The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1922-06-22

in many ways and pay $4,000 a
year to a man whose chief contribu-
ton to society is making a fool OF
himself. Like Charlie Chaplin. Enter.
tainment is all right fcouse but we
have not a real sense of values.
Who is the most honored man in
the average American community?
The man who has taken the most out
of it. Not the man who has put the
most into it. What he has, not what
he did, is the standard. The success.
full man, so-called. is not entitled to
honor in the community because of
the amount Of taxes he pays. He
should be honored only for what he
had done.
LET him who would be great among
you be the servant of ALL" That stand
ard will eventually prevail. Our sense
of values will right itself. Material
ism will 60 We should teach civics
in our schools, but we had better be
sure that we have taught the youth
to respect the true values which can
not be measured at least with a dol.
lar mark.
The great need of our country is
purity of ideals.
Purity of Ideals
! believe that the high idealism of
Woodrow Wilson will eventually make
one of the most glorious pages of the
history Of our country. Men of the
next generation will be better men
for having seen that vision. The pure
ideals will fly in the face of material
ism. They are now in a death grap-
pie. We have seen a desirable COM
promise in the realm of international
politics, but that is not the end. 1t
was only possible, however, because
you and l and men of the street gen.
orally did not have the high ideals of
the makers of our flag. We thought
in terms of dollars-of dividends and
wages. So in the nation we fought
or allowed others to fight the things
that would eventually make for true
democracy; because we would not risk
the present dividends, because we
were afraid of government ineffic-
iency, or something else. We bolstered
up the present system of things; it
means perhaps more profits now
but it must eventually topple around
our heads.
The fourth great need of the nation
is loyalty.
Not a blind allegiance to the things
of the past. but a loyalty to the ideals
which we know so well-and some of
us rather blindly imagine prevail.
What makes bolshevists, anarchists
and the rest? 1t is social injustice
They cannot live in the light of lib
erty, justice, equality.
If there are manifestations of that
spirit in America (and there are plen-
ty of them then it is an assured fact
they were bred in the atmosphere of
injustice-social or economic.
Deportation and Jail are not the
cure. If there is a fostering sore that
breeds those germs in our economic
system then it must be cleaned up.
The supply will come on in increas-
ing numbers till you do clean it up.
Correction of abuses and education
are the only cures for it. That cor
rection will be applied when you and
and the whole great middle class of
this country quit waving a flag which
stands for country we do not know,
and set ourselves seriously to see that
the ideals of the flags symbolism are
applied to the nations life.
Loyalty is not bowling to the God of
things as they are. We need to know
that. Also we need not be ashamed
to confess that we do not know what
the future holds in the way of eco
nomic development.
There is not alive in this country
today man who can tell with any
accuracy what the next ten years will
nation.
There are three things which l be-
lieve the idealism of this country de-
mands and which will have to come
You may not agree with me. 1t is not
my care that you should. 1 have ac-
complish my purposes if you will
think seriously upon them.
1. Common ownership of natural
resources. Forest, mines, water
power.
2. Common ownership of all means
of transportation Gas we now have
roads and waterways).
8. Make all means of communication
public property.
l could go on, but l have said
enough. The flag calls to us Of the
great needs of our country.
If that flag sees another war, it
will be civil war. A war because
you and l have been Indifferent to
the fundamental ideals on which this
nation was founded.
A war because we did not know
and did not care how far the govern.
ment and the system of the country
had wandered from those ideals. A
war because we did not put the right
value on service. A war because we
allowed ideals less than those OF
Washington, Lincoln, yes, and Will
son; a war because we were not loyal
to our country-but to a group OF
class within the whole.
The successors q do not say de
cendants) of the men who spilled tea
in Boston harbor, or gathered on the
Green in Lexington, when that flag
was about to be born; willn OF toll
crate injustice either political or eco
nomic.
If that flag ever sees another wal
(and l pray God that it will mott, il
will not be an international conflict