The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1921-03-25
WHAT DID Mr.. HARDING MEANa

There are two paragraphs in Mr..
Harding's inaugural address which
have aroused far more discussion
in Europe than in the United States
and which are yet to be explained
We print them in their entirety
"If. despite this attitude, war is
again forced upon us, earnestly nope
! way NAV be found which will unlfy
orr individual and collective strength
and concentrate all America, material
Ily and spiritually, body and SOUL TO
national defense I can vision the
ideal republic, where every man and
woman is called under the flag Tor
assignment to duty, for whatever SER
vice. military or civic, the individual
lis hest fitted: where we may call to
universal service every plant. agency
or faculty, all in the sublime sacri-
|fice for country, and not one penny
Iof war profit shall insure to the 0cne-
fit of private individual, corporation
or combination but all above the hor-
NAL shall flow into the defence chast
of the Nation There is something in-
|herently wrong, something out OF ac-
cord with the ideals of representative
democracy, when one portion OF our
citizenship turns its activity to private
gain amid defensive war while an6th-
or is fighting, sacrificing or dying
for natinoal preservation.
Out of sucn unlversai Servic., will
come a new unity of spirit and pur-
pose, new confidence and consecra-
ltion, which would make our defense
impregnable, our triumph assured.
Then we should have little or no dis
organization of our economic, indus
trial and commercial systems at home,
mo staggering war debts. no swollen
fortunes to flout the sacrifices of orr
soldiers, no excuse for sedition. no
|ritiable slackerism, no outrages of
treason. Envy and jealousy would
have no soil for their menacing de-
velcpment and revolution would be
without the passion which engencers
lit.
1t is to be taken Nor granted that
these paragraphs, which besr no rela-
tim to the general argument CT the
address and which seem to have been
interpolated. are there for a purpose.
Mr.. Harding must have had some
thing definite in his mind and he
must have consulted with other best
minds in his party before he outlined
his preparations for another war and
wrote his panegyric to that war as a
means of confidence and consecra-
ton, which would make our defense
impregnable."
What is back of it all we have no
means of knowing. but it is worth
recording the fact that the German
autocracy in 1914 had the same opin-
ion of war as method of achieving
national unity which Mr.. Harding now
holds, and that the German ideal OF
was service was practically identical
with his ideal The principal differ
ence is that the Germans sumbitted'
their theory to a practical test and
they know the results OF it.
Possibly Mr. Harding would say that
their mistake was in employing war
10 MAINTAIN their existing institutions
instead of employing it to establish
the ideal republic. In any case the
American people may be interested to
learn why Mr.. Harding in his inaugu-r-
al address devoted so much of his at
tention to measures for another war;
What did he mean by it and why did
he think that it was a subject toward
which the attention of the country
should be directed
European commentators are asking
these questions nor, in the circum-
stances, can they be blamed. Certain
" nobody can say that these para
graphs are reassuring to the peace