Came then the great world war. America stayed out as long as possible. The world began to reckon less with us than before. Germany even thought she could sneer at us with impunity.
How was that? Was it a matter of distance only? No, in Germany the belief prevailed that the spirit of '76, and the heart of Lincoln's day had died within the bosom of young America. At all events, it was not inclusive enough to span the great ocean and to sympathize with those who were suppressed and suffering yonder. It was with young America as with the wild animals caught and put into a cage: They are led into a life of ease and indolence; they lose their strength, their elasticity and their power of propagation. In brief: Ease and indolence kill them!
Similarly, it was thought prosperity had killed the spirit of '76 and the all-embracing heart of Lincoln in the youth of America, and under those circumstances there could be no danger that American youth would enter the great world war where prosperity and all kinds of comfort and ease were to be sacrificed and life itself be risked.
Miss Grace C. Bostwick writes in The Pagan:
O America!
They said you were young and crude and extravagant,
And that your women were too free and open;
That your children had no respect for age;
And that you gave no thought to the past.
They said you had no artistic sense
And accused you of setting up an altar
To the almighty Dollar——
O America!
And they smiled when your name was mentioned.
But yesterday
There marched an army down the street,
An army of brave-eyed men with boyish mouths,
Straight-backed and proud in their new-found mission—
The saving of the world!
And yesterday . . . somewhere . . . at sea
A white face floated
With empty eyes upturned to an unseeing sky.
And yesterday . . . in a barren field . . . a mere boy
fell from his perilous work on high—
While great ships heavy with sustenance
Plow stolidly through the deep . . .
O America!
You are the Hope of the World today.
Germany had made a miscalculation; the spirit of '76 was not dead in young America, neither was the great heart of Lincoln. Prosperity had not been able to kill them. When the suppressed really needed America, our youth heeded the summons. With firm footsteps, with eyes afire, they went away into the great fight. I do not know whether they vowed as did the young Lincoln, but I do know that when they arrived at the battlefield, they struck, and struck hard—so hard, indeed, that the tyrant succumbed. And well may we say about that right of free men which was won by American participation: It was dearly bought by you—who never came back.
It is said that the French government in July, 1918, had decided to order the evacuation of Paris, but when General Pershing heard this, he telegraphed a request to postpone the carrying out of the order until his soldiers had entered into active fighting. Then came the turning point. Our soldiers brought it about, and victory was won.
But a new element has entered into the history of the war—into the relations among nations. It is the word of Jesus: "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Never before has this maxim been accepted as the Golden Rule governing international relations. President Wilson has repeated it time and again, and it characterized our participation in the war, even to the extent that our country has paid for the damages made to French soil when our soldiers dug their trenches. And this was but right. America did not enter the war with the intention of conquering or destroying one hair-breadth of ground. So we are justified in saying to Germany: You must pay for what you have destroyed, to the best of your ability.
"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them!" By this we have arrived at something new. Our participation in the war constituted a great sacrifice of lives and money without any expectation of indemnity of any kind. But in this we find something of the redemption from the thraldom of greediness—something of that freedom to which Jesus will guide mankind. But that freedom is won only by the aid of the spirit of the Lord. And it seems to me that the spirit of '76 and the heart of Lincoln have entered into a covenant with, and have shown a willingness to be guided by, the spirit of the Lord.