Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1917 — SAVING A NATION [ARTICLE]

SAVING A NATION

It is the history of all nations since history was written that there conies crises in the national life of all pefiples when prompt action is imperative if- d«rtraeti*a. he averted. Some peoples have tgken such action and lived. w>ile others have slumbered and died. Grave .as the consequences cjcr present struggle are apt to be, the American people, , it can l«e seeia more plainly as the time passes, are being saved by it from an even greater danger which threatened them—the danger of over-prosper-ity and over-indulgence. Even now. since we hare "entered upon the task of mobilizing 'American resources- the mind staggers at the colossal values aggregated. Where a few years ago we whispered in awe of millions, now we speak of as glibly as a school girl prattles of pin money. ThiSj'pf itself would not have constituted such °a grave danger i had not our people framed their personal lives on the same vast scale. From talking in thousands to living in thousands is an easy I step. The .same is true of millions. As our operations increased and our national wealth piled up our personal ideas enlarged apace, until when we woke up last April to find ourselves the proba" deciding factor in the greatest ' of all history, we discovered irr-F selves living at a rate that c-rrii have had but one possible ending —national disaster, if n t naif snal death. War Is horrible. We shrink :r> It and wish from the 1 ttom of our hearts that it could be banished from the earth forever more.

Yet in this war the heroes who die for us on the fields of France will cou’er a greater blessing upon iheir country' than merely preserving' its honor, as the world sees 'honor.- They will have saved us from national moral decay and i-axh. For the domestic revolution, without which our part in the eendiet can not be carried out, ; .4he upheaval that was needed to take pct feet out of the road to Tei'h' and set them on the road to i broader and saner life.