OCR Text |
Show WE NEED A NATIONAL j PATHFINDER R (Uy Chillies Aubrey Eaeon, Assoc!- K ale Editor Leslle'B Weekly) jft m As Director of the National Setvice B Section of the United States M Shipping Hoard, An Authoilty on W Industrial Problems and the Re- latlons notween Capital and La-HQ La-HQ bor, Dr. Charles Aubroy Eaton Jb Has Ably Served Hla Country M find His Fellowruen. Aa Assocl-IM Assocl-IM nto Editor of Lesllo's Weekly, ho K will Discuss Weekly tho Vital K Problem- or tho Hour With His W Characteristic Intelligence, Vigil Vig-il or and Fairness. R It Is a positive lellef to get great 1 1 numbers of cltl7ens to find that thoy fjj will not b( called upon to decide 13 UP & program of startling Innova- I tlons In this election. Wo have so Iffl many new problems to solve and m the war has loft iiB-wIth such a mass M of debris to regulato the unlverso H until wo have set our own house In H order. Woire greatly In need just jllj novr of sane, constructive statesnian- ship appllod to vital questions already al-ready pending. A little old fashioned fashion-ed Amcrlcun gumption and sense will act like oil on the troubled waters, wa-ters, Througtout the whole war period and don to tho piesent moment, we have been In a state ot norvous exaltation amounting almost to hysteria.. hys-teria.. What tho average American dislikes instinctively Istho conscious or unconscious hypocrisy which has poisoned tho public mind from tho 'boglnnlng of tho struggle In 1914.; When nelglum was Invaded every normal American know that It was a crlmo of unparalled mnllgnlty. Rut wo were Instructed that there, must be no moral reaction to this crime. Everybody Jiad to bo neutral In thought and word. The thing smelled of high hoavon, hut we had to protend that we did not notice the peculiar odor. Tho sinking of the Lusltanla was to all right thinking men plain assassination, as-sassination, hut again wn were required re-quired to twist our unwilling souls f Into an attitude halfway between moral Imbecility and Intellectual cowardice, ny that time we weie supposed to have become too proud to fight and too good to think un-Kindly un-Kindly even of murder. Meanwhile wo were making loads of money out of tho war. This was our right and In some degree our duty but the popular Impression was cultivated with assiduous care thHt we were simply Intoxicated with altruism al-truism anil had only un incidental Interest In the dollars. In that golden gol-den period it was almost wicked to take money even for speaking at Chautauquas and American citizens were left to bo murdeied In Mexjco, as a Just retribution for their unholy un-holy desire to malto money In that land ot sordid commercial oppoi-Itunlty. oppoi-Itunlty. I Then came the tlmo when wo had I to fight. It was a plain proposition i which almost everyone understood. i Either wo must go over and help heat Oermany in Europe or wo should havo to boat her later here, without tho help of either allies or associates. Rut oven this oidlnary. everyday proposition of fighting to defend ourselves from conquest mnn aged to got Itself sugar-coated aiyl realized until we were all swolled up over the wonderful Idealism of our fighting at all. Wo wanted nothing for ourselves. Wo "wero eighteen -karat altruists setting out to convince an erring brother of his mistake Everybody knew better ot course, but it did not sound nice to say so. It would have been, as It ought to have been, a fight to a fin-' Ish except that Just before the decision de-cision everybody was called off to uncertain the meaning of the "Fourteen "Four-teen Points." And since the armistice we have been drifting upon a "se'a'of tepid sentimentality, roughened .by an occasional oc-casional squall of selfishness Without With-out energy enough to get up steam and with no one to lay a straight course for us back to owrk. The first thing our country needs is to sober up and get to work. Wo havo had n beautiful dieam 'and it made us feel good. Hut even n gient nation cannot get very far simply by feeling good. Di earns abo'ut wealth without work and the ushering In or the mllllnlum by legislation leg-islation 'may solve to lighten the tedium or tho voyage In the steerage steer-age aifd saloon, but unless the ships olllcers and crew keep on their Job meanwhile, such dreams are apt to end In tragedy. We must shake off I tho hypnotic fascination of an Im-nglneiy Im-nglneiy abstract virtue which wo do not possess and which we could not I practice If we did possess It ,and lining ourselves under the discipline of those simple homely virtues, by which normal men wok and live. Wo must take hold of our thorny problems prob-lems with baie hands and. by practiced, prac-ticed, honest, united effort, cleanse our minds of the delusions of an Inhuman In-human grjjatness, Mr, Harding says that we need the benediction of wholesome common com-mon sense. In a tecent address In Roston he used these woids: "America's present neet Is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normality; not revolution but lestorntlon; not agitation but adjustment; ad-justment; not experiment but oqul-pose. oqul-pose. Mj' beit Judgment of Amei lea's needs Is to steady llown, to get squarely on our feet, to make sine of the right path." This Is sane doctrine. We need It. ; We need n Pathfinder In the White House. Until wo get back on the main rond progress Is Impossible. 'And this Is' why Mr. Harding will receive the support of Piogresslvo nnd Conservative alike. In con-3eivlng con-3eivlng the achievements of the past 1 he .will lay the only possible foundation founda-tion for the progiess In the future. : Leslie's Weekly of July 10, 1320 |