Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-05-30
HAS CIVILIZATION AT LARGE
FORGOTTEN ITS WAR DEBTS?
Can Il Pay Only With Flowers and
oratory for the Millions Of Lives
II Recently Took7

WE OUGHT to get forever out of our
w heads the notion that it is enough to
unturl flags once a year and fill the air with
words and music In honor Of men who went
to the wars and died. The account between
modern civilization and those who endured
sacrifice and martyrdom to keep II intact Is
not so easily settled. Politicians in white
vests might bawl star spangled platitudes
increasingly night and day for century
without making the burden of our obliga-
tions to the soldiery of other days lighter by
any perceptible degree. Civilization seems
to have defaulted. 1t is no more eager than
the Germans to pay its war debts.
For some reason or other little that is
worth while has ever been accomplished in
this world without pain and sacrifice But
labor usually has a reward. a visible tri-
umph, in the end. Seamen reach their ports.
Explorers experience the delight of discov-
cry. Pioneers of the wilderness open up new
paths and arrive in time at places where they
find security and rest.
War is the hardest work Of all Tor
mented men have been enduring the strains
and stresses Of war since the beginning Of
things. They have suffered loneliness and
starvation and cold and thirst and matchless
physical pain and death IN awful FORMS
The women Of The world have waited and
wept, their empty arms have acbed and with
blinded eyes they have seen ships come and
go. In war no one has been spared And
what have we in return for il all? Admirals
tell funny stories after hearty dinners.
Colonel Harvey tells the world that the ma
tions fought to save their hides. The row
about spoils and reparations has become
Bedlam and the forgotten dead lie out under
the rain.
Colonel Harvey is entitled TO his opinions.
But few soldiers worth their salt ever fought
solely to save their hides. Seen in dim
retrospect, the armies Of the United States
seem always to have had nobler concerns
than that.
The simple truth is that in the collective
mind of modern peoples there have grown up
n great desire and n great hope and the
belief that world half slave and half free
cannot go on without endless confusion and
periodical disaster. Every truly civilized
army has felt that in the field it was work
ing toward greater freedom and more ra-
tional way of life for all people.
The minds of armies have actually been
moving more swiftly than the minds of the
folks at home toward the ideal of democracy
and peace. For that ideal--and for that
ideal alone and because of the assurances
given by the Nation in support Of it-thou-
sands of youthful Americans checrfully
marched away from their homes and died
in a far country.
Now. it is n terrible and solemn thing to
ask a man TO go out upon modern battle
field to kill or be killed. Such demands ought
not TO be made upon any one unless there is
clearly visible and worthy reason for il.
If the dead could hear today, what would
they hear? What is there m the oratious
and the after dinner speeches TO suggest
anything Ike a general consciousness OF our
debt TO them? Is the mind of our race be-
coming fatigued? Have We lost the power
of definition and the habit OF remembrance? ?
For what did these men die? For democ-
racy? For the term itself or for the
reality, for freedom or for new tangled
chains by which the hearts and minds Of
this Nation may be bound?
They were told that they we're to fight in
| war 10 end war. The diplomatists and
| the statesmen seem TO have forgotten their
promises But diplomatists and statesmen
| are tranSients. They are of relatively little
account. The case stands clearly between
the democracies of the world, between the
| plain people of the world, and the soldiers
who stood between them and the storm
From every man under a war monument
| the people and their Governments took life.
What are they doing with il? What are
they doing to square the matter? with
| your life the people Of the world said TO
each vanished soldier, 1--WE shall make war
| impossible in the future We shall see that
your children are not given up wantonly to
slaughter or drowned deliberately at sea and
that poor, gentle minded, kind hearted peo =
pie shall not be whipped to fury and driven
like wolves at each Others thrOats,'
That promise has been forgotten. II was
one of the most solemn promises ever made
in this world We hear lot about debts
war obligations and indemnities, but no one
utters a word nowadays about the greatest
obligation Of all--the obligation OF people
TO keep the faith for which they sent mil
lions Of men 10 certain death and awfu
Nartyrdom
The dead cannot speak. They have toe
few representatives in the councils Of tht
world. But there are many living who fee
as they used to feel before the bullets founC
them In the minds and hearts Of thes,
people there is a challenge and a cry that Il
as significant as imperative, as the cry o
trumpets They cannot be mlsled. diverted
or befudded by defaulting statesmen Will
short memories They want justice done II
the world. They want escape from the con
sequences of governmental insanities. The
want an end TO war and they want It now
and the story telling Admirals and the Am
bassadors and the Premiers and the Presi
dents and the Parliaments and the group
they serve will do well to listen to thcr
while the listening is good.