Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 243, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1917 — BETTER MANHOOD [ARTICLE]

BETTER MANHOOD

It Takes the War to Clear Our Vision and Make Us Live Wholesome Lives. In times of peace and prosperity ww are prodigal; when war comes we conserve and consider. We have been wasteful of food, of clothas, of natural resources, of human life. We have been Indifferent to the greater values while engrossed with the smaller. We have permitted the conscienceless middleman to levy tribute from both producer and and to fatten on profits unearned. Now we begin to "see men as trees walking.” We shall discover our point of departure preserftly. We shall recover, and, hereafter, let us hope, retain standards that have been wellnigh lost It took war to open our eyes. War In Europe would not have done It The shock had to be brought home to us. We could dissipate, we could waste, we could prey upon each other till a time of sore distress is imminent And then do we find that while we were clinking glasses and frittering our lives away in worse than useless dawdling, the brave sons of our neighbors aeross the sea were being shot and torn and strangled and burned in a death struggle with forces that may yet venture to touch our traditional treasures also. And when our own young men are summoned come, willingly enough, but thousands of them unfit because of vicious living we have tolerated and habits that waste and weaken. When food grows scarce the speculator hovers, vulturelike, over the scene ready to fill himself at public cost and fatten, though patriot in factory and field be starved by the process. In the midst of this there are certain cheering tokens. Early in July a public function was arranged at St Louis—by the Rotary club at Sappington inn, to be definite-—at which a venerable officer and a one-time university professor was to speak on "England’s Side of the War.” With a disregard for morals too frequent in these days, the committee in charge provided “usual” entertainment features. In the midst of the banquet the venerable guest of honor arose abruptly and withdrew. His explanation was as follows: "I was asked to speak on the war. Naturally I felt that the question was a serious one, and demanded a serious hearing. “The first part of the program was a military tableau of the spirit of 1917, and was very interesting. Then came a group of young women in disgracefully scant attire, who danced and sang and sat on the laps of the men, hugging them and acting in .a most disgusting manner. “I turned to the chairman and said: •This hurts me mentally and physically, and I feel that I cannot stay any longer.’ I went out of the room.” Bravo! grand old man. Give him the Chautauqua salute, all ye readers, says the Christian Standard. It takes more courage, and better, to do a thing like that tharf to face the cannon’s mouth, but the number of public men who can deliver a solarplexus blow on moral issues is increasing daily, thank God!