OCR Text |
Show WITH OUR HEADS UP IT is not much to be thankful for, perhaps, per-haps, but it is something that on this Thanksgiving Day we don't have to face an accusing conscience that frowns at us over the turkey. The bird itself may be thinner, the stuffing poorer, poor-er, the cranberry sauce more fluid, the pudding less sweet, but we can eat our . dinner with a better appetite than we could a year ago when we knew our plenty was purchased at the expense of the lives of others, when our rejoicing over a poisonous prosperity was drowned by the cries of men who were making our fight for us while we sat at home and taxed them, when steel was at 130 and national honor at zero ! The air we breathe is clearer for the decision of last spring, the prospect brighter, now that we have "postponed the present hour to the whole life." It is a fine thing to think about and ' give thanks for that the heart and brain of the manhood of America were finally able to force the issue on the reluctant politicians at Washington and command com-mand them no longer to hold back our armies and fleets from their share in the great struggle. Not that we have done all that we could have done, or all that we should have done. Boasting of our share in the conflict up to the present time would be an impertinence to the muddy workmen of war who have taken their places in the -trenches every day for three years as steadily as they ever went to the tasks of peace times. But we have made a beginning. If we haven't have-n't fought yet, we are soon to fight. "The time will come when we shall hold nothing back, but shall eagerly convert more than we now possess into means and power." N The President's Thanksgiving Proclamation Proc-lamation was excellent of its kind, but these compulsory outpourings are all ' cast in the same mold. A better mes sage was included in the part of the speech at Buffalo in which he revealed his present attitude toward the war. "You will notice," he said, "that I sent a friend of mine, Colonel House, to Europe, who is as great a lover of peace " as any man in the world ; but I did not send him on a peace mission". I sent him to take part in a conference as to how the war was to be won!" Again he said : "What I am opposed to is not the feeling of the" pacifists, but their stupidity. My heart is with them, but my mind has a contempt for them. I want peace, but I know how to get it, and they do not." For all who believe that the future safety of this country depends upon fighting this war out to victory there is more cause for thankfulness thank-fulness in these direct, indignant words than in a hundred proclamations. Collier's. |