Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 280, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 December 1917 — REAL WAR ISSUES SHOULD BE KNOWN [ARTICLE]

REAL WAR ISSUES SHOULD BE KNOWN

Success Depends Upon Realization of Vital Interests That Are at Stake. NEED LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS ' People Can Maintain Enthusiasm Through Patriotic Leagues In Each Locality, Says James 'W M. Beck. By JAMES M. BECK, Author of "The Evidence in the Case.* Some weeks ago it was my privilege to make a trip to the middle West at the Invitation of patriotic societies in Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, and. St. Paul. In each of these cities I addressed large and representative meetings on the issues of the war. Four of these cities had an exceptionally large population of foreign birth or immediate ancestry, that of Cleveland alone aggregating, as I was informed, 75 per cent of its whole population.

As one who from the beginning of the war earnestly advocated the participation of the United States in the world war in defense of the basic rights of civilization, I naturally looked with great Interest to the nature of the response which I might receive from audiences gathered, In most cases by public invitation, to hear a discussion of these Issues. If there is any apathy in the middle West, these audiences gave no Indication of it. So far as my experience and observation in those cities justifies any opinion—and I appreciate how dangerous such generalizations are —I found a loyal and ungrudging intention on the part of all classes of American citizens to support their country and Its president In this most righteous war. It was especially gratifying to see how the best of the American youth had arisen with vigor and enthusiasm to President Wilson’s inspiring call to arms.

Much to Be Done. Nevertheless there is much to be done if the interest is to be maintained and America is to play a large and noble part in the greatest of all wars. There are many ways of developing this interest, but I know of none that is so well adapted to” its object as the plan proposed by Dr. Ellery C. Stowell, the dlstingi ished historian of Columbia college, who some months ago commenced to develop a patriotic service league in his own congressional district. The principal object of this league was to give the civilian an opportunity to support at home the work of his soldiers in the field, and the results which followed Doctor Stowell’s movement in his own congressional district (the nineteenth of New York) were so gratifying that a similar local organization was commenced in the seventeenth district, and the organization has already made an excellent beginning.

It seems very desirable that in every congressional district there should be such a patriotic service league, composed of its best citizens, who will unite to promote the objects of the war, to secure enlistments, to interest the masses in America’s vital stake in the war, to combat sedition, to increase subscriptions to governmental loans and the Red Cross, and In all other possible ways t 6 support the armies of America in the field. War in its actual operations has become a matter of mechanics, chemistry, and industrial organization, but fundamentally It remains, as it has always been, a question of psychology. No nation ever conducted a great war to a successful conclusion unless its heart was in it For this reason a very serious work remains to be done in this country, and that Is to interest the American people, as individuals, in the causes and Issues of this titanic contest and its supreme importance to the future of the United States.

Not All United in 76. A somewliat similar condition existed when our Republic was founded. The great problem was to interest the people of the colonies in the struggle. That struggle has become such an epic that we are apt to think that all Americans had equal zeal in defending the constitutional rights of the colonies. The fa'ct unfortunately was to the contrary. John Adams, long after the revolution had been brought to a successful 'conclusion, estimated that at the beginning of the struggle one-third of the colonists wanted Independence, about one-third were very much opposed to it, and about one-third were in a state of opportunist expectancy, waiting t© see on which side the balance would fall. While Adams was something of a chronic faultfinder and may have exaggerated, yet at the beginning of the revolution our people were no more of one mind than they are The great patriots of the revolution, men like Jefferson and Washington and Franklin, fohned what they called “Committees of Correspondence” in every different locality and thus they coordinated the ’work of different localities the crisis developed, there passed from community to community, through these committees of correspondence, the intelligence as to what was expected and what would be re-

quired, and as a result, when General Gage marched upon Lexington and Concord, 16,000 minute men mobilized at the gates of Boston within 48 hours, an amazing fact, when one thinks of the limited population at that time. It was the work of the committees of correspondence. The committees organized eaOh locality, appealing to the man at his home, and thus a patriotic sentiment was developed which made of this country a great and independent pation. And so powerfully did this Impress Itself upon the master mind of Thomas Jefferson that when he was dying on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence he seemed again to remember those days of stress and trial at the beginning of the revolution, and was heard to cry in his delirium excitedly, “Warn the .committees; warn the committees I” People Must Know Issues. We will not make full progress In this war until we can bring home to the people to their very hearthstones, that not only is this as vital a contest as any that America -was ever engaged in, but that is one that affects the happiness, prosperity, and the honor of the American people. Remember the fine lines of the noblest hymn ever written for any nation in the hour of battle—l mean Julia Ward Howe’s Battle Hymn of the Republic, and nothing in any literature has a more martial movement than that most stirring of all battle hymns:

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat. He Is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat, Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant, my feet. Our God Is marching on. Is our soul swift to answer our country’s call? Are our feet jubilant to enter into this contest? If not, then the nation is in peril. This war will not be a matter of months, and sooner or later the mere patriotic submission to a political action of a government will spend Its force. A people must have a definite enthusiasm If it Is to give the best blood of its youth to any. cause. You will not find that spirit until you reach the Individual American and teach him that he has a vital and personal interest in this particular war. Rule of Force Must Go. Our people must be brought to realize vitally and practically that this war involves the sacred principle of righteousness in international affairs, the rule of reason in the commonwealth of nations, and that unless this be vindicated by a peace with victory, all talk of the pacification of humanity, whether by The Hague tribunal or paper treaties or leagues of peace or In any other way you please, is all rainbow phantasy and moonshine. Unless there can be first established the great principle of right and reason the principle of law dominating sovereign nations, a liberal civilization will perish from the earth. When Germany and Austria attempted to crush Serbia without rhyme or reason, without opportunity for discussion, Great Britain, France, and Russia said, "Let us reason about it,” and Germany said “No!” “Then give us a little time.” “No!” "Then let us have a conference.” "No!” "Then let us have arbitration.” “No!” “Let us have mediation.” “No!” "Let us discuss it in any way you please, by any expedient you may select; you can have Belgrade and occupy It as a hostage, but for God’s sake do not spill the best blood of the world needlessly. Germany and Austria said, “No! You will do our will or you will have a universal war!” If that principle of force as the ultima ratio is to prevail, the world will go back centuries, even to the cave dwellers; because, if you go back even twenty centuries, the law of Rome had at least something of justice and of the obligates of law in its maintenance of the world’s peace; whereas in this case you have a brutal and primitive negation of any principle of right or wrong, you have simple the assertion that might, and might alone, shall govern the affairs of men.

Most Sacred Cause. There never was a more sacred cause fought for since the world began than that for which France and Great Britain and their allies have hitherto so freely given the best blood of their youth. I do not want to live in this world if this world is to be dominated by brutal force. Whatever optimism I might have had three months ago I have not Im? the same measure now. I think the Issue of this titanic conflict is very doubtful. It is a life-and-death grapple between the two great powers of right and might; but I want to say advisedly and deliberately that if I saw clearly that the cause bf the allies was going down to defeat, that we were to be involved in that defeat, that we were to suffer its grievous and burdensome penalties, I would yet thank God that the United States went into the war and fell and suffered with the righteous rather than it should remain neutral and profit by other people’s sufferings. I have no regret that we entered into this war. There was only one thing for- a proud and selfrespecting nation to do;, and I rejoice that America, with all her many dlsad* vantages With respect to her heterogeneous population, its diversified—geographically speaking—conditions, has had the soul to accept her share of the burdens of'« distracted civilization. To recur to my thesis, let a patriotic service league, under whatever name, be formed in every district, and then let the cry be, “Warn the committees,” for now, as in the past. “Eternal vigilance la the price of liberty."