The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1920-06-11
rs PATRIOTISM DEAD?


pressed, perhaps depressed, by his OBJ
servation of American life today.
The question is not without provi-
cation. The brief span of the last
three years of American history en-
braces the two extremes Of exalted
patriotic transport and of callouS self
ishness and secularity. Three years
ago we were fired and fused as one
people in the love of our country, for
the protection Of it's rights, the main
tenance Of it's responsibilities. the vim
dication of it's power and its honor.
To that cause we dedicated our re-
sources, our time and our lives, and
in the dedication we forgot all reli-
gious sects and political creeds. Our
one desire was to find how best We
might serve our country; our one eff
fort, to serve it.
Are we the same people in 1920 that
we were in 1917? Today we are a ma
ton of money-grabbers and money
suuanderers. Our dedication is to
self. every man for himself and the
devil take the hindmost." 1--WE don't
care what happens, so it doesn't hap
pen to u.s." Well do it to others be-
fore they do it to u.s. We sacrificed
much during the war; We'll recoup
ourselves over and over now. Our
| country? Three years ago it was
Franklin who spoke for us: where
Liberty dwells, there is my country"
Today it is Milton: Our country is
wherever we are well off,
The same spirit has come over our
/ Congress. Nobody fOrgetS now what
party label Congress wears, least OF
all Congress itself, which was truly
representative of national patriotism
three years ago, but which now al
ways spells patriotism "partiSanship."
A year of such a Congress, sneering at
the idealism and philanthropy which
we prOfesSed in war, abandoning the
fruits of the costly victory, rejecting
| the settlements and guarantees OF
the peace of victory, insisting on a
"AmericaniSm" that is synonymous
| with Ishmaelism, prating of patriot
ism that is glaringly pinchback be-
cause
Who loves his country cannot hate
mankind
A year of such Congress, reacting
| upon constituents already predisposed
to materalism and cynicism, has left
! the nation in a condition that not un-
| reasonably suggests the question, rs
patriotism dead?"
There is nothing in the record Of
that Congress to justify a negative an
swer. 1t SCOTS at patriotism which
| would consider any country but our
own. Only last week it contemptuous-
ly turned down the request of the
president for an American mandate
of Armenia, notwithstanding that
America for years has led the world
| in Mortified protestations against the
! outrages inflicted on the Armenians
Insisting that our concern must con-
|! fine itself to the United States, it
has seadfastly refused to do anything
| to show that it has at heart even the
interests of the United States, making
no effort to attend to the work of re-
construction which it has declared to
be imperative. doing nothing to relieve
the people of the iniquisities of bur-
denSOme war taxation, but swearing
that the one thing that must be done
is to impose an additional burden of
] taxation to raise a fund almost as
| large as our national debt before the
recent war, with which to cinch votes
by means of bonus to men who are
demanding bonus.
And the American Legion itself,
which when it was organized was
hailed as our strongest bulwark of
patriotism, is placed by it's officers in
! the attitude of society whose OBJ
ject is to capitalize it's patriotism for
the purpose of obtaining extra pocket
money.
Is patriotism dead?
No. Not dead, but dormant Our
patriotism reached the heights during
the war-unprecedented heights per-
haps, as the stimulus was unprece-
denied. But it is rule of the spirit
as we'll as of physics that what goes
up must come down. Our patriotism
went up very high in 1917-1S; it has
fallen CORRESPONDENCE low in 1920. 1t
will rise again when extraordinary
stimulus comes. Meanwhile we shall
go on being patriotic in the routine
way, loving our country in war times
and ourselves between war times, Just
as so many of us love our church on
Sundays and ourselves on week DAYS,
The great difficulty in being consist
emily patriotic is that it is so much
easier to die for ones country in the
stress of war than il is to live for it in
the humdrum of peace.-Louisville
Courier-JOurnal