The Penn's Grove record., 1920-08-06
A State OF Mind

"A oN&NN
When the armistice was signed the
United States was the greatest mill
tary power in the world. Never before
had such moral, financial, and physical
energy been developed in war. Victo-
nv had been achieved and a peace based
upon American conceptions of justice
was foreshadowed. Yet national dis
content began in the very hour of
triumph.
The United States had the respect
of all nations for its leadership as well
as for its might. 1t was in a position
to dominate the earth unselfishly, to
impress it's liberal and progressive
principles upon mankind and to guide
long-misgoverned peoples out of the
old abyss of intrigue and strife into a
new and finer relationship. Yet even
the protesting milenniumites and other
perfectionist impracticables voiced
their discomfort as loudly as any of
the Bourbons who had been over
thrown. 3,
Never before has any nation had
the wealth possessed today by the
United States. In spite of some glar-
ing inequalities, there eve was a
time in all the past when riches, lux
urls and pleasures were so well distrib-
uted. Labor, fully employed, receives
the highest wages ever known. The
rewards of capital are uneXampled.
Agriculture is blessed with rich har-
vests and finds eager markets at high
prices. Notwithstanding popular X
travagance without precedent, savings
banks are glutted and life insurance IS
making figures beyond the dreams OF
its founders. Yet, labor, capital, man
ufacturing, merchandising, agriculture
and even the speculator who trades
upon uncertainty are alike
ted and full of direful f~orebodings:
Having mastered the earth lntellec.
tually and materially, the United
States is not now looking for new
worlds to conquer. 1t is quarrelling
over the spoils, finding fault with ev-
erything that has been done, complain
ing, pickering, ready to believe the
worst of the government under which
these miracles were wrought, suspl-
cious of every new idea, doubtful OF
the value of the victory gained at such
cost, inclined to reproach the army
and navy, and forgetful of the tens OF
thousands of brave men who died with
unfaltering faith in an ideal. Is 1t at
all wonderful that demagogues and
~agitators, some of them inspired
abroad. should take advantage of
such a situation? Are We to marvel
that reactionary politicians find In
this state of affairs an opportunity to
subordinate and to sacrifice honor and
peace in order to gain the Presidency?
In their present frame of mind the
American people are not quite cap
able of passing intelligently upon the
League of Nations or any other pro-
posal for human betterment requiring
far sighted courage and unselfishness
for it's adoption. They are sitting by
the fesh-pots. They are wailing out
a distress which is spectacular and un-
real. They are deluding themselves
with dangers which do not exist and
they are fighting small but disquietlng
battles that are a reproach to them
and a mystery to their neighbors. 10
be true Americans again they must
put aside all the meannesses which
have enthralled them of late. If they
cannot in this emergency revive the
spirit that never has failed to make
invincible, the moral decline of the
Republic will begin with that fateful
failure.
Our discontents heretofore have
been those of ambition and progress.
The discomfort of this day is of greed,
ingratitude, indulgence and perfidy.
New York World