Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-11-16
peacetira.= Patriotism.

flares into white heat at a hint OF
insult to the beloved birthland
Again the comparison holds true, fol
as in the preoccupation of youth a
4ckild is often inconsiderate of the
needs and seeming Indifferent to
the love yearnings of. the parent,
Just SO the average citizen, absorbed
IN his individual interests seems in
times of peace utterly oblivious to
rhe claims of his community or his
country
Our dictionaries declare patriotism
20 be "the passion which aims to
serve ones country and to maintain
Its laws and institutions" That it is
a passion which clenches the fist at
she first threat of external meddling
or internal strife is obvious, but
should it not be just as irresistible to
keep the muscles taut in the pro-
motion of national prosperity be-
tween scraps? Isn't that maintenance
clause in the above definition as
weighty as the service clause? Fortu-
nately our glorious boys of the
American Expeditionary Force deem
1t so, or they would not have so
promptly welded themselves into the
American Legion, that bulwark of
safety against anarchy and against
every tendency toward national de-
cadence and disintegration.
The trouble with many of US who
stayed at home and worked and
prayed with all our strength of body
and soul while our soldiers fought
out a worlds emancipation, is, that
now, in this critical time of read
5ustment we minimize our personal
relation to our government.
President Wilson gave the key to
Che solution of present problems
.away back in our neutrality days,
when, warning of the danger of rash
interference, he reminded US that
one citizen had precipitated that orgy
of bloodshed. He then went on to say
that the man who livesya sober, pur-
poseful life in the interest of the
common good is a truer patriot than
he who would glory to die for the
country which his personal indiscre-
tion had plunged into war.
This government of ours rests up
on the bedrock of individual re-
sponsibility. The spirit of true
Americanism develops from the unit
.self-respect to family pride, from
family pride to community ambition,
from community ambition to state
Loyalty and from state loyalty to
laational patriotism.
a government modelled by repre-
.sentatives of it's citizenship, elected
with an eye single to the furtherance
of civil and religious liberty and
jealous in the impartial exercise OF
Justice between man and man is the
aim and the claim of the American
Republic. Such government natur-
ally tends to foster saner patriot
ism than is possible 20 citizens of
European nations, whose love OF
country is more love of sacred ira
tlitions and a pride in ancient glory
than a spontaneous tenderness born
of gratitude for personal privileges
and blessings.
And yet, in this good land where
The citizen is responsible for the laws
before he is responsible to them,
crime is rampant. Only last Sunday
a minister declared in one of our pull,
pits that an adjoining county to ours
had more homicides last year than
were IN the whole of Scotland. And
judging by Greenwood county's de,
plorable record of the past few
weeks, our sister county has nothing
on US in the way of crime record
How far are you and | responsible
for this inconsistent patriotism:
Just so far as we by the unrighteous
or unwise exercise of our individual
vote fail to represent ourselves by
righteous law makers, law interpre'
ters and law executors. Well may
Whittier exclaim:
-"Tbe crowning fact, the kindliest- act
OF freedom is the freeman's vote. y
It is the lack of appreciation OF
the sacredness of the vote that has
dragged American politics into the
-mire of dishonor. The Italian who
when asked, "For what did yor
vote?" replied "For two dolla'," is. 6
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