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Show I America's Declarations, Purposes and Actions in War What Walt Whitman Predicted in Writings of Sixty Years Ago They Would Be When Test Came P I. Works Rg&d nun Viw if Giraft CoHaffiet, Amirncaini C&irpiniteirp Mfeiimgs Virgil sumdl Daunt, OW GA aimd ScknlliPo U Htf w HE great war has made an Amor- lean, "Walt Whitman, one oC the greatest of world poets. Whlt-man Whlt-man wrote his poetry, prophecies and songs about the period of the civil war. Jfc was recognized as a distinct Amcrt-can Amcrt-can poet by Europeans In the GOs and 70s, but has had slight recognition in his native land. The events of the great war, Amcrl-cas Amcrl-cas entry therein, the declarations and purposes, the actions of the United States have been just what "Whitman said they would be, wished they would ho, hoped they would be sixty yean Hj before. Whitman was an enthusiastic American. Ho believed in the United HJ States and the high purposes and duties of the republic in the scheme of clvillza- ire had a set purpose to lay down a Torld policy for his country. The coun-trj coun-trj is now carrying out the world policy that Walt Whitman, great American, the first poet of democracy and the first" democrat of poets, wrote for it sixty years ago. Whitman was born at West End,' L, 7., in 1510, and died at Camden, X. J., in 1S02. For fifty years his poetry has been tho pleasure and despair of critic-3. 'British critics have long acclaimed him tho only really distinctive American Hj poet and welcomed him warmly. Amerl- H can critics have been wont to deny him merit. Read in "tho light that the great war Hj has thrown upon the world, the Amcrl- Hj can carpenter, bus driver, wound dresser, clerk and printer leaps far ahead of all other poets. He outstrips Homer, outsings Virgil and Dante, o'cr-leaps o'cr-leaps Shakespeare, distances Goethe and Schiller. Hj Whitman Foresaw War Sixty Years. ry EAD today, Whitman is the greatest of poets and truest of prophets. He foresaw, predicted and "placed" the great war sixty years before St was fought. Ho forecast America's part in tho world drama of today. He even named the tlmo America would take part in the war. There is little uso writing about Whitman. Let us assert that he was tho great seer and prophet of "these States," as he loved to call them, and Hf then read this prophecy written In ISoS, H fifty-eight years before the great war Hj began: V I sco not America, only I sec not only Llb- B crty's nation, but other nations prcpax- H I see tremendous entrances and exits I rco H new combinations I aco the solidarity H of races; H 1 aeo that force advancing, with Irresistible power, upon tbo world stage; H I oeo Freedom completely arm'd and vlc-torlouB vlc-torlouB and with law on her side, both H issuing forth against tho Idea of caste: H What historic denouements aro these wo so H rapidly approach? H I see men marching and counter-marching H by swift millions, B I see the frontiers- and boundaries of old H aristocracies broken, B I see tho landmarks of European kings 10- H X see this day tbo people beginning their landmarks (all other glvo way), H Never were such sharp questions asked as H In this H .Never wa3 tho avcrago man, his soul, moro H energetic, moro like a God; H Ix, ho urges and urges, leaving the masses H no rest; H His daring foot is on land and sea, evcry- Hj Are all tho nations communing? Is thers U going to bo but ono heart to tho globe? H Is humanity forming cn masse? for, lo, K tyrants tremble, crowns grow dim. H Tho earth, restive, confronts a new era, pcr- Hj haps a general, divine war: H No ono knows what will happen next such H portents fill tho days and nights. H Unborn deeds, things soon tq be, project their H shapes around rac; H The performed America, and Europe grown Hj dim, retiring In tho shadow behind mo, 1 The unperformed, moro gigantic than ever, H advance, advanco upon mc. Hj Whitman set the great days of the w "United States for tho tlmo when the B nation had 100,000,000 inhabitants. Hj America had almost exactly that num- Hj her of inhabitants when tho great war Hj began. When tho coupntry had 100,- H 000,000 inhabitants It was to play Its Hl great part in tho world. It Is almost impossible to write aoout H) Whitman. He is too 'big, too great, too j all-embracing to describe. John Ad- H: dington Symonds, the great 'British Hj critic and "bookman, said that Whitman Hl was like the universe, the earth, sky H stars, firmnamcnt, all of the world. Hj There is a literature about Whitman H as long as a road ditch. Writers all Bj complain that they cannot describo or Hj explain him. Ho himself cspeclally Hj nvarns his readers to beware of those H who would expound him. "I cannot ex- H pound myself," he says, H; Whitman Made K the American Ideal. H "WTHITMAN wroto his poetry for de-vv de-vv mocracy. His hero Is the avcrago H man, tho mechanic, farmer, plowman, H street cleaner, planter, sailor, river man. j pilot, car driver. Democracy Is the very Hj breath of his nostrils. He writes of H democracy for democracy. Yet of all men the avcrago man, whom he sings and adores, is least likely to understand him. Whitmanitcs, followers of" the poet, say that he made the American Ideal. I rather think that he caught the American' Amer-ican' Ideal. He has not established it. The average man knows nothing about Whitman. Longfellow, James Whit-comb Whit-comb Riley, Kugenc Flold and Walt Mason arc poets as the avcrago American Ameri-can understands poetry. As poets these sweet singers compare with Whitman as a fly compares with a Hon. Whitman is the poet of democracy, of the average man. Yet only a trained reader who has a fund of fresh, simple, wholesome natural feeling and love of real things at his disposal can really understand Whitman. Whitman glorifies the average mnn, yet the average man will deny him. Xow that his prophecy has been fulfilled, ful-filled, the description rings as true as if the same great master hand had written It today. Mark the line: Tho earth, restive, confronts a new era, perhaps per-haps a general, dlvlno war. That's what It is, a "divlno war," a war for liberty of all the world. America can draw great comfort from this prophecy and that one line. Prophecy in 1856 Accomplished in 1914. PEOPLE call it a terrible war. . Whitman Whit-man calls it a "divine war." That is what it is. Therefore let us tako cheer from our American seer, poet and prophet and divinely fight out and divinely finish this "divine war" for world liberty. This was Whitman's prophecy of what was to happen in Europe, written In ISoG and accomplished in 1011: Suddenly, out of its drowsy lair, the loir of slaves, Like lightning It (democracy) leapj forth, half startled at Itself Its feet upon tho ashes and the rags Us hands upon tho throats of kings. O, hope and faith, O. aching closo of exiled patriots' lives, O. many a olckcaed heart, Turn back unto this day and make yourself afresh. This Is for tho German military caste: And you, raid to dcllle the people, you liars, mark, Xot for the numberless agonies, murders, lusts For court thlovlne In Its manifold mean forms, worming from his simplicity the poor man's wages. For many a promise sworn by royal lips and broken, and laughed at In tho breaking. break-ing. Then in their power, not for all these did tho blows strike revenge or the heads of nobles fall, Tho people scorned tho ferocity of kings. The last line is submitted to tho kaiser for his cogitation. Each comes In state with his train, hangman, hang-man, clergyman, tax-gatherer, soldier, lawyer, lords, Jailers and sycophants. Yet behind all, hovering, stealing lo a Shap Vague as tho night, draped interminably, head, front and form In scarlet folds. Whose face and eyes none may see. Out of Its robes the red robes lifted by tho arm, Ono finger crooked pointed high over tho top, llko tho head of a snake appears. ilcanwhlle tho corpses llo In the new-made graves bloody corpses of young men, Tho ropo of tho gibbet hangs heavily, tho bullets of tho princes nro Hying, the creatures of povcr laugh aloud. All these things bear fruits and they aro good. Those corpses of young men, Tho3o martyrs that hand from tho gibbets those hoarts pierced by the gray lead, Cold and motionless they aro alive, clsc- whero with unslaughtcred vitality. They live in other men, oh, kings, They live in brothers ready again to defy you. They were purified by dcath-thcy wcro taught and exalted. ot, a gravo of tho murdered for freedom but grows eccd for freedom. In Its turn to bear seed, Which tho winds carry afar and rcsow and the rains and tho snow nourish. s'ot a disembodied spirit can the weapons of tyrants lot loose, Cut It stalks Invisibly over tho earth, whispering, whis-pering, counseling, cautioning. Liberty, let others despair of you. I never despair of you. As a vision of what Europe was, Js and will be, as a sheer intimate Je-scrlptlon Je-scrlptlon of the kalser'3 passage through Belgium, can tho above, written fifty year3 ago by a man who never was oft the North American Continent, o equaled? America's Message to Oppressed Peoples. xTtrE are talking every day of "making W tho world safe for democracy" for peoples and of tho unselfish brotherhood brother-hood and sisterhood of Americans for all peoples. "Read this vision of what American claims to be today written by Whitman sixty years ago In his "Saluto to tho World": You, where aro you? You son or daughter of lingland. You of tho mighty Slavic tribes and empire, em-pire, you Itus In Russia. You llm-desccndcd, black-faced, dlvlnc-aoulcd dlvlnc-aoulcd African, large, flno-bwdcd, Winamp- ;;iv--- gimm WALT WHITMAN, GREAT AMERICAN POET AND FEELR nobly formed, superbly destined, on oven terms with me. You Norwegian, Swede, Dane, Icelander, Prussian, You Spaniard of Spain, you Portuguese, You Frenchwoman and Frenchman of France, You Beige, you liberty lover of tho Netherlands, Nether-lands, You sturdy Austrian, Lombard, Hun, Bohemian, Bo-hemian, farmer of Styrla, You neighbor of the Danube, You worklngman of the lthlne, the Elbe, tho Wcscr; you working woman, too. You Sardinian, you Bavurlan, you Swablan, Saxon, Wallachlan, Bulgarian, You citizen of Prague, you Roman, Neapolitan, Neapol-itan, Greek, You lltho matador of the- arena at Seville, You mountaineer living lawlessly on ,tho Taurus or tho Caucasus, You Bokh horschcrd watching your marcs -and stallions feeding, You beautiful-bodied Persian, at full speed in the saddle, shooting arrows to the mark; Tou Chinaman and Chinawoman of China, you Tartar of Tartary, Tou women of the earth nubordlnatcd In your tasks, Tou Jew Journeying In your old age, through ovcry risk, to stand once moro on Syrian ground; Tou other Jcvs waiting m all lands for your Messiah; Tou thoughtful Armenians, pondering by .lands of tho Euphrates, you peering amid tho ruins of Nineveh, you ascending as-cending Mount Ararat; You footworn pilgrims welcoming tho faraway far-away sparkle of tho minarets of Mecca; You Sheiks along tho stretch, from Suez to Babclmandel, ruling your families and tribes. You olive grower tending your fruit on tho vale of Nazareth Damascus or Lako Tiberias. You Thibet trader on tho wldo Inland, or bargaining In tho shops of Lhossia, You Japanese man or woman, you liver In Madagascar, Coylon or Borneo, All you continentals of Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, Indifferent of plac-. All you numberless Inhabitants of the archipelagoes archip-elagoes of the sea, And you of centuries of hence, when you listen to me; And you each and everywhere whom I specify speci-fy not, but includo Just the same. Health to you all, good will to you all from mc and from America sent; for we acknowledge ac-knowledge you all and each. That as Whitman's and American message of greeting, good will and as surance of help and succor to tho oppressed op-pressed peoples of the world, written mora than sixty years ago. ( This is Wh'tman's idea of an American Ameri-can man. A man la a summons and a challenge,-Whlchovcr challenge,-Whlchovcr the sex, whatever tho season or place, ho may go safely anl lottly an J froflhly by day and by night, ' Ho has the pass-key to hearts to him tho response of tho prying hands on tho knobs. Hla wclcomo Is Universal the flow of beauty Is not moro fresh or universal than ho Is, The person ho favors by day or slcops with at nght Is blessed. He says Indifferently and alike, How aro you, friends? to the prcsldont at hla levee. Mill ho says, good-by, my brother, to Cu'dfio that hoes In tho sugar field. And both understand him and both know that his speech la right. He walks with perfect case In the Capitol, Ho walks among tho Congress and one representative rep-resentative says to another, Hero is our equal, appearing and new. Then tho mechanics take him for a mechanic, And' the soldiers suppose hhn to be a cap-lain cap-lain and the sailors that ho has followed fol-lowed tho sea; And tho authors tako him for an author and the artists for an artist. And tho laborers perceive that ho could labor with them and love them. No matter what tho work 13. ho Is the one to follow It or has followed It, No matter what tho nation, that ho might find his brothers and sisters there. This is the way Whitman speaks to all men who arc or who wish to be Americans. Ameri-cans. My Comrade. For you to aharo with mo two greatnesses and a third ono, rising, and moro In-cluslvo In-cluslvo and more rcspendent, Tho greatness of Lovo "and of Democracy .and tho third greatness of rollglon. "Who Are You When in America?" At this time, when Americans demand the uttermost faith and loyalty from all who dwell in the United States, tho following fol-lowing will be cnliahtcning: WHITMAN did not. wait until tho United States was at war with Germany. He wroto sixty years ago theso words, admirably applicable at this moment: "Who aro you, Indeed, who would talk or sing in America? "Have you studied out MY LAND, Its idioms and its men? "Havo you learned tho physiology,, phrenology, politics, geography, pride, freedom, friendship of my land, its suh-stratums suh-stratums and objects? "Havo you considered tho organic compound of tho Jlrst day of tho first year of tho Indcpondcnco of the states, signed by the commissioners, ratified by the states and read, by Washington at tho head of tho army? "Have you possessed yourself of tha ' federal constitution? "Do you acknowledge liberty, with audible anrT absolute acknowledgment, and set slavery at nought for life and death? "Aro you faithful to'these things? "Can you hold your hand against all seductions, follies, whirls, fierce contentions? con-tentions? Aro you very strong? Are you for tho wholo people? "Are you not for some coterie, school or religion? "Havo you vivified yourself from the maternity of theso states? "Havo you sucked the nipples of the breasts of the mother of many children? chil-dren? "What is this you bring my America? "Is it uniform with my country? "Does it answer universal needs? Will it improvo manners? "Docs it meet modern discoveries, facts, calibers, facts, faco to face? "Will it absorb Into mo as I absorb food and air, nobility, meanness to appear ap-pear again in my strength, gait, face? "Docs it respect me? Democracy, tho soul today? "What docs it mean to mc, to American Ameri-can persons, progresses, cities, Chicago, Arkansas, tho planter, Tankcc, Georgian, Geor-gian, native immigrant, sailors, squatters, squat-ters, old states, new states? "Docs it encompass all the states and unexceptional rights of all tho men and women of the oarth, the genital impulso of these atates?" Whitman demands that men who live in America shall not only understand that America is a nation, but shall CMimfary Mow Cairirynimg M Sg. , A ggstedl WWM Polkyp flllMmnini&ttedl m' Iby Bug Aminig Girg&tts(t Pofe ojf H. 'All Tknigp ik Ffa&t P(L - if D0 ff Pdteo : Iff rIso understand why and how it becamo a nation, tho scheme of Its founders, tho work of their successors and tho system of government. Ho ever urges that tho immigrant and tho native-thereof, native-thereof, must learn the governmental principles of the states to really know and lovo them. He always insists that Americans should not regard the president or tho Congress or the governors or the stato legislatures as their rulers or servants, but merely as delegates deputed to work tho will of the real rulers all tho people. All Men Are His Dear Brothers. yHIS Is a point that is not easy for " foreign bcrn, accustomed to the rulo of kings to acquire. Those who understand un-derstand Americanism will agree that tho first requisite of an American ci'.i-zen ci'.i-zen should be that ho knows that he has no ruicra, that ho rules. Touching tlHs, Whitman says: "Does it sec behind the apparent custodians, cus-todians, the real custodians, standing menacing, silent, the mechanics. Western West-ern men, Southerners, significant alike in their apathy and the promptness of their love?" This may fit tho pettr politicians who tempered their speech to the foreign vote, especially war-paltering congressmen congress-men beaten at tho recent elections: "Docs it sec what befalls and ha3 always befallen each temporizer, patch-er, patch-er, outsider, partialis;, alarmist. Infidel, In-fidel, who ever asked anything from America?" Whitman gathor? all the music of ihc spheres Into him and emits it in ono Croat whole. It is as if all the sound3 In ail tho world, from the gentle rustle of the winds in tlis quaking asp to tho loars of the thunder wero combined In one great fpipe-organ the bosom ct Walt Whitman, at his touch to boom out In world-vclumo to inspire mankind. man-kind. All men are his dear brothers, from the lowly black Australian or Polyncs Ian, to the Anglo-Norman aristocrat Especially does he lovo the enslaved and oppressed. His love for animals la intense, because they are natural and honest. In "Chants Native and Democratic," Demo-cratic," ho writes: "I bciicvo that thero is nothing but America and fieedom, O. to sternly reject all except democracy." democ-racy." Again: What arc Americans? A breed whose testimony lo their behavior, What we aro WE ARB nativity I3 answer enough to all objections; We wield ourselves as a weapon Is wielded. Wo aro cxccutlvo In ourselves, "Wo arn nowerful and tremendous In our selves wo arc sufficient In tho variety of ourselves. Thoso who understand America will recognize that the people of "theso States," as Whitman loves to call them, do "wield themselves as a weapon is wielded." That is,- the motion of tho people is, in itself, as powerful as tho discharges of thousands of great guns. This the latent power of democracy. The greatest great-est power that America is sending to Europe is democracy. "Land Must Be Promise and Reliance of Future. TrIE German war lords recognize In America their most dangerous foe. They feel that they can trado and barter for peace, a province or a country coun-try for a province or a country or a colony, with tho European powers. They know that, when they faco America, Amer-ica, it is not a question of Belgium or Serbia, or Constantinople, or trade or barter of lands, but a question of whether democracy or kalserism shall survive. Thus aro Whitman's songs of democracy, de-mocracy, written In tho ZOs and GOs, germane to tho latest American policy, that laid down by Senator Lodge-in his peace terms speech made In tho Senate August 23, 101S. Writing for American statesmen, Whitman prepared pre-pared them with policies that assume life sixty years after. At this time, when America Is setting set-ting standards of statesmanship for tho world, words of Whitman a half century old prove that ho foresaw that it was proper that America should aot theso policies and standards of statesmanship. states-manship. He wrote: . . America, curious toward all foreign characters, charac-ters, stands by Its own at all hazards, Stand3 removed, sees itself spacious, composite, com-posite, sound. Sees itself proinulgcr of men and women. Intlatcs tho truo uso of precedents. At any period ono nation must le&d, Ono land must be tho promise and reliance of tho future. Having, regard to "scraps of paper," this: "To hold men together by paper and ,scal, or by compulalon, 13 no account; "That only holds men together which is the living principles, as tue hold of the limbs of the body or tho libers of , plants." In tv6 lines Whitman wipes the entire en-tire German policy or force off th-i man. f v "It amounts to nothing, it won't l work. Why bother with it?" B Amcrican correspondents, military men everywhere have been much lin-pressed lin-pressed by the march of millions of field-gray Germans through Belgium in ' HIM. They could not sec how such an Hj army could bo beaten. H Whitman would have Mnllcd at that army passing and reckoned It of no ac- Hp count whatever when confronted with KL( the spirit of democracy. He would know WSf that the army va3 not vitalized by any K. great idea, that its motivating forcc3 Bnj were conquest, plunder and Toot, that Si 1 sternly opposed, it would not cenque-. Ear Whitman would have knowr, what Hri thft thought of America knew, that re- gardloss of its 3'jpcrior numbers, train- Hj ing. armament, leadership, foulness, ' wSf tha German Army could not win be- , Ha cause the men within it wcro com- Eto pressed together by an exterior power. TV? autocracy; not held together by the In- ita tcrlor animating spirit, democracy. Rt3 Tho spectacle of the German Army K .. marching through Belgium to sweep EJ democracy off tho earth would havo , ghc been as laughable to Whitman as thr '. HljJ spectacle of iMrs. Partington trying to fea sweep back the Atlantic Ocean with her jB broom. Kj Whitman Absorbed 'r'vSi' All Unto Himself. 1 Jflj pOETS before Whitman wero cele- Hfl bratora of feudalism or the aristo- Htt cratic caste. Wordsworth and Burns Iffi did sing tho common man, but they Kth stood apart from him as artists look- Kj Ing at him as an object of art. BK Whitman shows his reader the com- H mon man, grown, educated, strong, sure BU of himself, coolly confronting and chal- ttjm longing the old privileged classes, of Bb culture, birth, royalty, etc., and wiping H them out. The old ruling classes kings, courts, jfa nobles, ecclesiastics, military, social ho thrusts aside as dead. He regards only m& democracy as worth consideration. mJ The Whitman poetic ideal has never R3 really been that of tho Amorlcan. We ' R have tended to the fino gentlemen of i;k English letters. Our Now England ' K9 poets were mere echoes of Old England ; ft poets. ; Rjj Whitman was something new. , Hpr Tennyson sang the feudal days, was tho poet of an overripe and decaying K$ type of civilization. Thrifty, canny, ' educated, moral, smart New England W-Ai lay behind Emerson, Longfellow and Em Holmes. All tho states, mountains. Ken rivers, lakes, prairies, forests, shops, mBS strcots, ferries, forges, mills; the rough. Kg turbulent, boasting, bragging, blowing, ; Mfc; hopeful, moving, sprawling, unkempt BhEuT mass of the states, lie back of Whitman and appear in his work. Wr1 Ho had the high poetical faculty of BC absorbing all men and women and MSf things unto himself. He did this for j Ej, America and recast tho country as a Rv sort of colossal Walt Whitman. j Ho starts from tho beginning. Ho H& assumes that the Western Continent Is Jsjj1, a real new world. It must havo only ; BrV ,ncw men in it. Adam, Eve, tho garden, WP? tho apple, the sorpont, sin, punishment, ing Old World things, aro not for his New v World. Ho held that the religion of tho Old World was founded upon a curse. Great masses of the human race wero DC doomed to perdition. lo Whitman wanted none of that In America. Thero was to be a new crea- tlon on tho North American Continent. $OC Thero wero not to be any devils in IL Dea.th Is as wclcomo a3 birth or as mar- " f rlago or as love, not because it is the ! ' end of life, but because it Is part of life. i ft Whitman hold that aristocratic infiu- h ence and tradition had shaped tho old religions as It had shaped old govern- , fe mcnts and old literatures. Tho old ' W ' religion, he said, always hold the com- ; W- - mon man wa3 tho most criminal. The ; mass was damned. Only tho chosen dvI fow could bo savod. Heaven was a so- SuIlC Icct circle of the pure and just. Ifffc'- Whltman's religion was one of Joy, KtfT- not sorrow; triumph, not fear; sorvicc, KfQr not sacrifice. In fact, it was not re- JyK?ei llgion at all in tho old senso of tho war lK? between tho fleshly and spiritual, the Wh divine with the human. Vjen The world to Whitman was a place Bfo of joy, not a vale of tears. Life was Bf: cheerful, helpful, loving, tolerant, open- ( BfiL souled. fearless. Death was not to be i KJon dreaded, but to bo regarded as an "ex- : ' qulslto transition." ; jfjy Whitman's pooms aro many. They I no T breathe tho spirit of true Americanism- an j ' They do not mako easy reading, but tbo , jAuati man who feels Americanism stir in him, jfilori who wishes to know and to understand ? Frc the true spirit of the land that Whit- ; ; 0 a man lovingly calls "these states," will ' F0u understand and be charmed by Whit- "and man's poems. His views of birth, life, ll-aon work, marriage, child-breeding, dying, drive' tho whole of life, is sound, sane and .;Contl mo3t comforting, ' y Qer That Whitman is tho great American ; ' ??8ntli poet is certain. That ho Is also the :nxx. greatest poet of democracy is certain. i That the Issues of tho great war, now ;'hian 1 crystallizing before us, mako him the ; no greatest of all pocf3 la my firm content ' "(jhtlr lion. .,rPnt JrVh" ; .'wo hi r i f |
