Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1915 — Effect of European War Will Be to Strengthen American Patriotism [ARTICLE]

Effect of European War Will Be to Strengthen American Patriotism

By Dr. WILLIAM M. SLOANE,

Professor of History In Columbia

University

IT is the conspicuous merit of our present administration that at the outset it discerned the immediate consequences for us with clear definition. Its position exasperated the rank and file of Americans, while it confounded the plans of Europeans. BUT POSTERITY WILL ADMIRE OUR NATIONAL STAND, AND WE OURSELVES ARE SWIFTLY RETURNING TO SANITY. WE ARE AT LEAST NOT IN THE STATE OF DANGEROUS COMPLACENCY ARISING WHEN ALL MEN SPEAK WELL OF US. These, then, appear to be the effects of the present war on America: A strengthened and purified patriotism, a new national consciousness which reveals us as possible leaders in a forward movement against selfish materialism and, filially, a new educational training in grasping and settling'questions of vital import as to citizenship and self defense—as to the burdens of taxation and willingness to undergo a chastening discipline far different from the type of lawless liberty which borders on license. It is the central, all comprehending question of the hour: CAN WE IN OUR PRESENT SOCIAL SYSTEM PRODUCE AN EFFICIENCY COMPARABLE WITH THAT WHICH WE GROPINGLY CONSIDER ANTAGONISTIC? IF WE ARE AWAKE TO THIS THE WAR HAS PROVED THE SOURCE OF SAVING GRACE TO US. IF NOT, HISTORY WILL SAY OF US WHAT VIRGIL SAID OF TROY, “TROY WAS, BUT IS NO MORE.”