Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-11-23 | Page 6 | The American Spirit

THE AMERICAN SPIRIT. How short-sighted the materialistic ian Grrm;in mind can be is illustrated liy comments which arc just beginning to be made within the German empire by those who assume to direct public opinion. Admiral Ton Tirpitz, hardened old materialist, has just discovered that he left something out of his calculations calcula-tions when he told his countrymen a rear a nd more ago that American participation partici-pation in the -war could not do much harm to Germany. Even now he feigns to beliovo that Germany is sure of ultimate ulti-mate victory, but he couccdes that the United States has given a moral power to the allies which has saved them t'rom defeat. " Theodor Wolff, in tho' Berliner Tageblatt, expresses tho same view even more mournfully. "Inasmuch as France will be unable o tap fresh resources," he writes, " Clemeuccjiu, too, must pin his faith on America's aid. If hope given by America did not exist, then not only would there have been long since outbreaks of moral crises in all the entente countries, but :in unmistakable readiness in the direction direc-tion of peace would prevail. It is now shown how foolish were the German arguments that America's entry into the ' war was immaterial and could not pro- lung the war. " Admiral von Tirpitz and the militarists mili-tarists generally confined their calculations calcula-tions to materia! things. They counted tlie men iu our army and the ships in our navy; they even counted the number num-ber we could enlist in our army if given time, and then declared confidently that we could add little to the allied strength because,, no matter how many soldiers ue should bo able to recruit, we could not transport them to France because ships would be lacking. But they have found out that we have transported to Europe something as decisive as ships ;utd shells moral power. The very fact that Premier Clemeu-ceau Clemeu-ceau can assure the French people of American support to an unlimited extent, ex-tent, makes his government strong, leceps France in the war and lends almost al-most incalculable power to French arms. Already we have loaned France more than ono and a quarter billions of dollars, and can loan her $10,000,000,-oi.'O $10,000,000,-oi.'O more if necessary. In their mad worship of material things, You Tirpitz and his fellow zealots neglected to cou-' cou-' sider the feeling of security that would prevail iu France and in England and Italy whpn it becamo knowu that the wealth of America was solidly back of the war. In this instance financial power is moral power. But there is an even purer moral power uplifting and upholding Great Britain, France and Italy. It is the American pirit. It is a knowledge that the greatest free country in the world, and, potentially, the most powerful, has resolved re-solved to erusfi German militarism for the sake of a better world. That is Tho spirit which inspires tho allies to .vii-tory. in a sense our men are already sharing shar-ing in the heroic battles, for the American Ameri-can spirit marches with Haig to triumph tri-umph along the dunes of Flanders and across the plains of Ficardy. It steels the Roman a:m to hold the line from Treutino to the sea. It makes the allied al-lied fortifications in Macedonia impregnable, im-pregnable, ' and leads with a flaming sword the forces of General Allenby across the hills of dudea to the walls of the Holy City.