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rriday Morning, April 19th, 1918.
A Plea For Old Fashioned Americanism
By JOHN H. McINTOSH.
Extracts From An Address Deliverad
Before the Citizens of Fergus
County and Delegates to State Tax
Conference, at Lewistown, Mont.,
March 14, 1918.
«“Who saves his country saves all
things,
«imself is saved,
«and all things saved do bless him.
«Who lets his country die lets all
things die, !
“Dies himself ignobly,
«And all things dying curse him!”
Those words, uttered by Benjamin
Hill, a southern statesman of a for
mer generation, were good one hun
dred vears ago, and they are equally
true today.
Whenever and whatever there is
an assemblage of people held in our
country during this war the dominat
ing spirit should be Americanism.
It is well to keep our minds on the
major problem, which. is the crisis
confronting the mnation, and our
hearts mellow with national loyalty,
no matter whatever else we may be
called upon to consider or discuss.
In the hurly-burly of the hour, in
the strenuous task devolving upon
our president in conducting the war,
a task fraught with dangers of pit
falls, barriers and human mistakes;
in the kaleidoscopic changes now tak
ine place with amazing rapidity on
the checker board of nations, let us
not forget these enduring sentiments
as expressed by the poet, Sir Walter
Scott: ’
“Breathes there the man with soul
so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
“This is my own—my native land,’
Whose heart has ne’er within him
burned
When home his footsteps he hath
turned %
From wandering in a foreign land;
If such there be, go mark him
well,
For him no minstrels’ raptures swell
High tho his title, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish could
claim,
Despite his title, power and pelf
The wretch concentrated all in self.
Living shall forfeit fair renown,
And doubly dying shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he
sprung, .
Unwept, unhonored and unsung.”
BUGGIES ™ WAGONNS
I have been lucky! Notwithstanding the uneertainty
of freishts, I havejust in a car of the HENDERSON
BUGGIES and a car of DELKER BROS. BUGGIES
are on the road. '
You know them, and you have one more chance to
get a good, stylish and serviceable top buggy.
I did not buy them to keep over, and they will not be with me long.
If my luck holds out, I will also have a car of MOGUL WAG
ONS by the last of the week.
But you had better not trust to luck. Come to see me and ar
range for what you want now at my old stand.
Telephone 145 201 Cherokee Street
MARIETTA, dr e " - - GEORGIA.
Mr. Chairman, the great need of
America today is national unity—a
closer co-operation among all classes
of citizens for the winning of the
war-—a return to some of the patrio
tic principles that inspired our fore
fathers. In short the nation’s great
est need is a spirit of old fashioned
Americanism, ¥ % #-
In the past ninety days, Mr. Chair
man, I have traveled upwards of
20,000 miles; making observations.
My journeys have taken me to the
shipyards of the Pacific coast, both
at Seattle and San Francisco. In
those three months I have also visited
the Atlantic seaboard, have gone into
he shipyards there and the munitions
factories. I have visited the work
ers in the logging camps and the
mining camps, in the north and in the
south. I have driven through the
warm sections of the middle west
and the Ricky Mountain region and
discussed with farmers questions
closely relating to their life. The
nation’s capital lay in the path of my
journeys and there I noted the de
liberations of our lawmakers.
And now, Mr. Chairman, and fel
low citizens, I am going to make a
statement-—a declaration—as a re
sult of my observations. It may star
tle you but it is none the less true.
This great war which we are wag
ing for the rights of humanity and
the preservation of civilization is far
from won. In fact it has reached a
most critical stage. And the only
way we are going to be able to de
feat the military hosts of Germany
with their studied cruelty and scien
tific barbarity is for ail Americans,
regardless of class, occupation or
distinction, to forget internal differ
ences and to bend every energy in
support of the boys at the front in
Francé.
I say this, Sir, at the risk of being
classed a pessimist. I say it deliber
ately and after a broad survey of
the whole field of endeavor. Opti
mism is fine when backed by con
certed action and constructive deeds.
As a nation we are inclined to be
overly optimistic. We must stop
taking things for granted. We must
drop the idea that this is somebody
else’s war and our habit of shifting
the work to somebody else. We must
know the truth and we will then real
ize this is not a war for Wall street;
THE MARIETTA JOURNAL AND COURIER
that it is not a war for the farmer;
that it is not a war for the business
man, that it is a war by and for the
American people and that every citi
zen of this country must add his or
her mite to the stupendous task of
defeating the common enemy.
If there are any present here to
day who believe victory is already
cinched, here are some facts which
may change your ideas.
The progress with which this war
is won or lost devolves itself to a
question of ships. All the wheat the
United States is able to produce; all
the guns our munition factories can
make, and all the men in America
cannot win this war if mobilized only
on this side of the Atlantic ocean. To
win this war we must get our men
and our munitions and our food to
France. it takes ships. Now this
brings us to the vital point and that
point is ships. Is our shop construc
tion program beating Germany’s de
struction program? Let us see. Cold
statistics show that during the past
twelve months the German subma
rines have sunk two ship for every
ship the combined Allies could build.
America has undertaken to overcome
this markin against us by pledging
herself to build, during this year of
1918, 5,000,000 dead weight tons of
ships. Military experts tell us this
program is necessary if the war is to
be won. And yet we know that at
the rate we have been going since
January first we will hardly build
3,000,000 tons.
Now, what’s the answer? We've
got to speed up! We’ve go to increase
efficiency.
Without stopping to consider the
causes for the delay in the ship build
ing program, the fact remains the
administration has been badly handi
capped and seriously embarrassed by
the delay.' Under these distressing
circumstances one would think that
public sentiment would be more
clearly crystalized.
Ah, there’s the solution! There’s
the source! There’s the starting
point and the finish! There’s the
Alpha and Omega of this entire war
situation in America! Public senti
ment! Public sentiment is neces
sarv for the successful conclusion of
any great undertaking and, Sir, un
qualified do I declare that the great
public is not yet solidly aroused to
the united support of our government
in its prosecution of this—the great
est war in the world’s history. Pub
lic sentiment in this situation means
‘an intenseive spirit of loyalty reach-
ing into every nook and corner of
the United States. It means, if you
please, old fashioned Americanism
of the brand that our forefathers
knew. And when that spirit per
vades the entire nation, which it
must surely do, we shall move for
ward more rapidly and efficiently to
the accomplishment of our nation’s
great task, which is the winning of
the war.
To make mistakes is a human fail
ing. In this war we have all made
mistakes. The business man has made
mistakes and is open to ecriticism.
The Worker, skilled and unskilled,
has made mistakes and is open te
eriticism. The farmer has made mis
takes and is open to criticism. But
we are learning all the time and our
mistakes will prove valuable experi
ence for future improvement.
Mr. Chairman, the great body of
workers are loyal; the great body of
farmers are loyal and the great body
of business men are loyal. We are
all made of the same clay and we all
have a common purpose and a com
mon cause. Once thoroughly imbued
with the whole truth and our country
will stand firm and solid as the Rock
of Gibraltar.
For the individual who deliberately
exploits his fellows; for the agitator
woh makes a profession of stirring
industrial strife in times like these;
for the political disturber who would
create suspicion of this war at a
period when every energy should be
bent to the major task of winning the
struggle, I have the utmost scorn and
gontempt.. ¥ * &
We are passing through an age
of sociological changes and some of
our institutions most chunge to meet
changing conditions. There is not
room on the American continent for
Americanism and Bolshivikism, how
ever. I may be old fashioned, but I
hold that the fundamental principles
upon which our forefothers founded
this republic, stand good today. Not
in this generation, at’ least, will we
surrender individual rights and pro
perty rights and see established in
their stead unstable and visionary
schemes. The plight of poor Russia
today stands as a monument to the
failure of impractical dreamers.
Do we need an inspiration? If
our zeal must be inspired we have
but to turn to the glorious republic
of France, which is not as large as
Montana in area, but which is a star
to the world in spirit and chivalry.
Let us turn back history’s page to
the bleak winter of 1770, when the
little Continental army was starv
ing at Valley Forge, George Wash
ington addressed a letter to Lafay
ette, the liberty loving French states
man. The message told simply that
the American army was in dire straits
without food, guns or clothing and
that the fight for freedom was lost
unless France could heip. Did France
hesitate? Let us see: In a ramark
ably short time France had sent us
three of her best battleship, 5,000
of her picked troops and subscribed
$50,000,000 worth of American
bonds which would not have been
worth the paper they were written on
if we lost the revolutionary war.
One hundred and thirty-eight years
passed and that same little French
republic, which had fought with us
in the dark days of the revolutiom
that America might be perpetuated
for you and for me, found herself
sorely pressed. The hosts of the
Huns were hurling themselves at her
throat. And at Verdun the sons of
France again showed the valor of
which heroes are made. In the
greatest exhibition of gallantry the
world has ever known France stood
the shock. Outnumbered in men and
guns, she hurled back the rolling
hordes of scientific barbarians. Day
after day and week after week she
stood like a rock. In holding Verdun
they were battling not only for
France, but for world freedom and
civilization. They were battling for
America, for us all, yet for a time
it seemed that in our commercial
greed and smug complacency, we had
forgotte nthe everlasting obligation
we owed to France. We hesitated,
J. E. Dobbs-- --E. C. Gurley
FIRE INSURANCE AGENCY
We represent some of the strongest
American and English Companies.
We solicit your Fire Insurance busi
ness, and will look aiter your renewals
promptly.
DOBBS & GURLEY, Agents
; Successors to H. G. Coryell.
Office in Merchants & Farmer’s Bank.
but thank God, America, our nation
al conscience, was at last awakened
and today we stand shoulder to shoul
der with that little nation who help
ed us win our freedom one hundred
and thirty eight years ago and who,
at Verdun, sacrificed the lives of
400,000 of the picked men of her
republic that human rights might be
preserved.
There is a legend in Scotland which
tells that after the death of the gal
lant Robert Bruce, the Scottish ar
my lost courage. Then they dug up
the heart of the head hero, enshrin
ed it in a silver case and with the
spirit of Bruce reawakened they went
forward to victory as of old.
At Verdun the spirit that nerved
the French soldiers was expressed in
the little watchword, “They shall not
pass,” and so it was the Huns did
not pass. In Scotland the spirit that
revived the soldiers was expressed
in the little watchword, “Lead on,
lead on, O heart of Bruce,” and this
spirit did lead Scotland on to vie
tory.
' And so, Mr. Chairman and fellow
!Lcitizens, le us revive the spirit of our
forefathers. Let the fundamental
principals they established be our
guide. And emulating their prinei
ples let us revive Americanism with
the watchword, Lead on, O heart of
George Washington, lead on, O soul
of Lafayette; lead on O spirit of the
\immortal Lincoln, and with such ins
spiration we shall not wander from
the path of constructive progress,
which has made the Star Spangled
Banner the emblem of liberty and the
beacon light for Freedom throughout
the world.
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