New-York tribune., 1922-12-14

ate Of the United states. the bllly
Sunday Cinder Path Runners-up,
the Farm Bloc-Heads, the Shimmy
Dancers Uplift and Protective
League, the Y. w. c. A., the ROcke.
Teller Foundation, the BootleRgers'
Improvement League and the Order
Of the Silver Collar Button.
The moment you join one Of these
organizations all the other organiza-
tions list you at once as one Of two
things, and usually as both Of two
things:
Q.) Hundred Per Cent American.
(2) Un-American.
II you Join all Of them you are
listed in the same way. II you don't
join any Of them you are likewise
listed in the same way.
The American people (whoever
they are-we don't intend to start
anything by dehning) have a gift
for organization.
When DR.. Walter Z. Traprock,
Frederick O'Brien and Peter Fitz-
urse discovered the Demi- Virgin
Islands, which lie in latitudes and
longitudes so incredibly high that we
haven't the nerve to chronicle them,
the first thing they did as patriotic
Americans was TO organize the ma
tives into three societies. The next
day each one Of the societies was say
ing that the other two were un-
American part Of the time and the
rest of the time so Hundred Per
Cent American that It was positively
suffocating.
We aren't criticizing this trait in
American character. II we felt in
clined TO we wouldn't dare TO sit
out here on a limb all alone and
criticize. We'd have 10 organize a
society TO criticize before we would
feel safe in expressing an opinion
against organizing societies.
Fothergil Finch says II Is q
Healthful Sign. He says these hun
dreds and thousands Of societies
show the breaking up Of the stupid
American solidarity into hundreds
and thousands Of individual points Of
view. and that more Individualism
Is what this country needs. (Foth-
erQil Is frightfully un-American. in
our estimation.)
But why do individuals need TO
join something TO help them express
their individuality? Or is there a
dawnine wish on the part Of thou
sands 20 be individuals accompanied
by a self-conscious feeling that they
don't quite know how and will have
TO join something in order to learn?
The interesting thing 10 as Is that
all these organizations profess 10
exist for the purpose Of lettering
national life In one way or another.
And they are all sincere about Il.
Indeed, the situation might be de-
scribed as a rush Of sincerity 10 the
mouth.
In the mean time, we presume, the
Republican and Democratic parties
will continue 70 manage the practical
affairs Of state as usual, which Is 70
say they will mismanage them, as
usual.
There is something serious TO do
In the world 10 salvage and
rebuild Europe.
And we Americans feel that we
ought to be in II, in some fashion
or other.
But we don't know how.
We don't know how 10 get into
touch with the situation In any ef-
fsctive way, and we fear 10 lend our
selves TO some way that may not be
the right way. We don't want 70
butt in and make things worse, and
we diStrust all the ready-made plans
presented 10 US, for our co-opera-
tion, by various European statesmen
and cliques with their national and
partisan axes 70 grind.
But the whole thing makes US feel
responsible and serious.
This seriousness takes the form
Of making us attempt to clean up
our own country morally, since Il Is
denied expression elsewhere.
So we are expressing our serious
mood through the medium Of all
these various societies and clldues,
each person herding n along with
the bunch that makes the greatest
appeal to him personally.
Traditional moralities, instincts,
emotions, prejudices, impulses are
coming 10 the surface and clamoring
and clashing because the people, 10
an unusual extent, are genuinely
stirred. And because there Is no
American leader Of worldwide
vision whom they all trust both as a
practical man and an idealist they
are, in their earnestness, pecking
ridiculously at each other. A condi-
tion Of mind that might conceivably
bo utilized in backing up n generous
gesture Is being wasted In Letty and