Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1921-07-08
AMERICA PASSES
ANOTHER NATIONAL
HISTORIC MILESTONE

in our national history. Once more
on July we stand and gaze back
ward to those historc days when this
great republic was founded on pTin-
ciples pregnant and imperishabie,
and forward to those Gas yet not his
toric) days when these principles
shall be applied to every department
OF our American national life.
These principles, the very soul Of
Americanism, are contained in the
words of Abraham Lincoln, the i'm
mortal, government of the people,
by the people and for the people,"
words often misquoted, frequently
misconstrued and almost always
turned into platitude. They contain
nevertheless the very ego Of a nation
evolving towards world leadership
through a balanced and equitable
social order. These words strike the
very keynote of world evolution
balance, adjustment, adm harmony;
the very antithesis Of disintergra-
ton and class warfare.
Those Of US who have eyes to see,
and hearts to respond to the great
world spirit, do not dare to take these
words that ring down through the
years and turn them to petty uses.
No group or party has any right to
monopolize this great utterance. The
people" of America mean the people
Iof America; 1t does not mean those
who work with the hands to the ex-
clusion of all others, nor does it
mean the respectable, conventional
middle class" nor the economically
wealthy, overlooking others; it does
not mean any Of these alone, be-
cause it means all of these. This is
the great Americanism of today. Do
we realize It?
We can never hope to solve our
many urgent problems until we have
swallowed and digested this ito
many unpalatable truth. We have
watched a good many experiments
that have sought to separate and is
olate one group of the American peo-
pie from the rest and persuade them
that their interest lay in dominat-
ing and subugating their fellows. We
have watched organized groups Of
capitalists seek to control great bod
les Of producers and consumers; we
have watched organized political ma
chinery seek by cajolery or coercion
to gain spurious majorities; we have
watched organized labor use for its
own ends the same autocratic meth
DDS IL condemns in others. And all
this because we are not yet SUFFICIENT
ly American to ralize that the "peo-
pie" means and includes every group
in this great nation and not just
the one to which we ourselves be-
long,.
In the light of this truth how
much effort. and how many words we
waste: professional patriotism seek
ing to uncover radical propaganda"
in every movement or uterance that
is not along the good old sterotyped
lines. Professional laborism seek
ing to tar all employers with the same
brush without regard to pers ,nal
ideals or actions. Each and every
antagonistic group arguing from the
particular to the g nereta, lther; {,
particular to the general. taking
words and phrases and wrestling
them to suit individual ends: uttering
half-truiths and using words without
regard to context and application.
One thing and one only will end it all
Fellowship, the real thing, not
merely cooperation of all employees
against all employers; not labor SOL
is against capital; not the proletar--
lat against are fnancier.
Consolidated America! The people
Of America. financiers. )proletariat,
producers, consumers, employers and
employes-capital and labor in one
vast cooperative commonwealth to
make America a going concern, with
a sound economical political system
that will give each memebr of this
great corporation stake in the coun-
try.
Remeber this cannot be achieved
by putting capital out of business.
nor even by change Of management,
1t cannot be done by crushing" the
labor movement and supressing
every radical" utterance. 1t can be
done ny wiping out old artificial lines
OF cleavage, by literal acceptance of
the principle Of cooperation, and it
succeeds in proportion to the sincerity
of the purpose and integrity of the
parties concerned.
Most Americans come from Mis-
souri,, they want to see a thing dem
onstrated.
Many smile incredulously, some
guffaws in contempt at the idea of a
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