Show I 1 ua a ar by A y GENERAL JOHN 1 PERSHING r at L ri aa V V 7 A VE 4 ii V M 0 S 1 T ai heres here s a stirring call to io arms that summons the spirit of half of resolute marching men article I 1 r years ago an army of two million american citizens was gathering in france they had left their homes and families and businesses they had traveled three thice thousand miles across submarine infested seas and now they were ready to lay down their lives if need be for their country millions more jn in america were prepared to follow them and do likewise today the nation fac faces ts another crisis i in which the enemies allied against us are more insidious but not less dangerous Perva pervasive give sek seeking and corruption which the he chosen officers of the law seem powerless to suppress tile the sinister growth of the underworld whose tentacles reach out to touch us all the ever increasing extravagance of government and the mysterious par paralysis a cysts i of our economic system these are the enemies which now confront us they have been allowed to encroach upon us its largely through our own carelessness and neglect of duty as citizens in the battle against them tile the average citizen is at a a disadvantage because lie he is unprepared lie he is willing enough but he is bewildered he yet realize that lie he himself is primarily to blame hence he is taking no serious part in the conflict by average citizen I 1 mean a great many men to whom we should took look for lead as an well as the larger number who possess no qualifications for it in fact too often do citizens of nil all assume that politics and ami crime and even economics are ard no business of theirs it does doca not occur to them that they are every one individually vidu aly responsible why la Is it that patriotism burns so BO brightly in times of war anvar so BO dimly in times of peace it la Is just as necessary in meeting the complex obligations of peace but those these obligations do not stir the imagination like the primitive emotions of war the average citizen feels that somehow the problems of peace will bo be solved I 1 for 0 r him and falls fall 9 to realize the possibility sivility lity that calamity may result from his own indifference still can be B proud wo we baveas havo as much reason now RB its we had fourteen years ago to feel fee proud of our country and to love it we believe with some justice that it is the greatest republic in the history of the world under no lag flag in the world does a people enjoy more freedom or find greater happiness wo we boast of P public education universal suffrage liberty of speech and the press we enjoy rights undreamed of ot in ancient greece and rome home yet even with thu the flounder principles upon which to base the hope of of our insil tut lons ions we too may some soine day go down as did these older republics unless we vo recognize and live up to our civic obligations ligat ions it cannot bo be too lv impressed upon every citizen in u democracy that it la Is his duty to help actively help lo in the task of government the other day I 1 wa stalking to a substantial stant lal business man from now new york we were discussing an issue of increased taxation then up before the hou house se of representatives t by y the way I 1 said who Is them the representative from yur district lie ile grinned sheepishly I 1 dont know he be said my friend pays a goodly share of taxes to support the government ano and yet he dieas nt know who votes for him anthe on the tax question ile ho relies relics on a substitute and d even know who the substitute lot la I 1 this Is something ofa of a retrogression from un an earlier period when our government was founded our forefathers did not let unknowns represent them they made it their business to know now all about the character and be movements achievements of the men they elected to public ofte office then tile outstanding men effin in the country took atooli part in ID politics and most of the high positions were held by them political Iol lUcal lenders then wore were chosen by the abo voters now through the apathy of the voters they oro are often chosen by other politicians Ch changing angina social life this change Is partly due to olt 01 changing social life many of us do not even know our next door neighbors rut but it Is a manifestation of a deeper and more sinister chango change the tendency of the average citizen to let somebody else do his thinking for him tendency threatens the very foundations of democracy let some one else do the thinking that easy doctrine Is injuring us not only in politics but in other lelda fields under it crime nourishes flourishes and business languishes some international bankers since etaco the war have been careless ca relesa in tending lending other pe peoples oples money on foreign securities others have been charged with something worse than carelessness dut but the citizens who against sound business principles put up the money were not without blame in their eagerness for gain they too often en refused to think for them themselves sel ve S they preferred to delegate that task to one else it was well known to nil all who read tho ahr newspapers that certain governments had already defaulted on debts to their own people greedy investors lid did not bulk balk because of nf that hut but cheerfully put up billions to loan to states municipalities and IndustrIes of those ennie governments this la Is not an essay on economics economic I 1 am not an economist I 1 did not foresee the depression nor do I 1 know when it Is going to end though past expert once teaches me the upturn Is bound to come perhaps slowly perhaps suddenly when we expect it IL no matter how bow sure you are of victory fory never fall to mako make full provision for a reverse tills this rule Is axiom axiomatic atle with every capable military leader but it was ignored by most of our business leaders during the boom years pew few made plans for anything except triumphant advance from one objective to another many burned their bridges behind them then the advance was halted and the recession began it cannot be said that they were to blame for that recession for apparently our puny hu man etnis have not yet solved the riddle of the business cycle they were to blame for having made no plans to keep the retreat from turn ing into a rout business profit ably write that military axiom into its books for the years to come we ve havo made two other military blunders we began by unde resti ranting mating tho the strength of the enemy and progressed from that to overestimating it the cry cearo Wo fire just turning the corner of 1020 30 was the equlla lent of we will have the boys boy lout of the trenches by christmas of 1014 18 15 and ana our this country la Is going to the dogs doga of 1032 la Is the equivalent 0 of f tho the central powers are Invin cl blo ble of march 1018 1 I have hoard heard leading men given over iver to fear prate of national na tlona failure bankruptcy and 1 M 7 4 4 S 0 o Z 7 av me P J V 0 4 X 4 4 T r F t faxe lk A 94 r t 1 I lulled into complacency by prosperity our citizens passively accepted this Pol poisonous conous with small concern bolshevism tills ts in no time for cravon craven cringing looking out of my window I 1 shaft of the monument to washington I 1 think of valley forge and wonder how those who now lament and wring their hands bands would have enjoyed that winter this la Is washington bicentennial it Is in time for a new reckoning a new responsibility a now courage during the winter past many it good roan mon willing and able to work has gone through a hell bell of unemployment and uncertainty uncertain tys remembering that we luay thaL somo good along with iconic out of all W slona 1 I aw pot a stranger strange to depressions Nono mists tell us that the panic I 1 0 of 1973 was the closest analogy which history furnishes to our presen present t tr brou trou au bles bice my ary father a well to do bustrien busl bus tries man and farmer in missouri wa was taught caught in that general disaster dla aster I 1 was just thirteen years year sold old onet one day my father told ino the whole story john he be bald everything 1 I own has licen swept away except tho the form farm which to a covered by a heavy wort mortgage gage 11 we finally lost it 1 I 1 must try to make so bobae me money by traveling as ai a sale ea leaman while I 1 am away you of tho famil yand man farm during the next three years my brother broth and I 1 aran ran the farm bowed and reaped we took our produce to market those days daya were cro not so different from these I 1 for the farmer I 1 remember we had a held field of timothy hay bay which was wag particularly ticul arly one fine I 1 baled it up carload of it and sent it by rail to st SL mule louis hoping to receive a top price but bat it did not biln bring g enough to cover the freight charges during those years my attendance at school was limited and I 1 had to do the best beat I 1 could to keep up with my classes by studying at night those were certainly hard bard times yet sweet are the uses of adversity and it was waa the best beat thing that ever happened to me it taught me more gave mo great er confidence and a keener sense of responsibility than anything else could have chave done unsuspected powers I 1 cite nay my own experience merely to show how men and women actually gain a new strength rind and courage when thrown upon their own resources and responsibility in times of crisis th they ey find in themselves powers they never suspected the life of a military man furnishes another valuable in times like the present in every array army career there come occasional times of dullness the officer stationed at some soine remote army post has his routine du ties to perform when those these are c completed he finds the temptation almost overwhelming to give over his leisure to cards carda light rending reading social evenings painless time wasting it is the officer who resists that temptation who spends hard bard hours each day studying the latest advances in artillery ir transport in tactics it la Is this oell er who receives recognition when the opportunity for active service comes so bo it Is in business in this time of extreme dullness many have sunk I 1 back into a kind bind of lethargy but the tha wise business man like the conscientious officer licer of la is using his bis present leisure to prepare for the battles to come lie la Is devising now new economics economical I 1 of production and distribution he is studying the problem of 0 how his bis product may be varied or made more attractive ho he is 18 getting ready to take advantage of the upturn when it omes comes ile he Is not accepting gloomy defeatism he ele Is thinking for himself I 1 have touched at some length on tho the depression because it has so glaringly shown us tho the folly of carelessly delegating pur our thinking to others it has also thrown a bright cold light on the flaws in our political methods methodi andi on our crime problem during the years of prosperity following the war mar an underworld of gangsters gang stera and racketeers unparalleled in any other civilized nation grew up and flourished in our cities the criminals crimi naW who manned this underworld were ot of a new type they were not the masked and shabby y plug uell es who the jails in earlier years they were expensively dressed they owned machine guns high powered cars and speed breed boats they had bad money in the bank with this money they were able to establish a relation with corrupt toMel als and police which seemed to make them immune from prosecution 0 ism noil nail harview to ile be concluded mex week |