Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-11-11

pelts speech at Arlington Ma
tional Cemetery tolloUs:'
On this day which commence
rates the end of fighting between
human beings in a world war, it
is permissible for me to search
far back in the history of civlli-
cation in order to visualize i'm
portant trends.
On the great seal of the United
States which, for a century and
half. has reposed in the loving
care of long line of Secretaries
of State of the United States
appear these words: "Novus Ordo
Seclorum," which means "A new
order of the ages"
In almost every century since
the day that recorded history
began, people have thought that
they were creating or establish
ing some kind of new order Of
the ages"
But in the scheme of civiliza-
ton from which ours deScendS I
suppose that we can properly
recognize that in $500 years there
have been only very few new
orders" in the development Of
human living under thing
called government.
Recalls Government
OF Ancient Greece.
Without question, the philoso-
ply of orderly government in
which the governed had some
form of voice in a civilized So
ciety goes back to the days Of
ancient Greece. We must re-
member, however, that while the
philosophy of democracy was
there first expressed in words
and on paper, the practice of it
was by no means consistent and
was confined to a relatively small
number of human beings and to
a relatively small geographical
area.
We came to the age of Rome
an age of strange admixture
of elections and laws and mill
tary conquest and personal die
tatorship. 1t was an age which
extended the civilization Of the
period to the greater part of the
then known world. 1t was an
age which forced its own con-
ception of laws and ways Of life
on millions of less civilized peo-
pie who previously had lived I'M
der tribal custom or centralized
direction. Definitely, Rome was
an age.
With Rome'S collapse and
the overrunning of Europe by
vast population movements from
farther east, orderly progress de-
Perforated, and the sword drove
learning into hiding. That dark
period could hardly be called an
age because it was an interim
between ages.
Era of Distinction
Without Human Security.
Then, with the reawakening Of
a thousand years ago, with the
crusades. the feudal system, the
guilds, the kings and the rem
aissance, that age which i'm
mediately preceded our own was
born and grew and flourished.
That was an era of enormous dis
tinction-arts and literature and
education and exploration
marching armies, barons and en-
pires. Human security was still
MISUNDERSTANDING was not
permitted. =
Toward its close, however, the
appearance Of tiny movements
in tiny places, led by tiny people,
forecast the next vast step for
ward-the era of 1776-the age in
which, thank God, we still live.
Those beginnings originated, it
is true, in the Old World-among
the philosophers, among the
seekers of many kinds of free
dom forbidden by those who gov
erned.
Those beginnings found their
freest development in the Colo
MES that were organized along
the seaboard of North America.
There, by the processes Of trial
and error, democracy, as it has
since been accepted in so many
lands, had it's birth and its train
ing.
There came into being the first
far-fung Government in all the
world whose cardinal principle
was democracy - the United
States of America.
Nothing Like 1t Before
Found in America.
We must accept that as fact
because, truly and fundamentally,
1t was new order-nothing like
1t had ever been seen before.
We must accept it because the
new order spread into almost
every part of the civilized world.
1t spread in many forms-and
over the next century almost all
peoples had acquired some form
of popular expression of opinion,
some form of election, of fran
chise, of the right to be heard.
The Americas and the British
Isles led the world in spreading
the gospel Of democracy among
peoples great and small.
And the world, as a whole, felt
with much right that 1t had dis
carded feudalism, conquest and
dictatorship.
People felt that way until 1914,
when a definite effort was made
in a part of the world to destroy
this existing new order of the
ages"-to destroy it after its rela-
lively short trial. and to substi-
tute for it the doctrine that
might makes right. The attempt
failed % years ago today.
U. S. Proud of Its Share"
In World War.
You and I who served in the
period of the World War have
faced in later years unpatriotic
efforts by some of our own coun-
trymen to make us believe that
tho cocrifiroc N no hv o,1r our