New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-05-02
All Americans
Urged to Fight
For Citizenship
Problem Of Creating Better
Men and Women Held
Greatest Thing Facing Ma
ton for Accomplishment
Point of View Changed
War Said to Have Altered
Outlook of People, Who
Must Adapt Themselves

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: AS citizens. we are called upon
to face together a problem that is not
pleasant to study nor easy Of solu-
ton. 1t is the problem that some call
Americanization, others better citi-
zenship." The latter term is to be pre-
ferred because it does not fasten IL
self merely upon the strangers within
our gates, but includes US all, as we'll
it may. For decades we have had this
problem with US, and for that reason
too many good Americans as we'll as
poor ones have fallen ints- the habit
Of regarding it as so much verbal slush
or political froth. 1t is neither.
In the first place, we must cease to
think that conditions will ever be the
anne as they were before the war
They cannot be. The war was the
close of an cid era and the beginning
of new. Our outlook, our viewpoint,
subconsciously or not, has changed;
and the problem of better citizenship"
S the mos "iJal thing IN the new or
der. 1t is the most vital thing because
it affects all our relationships with our
>e.iow men, that distinctive democracy
which We have been proud TO call
American, our material prosperity,
and our spiritual wellbeing. -
The ominous, close-looming. ever
present menace of capital versus la
bor" will become more ominous and
loom closer, or be lifted and gradually
disappear only as we meet the prob
lem Of better citizenship frankly. fear
lessly, oete~minedly. We cannot shun
1T any more than we can shun our obli-
cations to crush Bolshevism COM
munism and anarchy.
In the second place, we must make
our fight constructively. Every good
citizen and every bad citizen and every
indifferent citizen Will be a combatant
and the victory will be awarded to the
side making the most converts Indif-
terent citizens. by remaining indifer-
ent, vii. actually, although uninten-
tionally, align themselves with the
bad.
In the third place. the struggle for
better citizenship will be a slow, bit
ter, dlscouraging, gradual advance in
education toward a better understand
ing os mans obligations to his fellow
men and fellow workers, toward a
/ clearer conception of the part each
man naturally plays in determining
whether there shall be economic sta
bihty or chaos. Patiently-too pa
tiently-the public is discovering the
consequences Of stopping the wheels
of production even for few days or
few hours. Patiently the public
must fight the battle OF better citizen
ship until all the people who make the
wheels 60 around realize that the only
insurance for material prosperity is in
making them turn faster, and that the
only result of stopping them or slow
ing them down is hardship, poverty
and ultimate chaos.
Finally. the capitalists and the en-
trepreneurs will be included in the
struggle for better citizenship, because
it is through their sympathetic CO
operation and their willingness 20
make the workers partners in the
great business of production and dis
tribution that We can hope for ulti-
mate victory.
Better citizenship is the biggas.
thing in America socially. politically.
economically. Let the new Republican
administration concentrate unon II.
r. A. &.