as they
think US, if we had only the virtue
which they attribute to US, we would
be we'll worthy of their emulation.
They have a strange illusion that We
always choose the best. We wish il
were so.
They think on the other side Of the
water that every one in this fair land
has an equal chance in life. They do
not know about the slips Of girls that
are condemned to work in mills and
factories and blight not only their own
lives but the lives of those yet unborn.
They do not know of the myriads of
children who never have the chance to
get the education they should have
who never have the chance of real
childhood. whose chances are taken
away from them before they are born.
They think, too. that we live and
dream and speak in spiritual rather
than material terms. We have talked
splendidly about civilization, and. to
uO Us JQStitS, we nave mace cDleflQlt
sacrifices for civilization But so many
of us have entirely materialistic IDEAS
as to what constitutes civilization.
When you speak the word many Of Us
think immedi lately Of electric lights and
rapid transit and Waterworks and cock
tails and golf and tennis. These things
make up the concept Of civilization of
the average man of this country.
whereas civilization is something so
much more and so much higher
something that penetrates to the very
core of life.
[. S. Soldiers Cause Conception
"Our boys in Europe, by their won
derful deeds and their splendid beha-
vior, have given TO Europeans their
conception of America Our task. then,
the task that lies before us for manv
years to come, is to realize every one
of these dreams, to make America as
pure, as strong, as generous as those
people think and dream she is.
This war has brought US back te
some Of the earlier sources of our ma
tional inspiration We have gone back
to the Declaration of Independence
with its enumeration of the inalienable
rights of mankind. Curiously enough.