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F orty years ago there were men even in
this country who knew the trick that is
being used today by the European dicta
tors. When they saw the United States, in
President Cleveland's second term, headed
toward a depression, internal |>olitical turmoil,
and their accumulated wealth dwindling, they
suggested that only a war against a foreign
nation would save the day. Those men wen-
hailed as patriots by their contemporaries.
They were honored as citizens ready to sacrifice
millions of lives for the vindication of this
democracy and its honor.
When I see the Black I/Cgion revealed, through
the Detroit investigations, as a l»and of patriots
who use violence to defend their notion of
democracy, I am
inclined to believe
that our standards
of patriotism need
a new coat of
paint. The expen
ditures for human
welfare these past
few years have
staggered many of
us. And yet those
expenditures are
but a drop in the
bucket compared with the f>4 billions of dollars
we appropriated in the two years of 1917 and
1918, for our share of the World War, for our
allies, and for its aftermath. With the ac-
quiesencc of a vast public, Congress is expend
ing over a billion dollars this year for the army
and the navy. We give our blanket endorse
ment to an extravagant program ’against a
foreign enemy who may never attack us while
we completely shut our eyes against the enemy
within our gates.
The United States has more enemies within
its own borders than it has across the seas,
east or west. They thrive unmolested in every
community of this blessed land. The new
standards of patriotism demand an army of
attack so vast that its numbers, by comparison,
will make our mobilized force of eighteen years
ago look like the remnants of the (1. A. R.
The soul of America is sick. The struggle to
lift millions of Americans out of the morass
of idleness, want and wretchedness has warped
the minds of many. A minority of our citi
zenry has become demoralized, fearful that the
opportunities for work, sustenance and com
fort are too few for the ISO million people on
this enormous stretch of land.
The Ku Klux Klan, the Black Legion and the
Knights of the Golden Circle of Abraham Li-
coln’s days, do not thrive in times of prosperity.
They are the inventions of men who play upon
the confidence of our honest citizens whose
only crime is that they still believe
that there are short-cuts to wealth, to
opportunity and to personal security.
In their desperation during the diffi
cult days through which we have
been passing these seven lean years,
they have mentally purchased one
doctrine or nostrum after another,
hoping that it would prove to be an ^
Aladdin’s lamp.
The great, creators of this democ
racy, l George Washington, Thomas
Jcfferson p and Abraham Lincoln, did
not mold the spirit of this country
through the devices of secret legions.
They fought it out with their fellow-
citizens in the open. Robert Fulton,
Thomas Alva Edison, the Wright
brothers, and Henry Ford did not
conceal themselves in a den of the
hills and mountains and from there
seek to direct the conduct and move
ments of their fellow-beings. They
threw the fruits of their genius into
the open market and, let all who
could and would, enjoy the benefits.
The Vruled Stales has more enemies within ils
holders than without, says l'.slcllc .11 Slern-
berger, executive chairman of the (mod Neighbor
League, in this interesting article. Airs. Stern-
berger, one of the outstanding women leaders oj
this country, sounds a signal of warning Jor
higher standards oj patriotism.
Wanted: New Standards of Patriotism
By Estelle M. Sternberger
Theobald Smith, the captain of American
microbe hunters, and Major Walter Reed of
yellow fever fame, did not corral an inner circle
of special beneficiaries. They gave their
formulas and discoveries to humanity, without
any embargo of religion or race.
The greatest of our Americans have made
their contribution to the progress of this
democracy without black hoods. When they
made up their minds to advance the cause of
human liberty and welfare in this land, they
at no time resorted to the cover of darkness or
swore a dread oath of secrecy. The defense
of democracy never sanctified murder or brutal
flogging as ways for promoting its basic prin
ciples among the people of this land.
stalwart exponent of democ-
bc made the laughing stock
Our natural wealth has not
much as a grain of salt in all
troublesome years. Our fertile
fertile as they ever were. Our
America, the
racy, must not
of the world.
ecreased by as
these seven
plains are as
rivers still flow and their waters have since
been carried into areas that were once the
desert spots of this country. The inventive
ness of American industrial genius is still the
By S'urna Panlleyean
Democracy never sanctijied Alurder and Violence
[*0]
envy of the world.
Why, then, have we given way to reprisal*
on each other? As a country, we are not oik
penny poorer today than we were in October,
1929. America needs new standards of patri
otism to lift it from the dangerous pitfalls into
which misguided zealots would lead it.
The new standards of patriotism summon
us to fight the problems of the hour in tin
spirit of our country’s pioneers—out in the
open arena. But the issue of new standard-
of patriotism involves something besides un
concealed courage. It demands that we recog
nize that it is an equal if not greater duty of
patriotism to fight the evils that have not yet
been eliminated from our country’s fife. That
type of service to
our republic is an
every day service
that requires the
grit of a bull-dog
We h ave got to get
our mental teeth
into things and re
fuse to let go until
they come out the
one way that satis
fies us Americans.
And that pattern
is the pattern of every man’s right to a job;
every child's right to an education; every
family’s right to a clean and sunlit home that
is too healthy for crime to thrive in; and mutual
respect for each other's race or religion.
Where is that fervor of patriotism that leaps
mountains and seas to eliminate a distant
enemy, but slumbers when the very fibre of
this democracy is endangered? We must set
out to mobilize millions of citizens whose sense
of patriotism is so human and so realistic
that they are ready to abolish the evils that
thrive under our very eyes.
The new standards of patriotism to which
the people of this democracy must pledge
themselves are. in my opinion, these:
1 pledge myself to live with my neighbor
in civic brotherhood, regardless of his religion
or race.
I pledge my unselfish service to this coun
try, in union, with other intelligent and able-
bodied citizens, to lift our entire population
to higher economic levels and so destroy the
causes and breeding places of crime and disease.
1 pledge myself to seek my own success,
happiness and prosperity only in ways that
advance the security, comfort and happiness
of all those whom my efforts and work affect.
1 pledge myself to adhere to the tools of
democracy, of free discussion, free association
and free decision, in achieving the goals of
liberty, equality and opportunity.
The new patriots are on the march.
The victories they seek in America’s
economic and social fife will be fought
and won in the open. The victories
they will achieve will re-affirm to the
world that this democratic land has
no intention of repeating the blood
stained experiences of the open and
secret dictatorships that have snuffed
out the fives of countless innocent
people, whose only sin was that they
dared to speak or act in behalf of a
newer patriotism as they conceived
it.
America's wealth is undebat able.
America is rich in men as well as ma
terials. America has ascribed its
greatness to the fact that it has drawn
upon the human resources of every
race and nation without whose work
this stretch of land would still be a
vast forest. America is on the wide
battle front of human progress.
America will win without a single
citizen falling by the wayside.
* THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE