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Show Are at War! V By GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING f u: i V 1 h u n - - -' t arms that summons the spirit of those half-forgotten days of resolute marching men Article I FOURTEEN 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 thousand miles across submarine-infested seas ; and mm-bui now tney were ready to lay down their lives, if need be, or t'le'r country. Millions more, in America, were pre-yfjjr pre-yfjjr pared to follow them and do likewise. G") Today the nation faces another crisis, in which the .nfnfwtnrfrf enemies allied against us are more insidious but not less dangerous. Pervasive self-seeking and corruption, which the chosen officers of the law seem powerless to suppress ; the sinister growth of the underworld, whose tentacles reach out to touch us all; the ever-increasing extravagance of government; and the mysterious paralysis of our economic systen, these are the enemies which now confront us. They have been allowed to encroach upon us largely through our own carelessness and neglect of duty as citizens. In the battle against them the average citizen is at a disadvantage disad-vantage because he is unprepared; he is willing enough, but he is bewildered. He doesn't yet realize that he himself is primarily to blame, hence he is taking no serious part in the conflict. By average citizen I mean a great many men to whom we should look for leadership, lead-ership, as well as the larger number who possess no qualifications for it. In fact, too often do citizens of all classes assume that politics, and crime, and even economics,- are no business of theirs. It does not occur to them that they are, every one, individually, indi-vidually, responsible. Why Is it that patriotism burns so brightly in times of war, so dimly in times of peace? It is Just as necessary neces-sary in meeting the complex obligations obliga-tions of peace, but these obligations do not stir the imagination like the primitive emotions of war. The average av-erage citizen feels that, somehow, the problems of peace will be solved for him, and falls to realize the possibility pos-sibility that calamity may result from his own indifference. Still Can Be Proud. We have as much reason now as we had fourteen years ago to feel proud of our country and to love it We believe, be-lieve, with some Justice, that It Is the greatest republic in the history of the world. Under no flag in the world does a people enjoy more freedom or find greater happiness. We boast of public education, universal suffrage, liberty of speech and the press. We enjoy rights undreamed of in ancient Greece and Rome. Yet even with the sounder principles upon which to base the hope of permanence of our institutions, insti-tutions, we too may some day go down, as did these older republics, unless we recognize and live up to our civic obligations. ob-ligations. It cannot be too strongly impressed upon every citizen in a democracy that it is his duty to help actively help In the task of government. govern-ment. The other day I was talking to a substantial sub-stantial business man from New York. We were discussing an Issue of increased in-creased taxation then up before the house of representatives. "By the way," I said, "who Is the representative from yu- district?" He grinned sheepishly. "I don't know." he said. My friend pays a goodly share of taxes to support the government, and yet he doesn't know who votes for him on the tax question. He relies on "a substitute" and doesn't even know who the substitute Is ! This Is something of a retrogression from an earlier period. When our government was founded, our forefathers forefa-thers did not let unknowns represent them. They made it their business to know all about the character and achievements of the men they elected to public office. Then the outstanding outstand-ing men in th country took part Id s politics, and most of the high positions posi-tions were held by them. Political leaders, then, were chosen by the voters. vot-ers. Now, through the apathy of the voters, they are often chosen by other politicians. Changing Social Life. This change is partly due to our changing social life. Many of us do not even know our next-door neighbors. neigh-bors. But it is a manifestation of a deeper and more sinister change the tendency of the average citizen to let somebody else do his thinking for him. That tendency threatens the very foundations of democracy. "Let some one else do the thinking." That easy doctrine is Injuring us not onlyln politics but in other fields. Under it crime flourishes and business languishes. Some International bankers, since the war, have been careless in lending lend-ing other people's money on foreign securities. Others have been charged with something worse than carelessness. careless-ness. But the citizens who, against sound business principles, put up the money were not without blame. In their eagerness for gain, they too often oft-en refused to think for themselves. They preferred to delegate that task to some one else. It was well known to all who read the newspapers that certain governments had already defaulted de-faulted on debts to their own people. Greedy investors did not balk because of that, but cheerfully put up billions to loan to states, municipalities, and industries of those same governments. This is not an essay on economics. I am not an economist. I did not foresee fore-see the depression, nor do I know when it Is going to end. though past experience experi-ence teaches me the upturn is bound to come, perhaps slowly, perhaps suddenly sudden-ly when we least expect it "No matter how sure you are of victory, vic-tory, never fail to make full provision for a reverse." This rule is axiomatic with every capable military leader, but it was ignored by most of our business leaders lead-ers during the boom years. Few made plans for anything except triumphant advance from one objective to another. anoth-er. 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 human hu-man minds have not yet solved the riddle of the business cycle. They were to blame for having made no plans to keep the retreat from turning turn-ing into a rout Business might profit ably write that military axiom Into Its books for the years to come. We have made two other military blunders. We began by underestimating underesti-mating the strength of the enemy, and progressed from that to overestimating overestimat-ing it The cry, "We are just turning the corner," of 1929-30, was the equivalent equiva-lent of "We will have the boys out of the trenches by Christmas" of 1914-15. 1914-15. And our "This country is going to the dogs," of 1932 is the equivalent of "The Central Powers are Invincible" Invinci-ble" of March, 191S. I have heard leading men, given over to fear, prate of nationa1 failure, bankruptcy, and if , - - fkh t A ' v S'S 1 V ! i - 7 i- . , V) , ' r -:. ,fK ."W 1 .Shi. ' li V--. Lulled Into Complacency by Prosperity, Prosper-ity, Our Citizens Passively Accepted This Poisonous Growth With Small Concern. i ' Bolshevism This Is no time for craven cra-ven cringing. Looking out of my window, win-dow, 1 see the shaft of the monument to Washington. I think of Valley Korge, and wonder how those who now lament and wring their hands would have enjoyed that winter. This is Washington's bicentennial. It Is time for a new reckoning, a new responsibility, re-sponsibility, a new courage. During the winter past many a good man, willing and able to work, has gone through a hell of unemployment and uncertainty. Remembering that, we may also find that some good, along with the evil, comes out of all depressions. depres-sions. I am not a stranger to depressions. Economists tell us that the panic of 1S73 was the closest analogy which history furnishes to our present troubles. trou-bles. My father, a well-to-do business man and farmer In Missouri, was caught In that general disaster. I was Just thirteen years old. One day my father told me the whole story. "John," he said, "everything I own has been swept away except the farm, which Is covered by a heavy mortgage." mort-gage." (We finally lost It) "1 must try to make some money by traveling as a salesman. While I am away you must take care of the family and manage man-age the farm." During the next three years my brother and I ran the farm. We plowed, sowed, and reaped. We took our produce to market Those days were not so different from these for the farmer. I remember we had a field of timothy hay which was particularly par-ticularly fine, I haled It up, carload of It, and sent It by rail to St Louis, hoping to receive a top price, but It did not bring enough to cover the freight charges. During those years my attendance at school was limited and I bad to do the best I could to keep up with my classes by studying at night Those were certainly hard times. Yet "sweet are the uses of adversity," and It was the best thing that ever happened to me. It taught me more, gave me greater great-er confidence and a keener sense of responsibility than anything else could have done. Unsuspected Powers. I cite my own experience merely to show how men and women actually gain a new strength and courage when thrown upon their own resources and responsibility In times of crisis. They find in themselves powers they never suspected. The life of a military man furnishes another example valuable in times like the present In every army career there come occasional times of dullness. dull-ness. The officer, stationed at some remote army post, has his routine duties du-ties to perform. When these are completed com-pleted he finds the temptation almost overwhelming to give over his leisure to cards, light reading, social evenings, painless time-wasting. It is the officer who resists that temptation, who spends hard hours each day studying the latest advances in artillery technic, ir transport, in tactics it is this officer offi-cer who receives recognition when the opportunity for active service comes. So It is in business. In this time of extreme dullness, many have sunk back into a kind of lethargy. But the wise business man, like the conscientious consci-entious officer, Is using his present leisure to prepare for the battles to come. He is devising new economies of production and distribution. He is studying the problem of how his product prod-uct may be varied or made more attractive. at-tractive. He is getting ready to take advantage of the upturn when it comes. He is not accepting gloomy defeatism. He is thinking for himself. I have touched at some length on the depression because it has so glaringly shown us the folly of carelessly delegating dele-gating our thinking to others. It has also thrown a bright cold light on the flaws in our political methods and on our crime problem. During the years of prosperity following the war an underworld of gangsters and racketeers unparalleled in any other civilized nation, grew up and flourished flour-ished in our cities. The criminals who manned this underworld were of a new type. They were not the masked and shabby plug-uglies who filled the Jails in earlier years. They were expensively ex-pensively dressed ; they owned machine ma-chine guns, high-powered cars, and speed boats; they had money in the bank. With this money they were able to establish a relation with corrupt officials and police which seemed to make them Immune from prosecution. . 1932. Bell SyDdlcate. WNTJ Service. To Be Concluded Next Week. |