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Program for North Carolina Day. Friday, December Fourteenth 1917. Thrift Conservation Patriotism. Make Save Serve
Electronic Edition.
North Carolina. Dept. of Public Instruction.
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Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH
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(title page) Program for North Carolina Day. Friday, December Fourteenth 1917. Thrift Conservation Patriotism. Make Save Serve
32 p., ill.
Raleigh, N. C.
Issued from Office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction
[1917]
Call number Cp970 N87p c. 3 (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
The electronic edition is a part of the UNC-CH
digitization project, Documenting the American South.
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Library of Congress Subject Headings
Languages Used:
- English
LC Subject Headings:
- Public schools -- North Carolina.
- World War, 1914-1918 -- North Carolina.
- World War, 1914-1918 -- Education and the war.
- Patriotism -- North Carolina.
- North Carolina Day.
- Schools -- Exercises and recreations -- North Carolina.
- Special days -- North Carolina.
- North Carolina -- History -- 20th century.
Revision History:
- 2002-07-01,
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2002-03-05,
Jill Kuhn Sexton
finished TEI-conformant encoding and final proofing.
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2002-02-13,
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- 2002-01-25,
Apex Data Services, Inc.
finished transcribing the text.
[Cover Image]
[Title Page Image]
Page ii
CONTENTS
- Preface.
- Star-Spangled Banner.
- The Meaning of War. Woodrow Wilson.
- PROGRAM.
- Song--America.
- Invocation.
- Greetings from State Superintendent. (To be read by teacher.)
- Pageant--Liberty and Her Allies.
- Responsive Reading--Why we are at War. Connor. Teacher and Pupils.
- Song--Old North State.
- Reading--Thrift Proclamation of Governor Bickett.
- Reading--Conservation and Thrift. Page.
- Song--Red, White and Blue.
- Reading--What North Carolina is Doing. Hill.
- Declamation--Why we are at War with Germany. Lane.
- Recitation--Old Flag Forever. Stanton.
- Declamation--Our Country Accepts the Challenge. Daniels.
- Reading--Makers of the Flag. Lane.
- Song--Battle Hymn of the Republic. Howe.
- Benediction.
PROGRAM
FOR
NORTH CAROLINA DAY
FRIDAY, DECEMBER FOURTEENTH
1917
THRIFT
CONSERVATION
PATRIOTISM
MAKE SAVE SERVE
ISSUED FROM
OFFICE OF STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
RALEIGH, N. C.
Page 2
PREFACE
There has never been a time in the history of our State that called for greater loyalty to our country in act and word, from every man, woman and child in North Carolina. Our lives, our liberties, our sacred honor, and our all are involved in the issues of this world-wide war and dependent upon the winning of the victory by our country and her allies. Therefore, I have deemed it proper and profitable that "North Carolina Day" should be utilized this year for the dissemination of information among the children and their parents in every school district about the war, the issues involved in it, the position of our country and our State in it and the reasons therefor, and about the State and national organizations and plans for helping to win it.
It is the patriotic duty of every teacher to use every effort to secure the largest possible attendance of children and adults at every school-house on North Carolina Day, to have the program carefully prepared and well presented and to make the day a splendid patriotic rally for increasing the loyalty, zeal, and enthusiasm of all and for enlisting their active coöperation in the movements, State and national, explained in this pamphlet, for helping to win the war.
Let every teacher begin at once to prepare the program. Assign the parts with wise discretion and drill the children in their parts. Advertise the meeting thoroughly through the children. Enlist the active coöperation of the school committee and the patriotic women of the community in preparations for the day. Have your school-room decorated in national colors, using freely United States flags, and, if possible, the flags of our allies. If these flags cannot be conveniently purchased at small cost, they can be made with the aid of the girls of the school and the women of the community, in accordance with the directions of the flag chart in this pamphlet.
File and preserve for future use these pamphlets. Drill the children of the entire school in the responsive readings and use the contents of this entire pamphlet for special study by your classes in history and your advanced reading classes.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Dr. D. H. Hill, Chairman of the State Council of Defense; Mr. Henry A. Page, State Food Administrator, and Mr. R. D. W. Connor, Secretary of the North Carolina Historical Commission, for their valuable contributions to this pamphlet.
J. Y. JOYNER.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE CELEBRATION OF NORTH
CAROLINA DAY IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact: SECTION 1. That the 12th day of October in each and every year, to be called "North Carolina Day," may be devoted, by appropriate exercises in the public schools of the State, to the consideration of some topic or topics of our State history, to be selected by the Superintendent of Public Instruction: Provided, that if the said day shall fall on Saturday or Sunday, then the celebration shall occur on the Monday next following: Provided further, that if the said day shall fall at a time when any such schools may not be in session, the celebration may be held within one month from the beginning of the term, unless the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall designate some other time.--Chapter 164, Laws 1901.
Page 3
THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming--
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming:
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thru the night that our flag was still there;
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
2.
On that shore dimly seen thru the mist of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream;
'Tis the star-spangled banner; O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
* * * * * * * * * *
4.
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto, "In God is our trust":
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
--Francis Scott Key.
Page 4
THE MEANING OF THE FLAG
Friends and Fellow Citizens:--I know of nothing more difficult than to render an adequate tribute to the emblem of our nation. For those of us who have shared that nation's life and felt the beat of its pulse, it must be considered a matter of impossibility to express the great things which that emblem embodies. I venture to say that a great many things are said about the flag which very few people stop to analyze. For me the flag does not express a mere body of vague sentiment. The flag of the United States has not been created by rhetorical sentences in declarations of independence and in bills of rights. It has been created by the experience of a great people, and nothing is written upon it that has not been written by their life. It is the embodiment, not of a sentiment, but of a history, and no man can rightly serve under that flag who has not caught some of the meaning of that history.
Experience, ladies and gentlemen, is made by men and women. National experience is the product of those who do the living under that flag. It is their living that has created its significance. You do not create the meaning of a national life by any literary exposition of it, but by the actual daily endeavors of a great people to do the tasks of the day and live up to the ideals of honesty and righteousness and just conduct. And as we think of these things, our tribute is to those men who have created this experience. Many of them are known by name to all the world--statesmen, soldiers, merchants, masters of industry, men of letters and of thought who have coined our hearts into action or into words. Of these men we feel that they have shown us the way. They have not been afraid to go before. They have known that they were speaking the thoughts of a great people when they led that great people along the paths of achievement. There was not a single swashbuckler among them. They were men of sober, quiet thought, the more effective because there was no bluster in it. They were men who thought along the lines of duty, not along the lines of self-aggrandizement. They were men, in short, who thought of the people whom they served and not of themselves.
But while we think of these men and do honor to them as to those who have shown us the way, let us not forget that the real experience and life of a nation lies with the great multitude of unknown men. It lies with those men whose names are never in the headlines of newspapers, those men who know the heat and pain and desperate loss of hope that sometimes comes in the great struggle of daily life; not the men who stand on the side and comment; not the men who merely try to interpret the great struggle, but the men who are engaged in the struggle. They constitute the body of the nation. This flag is the essence of their daily endeavors. This flag does not express any more than what they are, and what they desire to be.
As I think of the life of this great nation it seems to me that we sometimes look to the wrong places for its sources. We look to the noisy places, where men are talking in the market-place; we look to where men are expressing their individual opinions; we look to where partisans are expressing passions, instead of trying to attune our ears to that voiceless mass of men who merely go about their daily tasks, try to be honorable, try to serve the people they love, try to live worthy of the great communities to which they belong. These are the breath of the nation's nostrils; these are the sinews of its might.
Page 5
How can any man presume to interpret the emblem of the United States, the emblem of what we would fain be among the family of nations, and find it
I am solemnized in the presence of such a day. I would not undertake to speak your thoughts. You must interpret them for me. But I do feel that back, not only of every public official, but of every man and woman of the United States, there marches that great host which has brought us to the present day; the host that has never forgotten the vision which it saw at the birth of the nation; the host which always responds to the dictates of humanity and of liberty; the host that will always constitute the strength and the great body of friends of every man who does his duty to the United States.
I am sorry that you do not wear a little flag of the Union every day instead of some days. I can only ask you, if you lose the physical emblem, to be sure that you wear it in your heart, and the heart of America shall interpret the heart of the world.
WOODROW WILSON.
Page 6
PROGRAM
I. SONG (To be sung by whole audience, the school chorus leading.)
AMERICA.
REV. DR. S. F. SMITH.
My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the Pilgrims' pride,
From every mountain side
Let freedom ring.
My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.
Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song;
Let mortal tongues awake,
Let all that breathe partake,
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.
Our fathers' God, to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom's holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King!
AN INVOCATION.
That little children may in safety ride
The strong, clean waters of Thy splendid seas;
That Anti-Christ be no more glorified,
Nor mock Thy justice with his blasphemies,
We come--but not with threats or braggart boasts.
Hear us, Lord God of Hosts!
Page 7
That Liberty be not betrayed and sold,
And that her sons prove worthy of the breed;
That Freedom's flag may shelter as of old,
Nor decorate the shrines of Gold and Greed,
We come; and on our consecrated sword
We ask Thy blessing, Lord.
That honor be among those priceless things
Without which life shall seem of little worth;
That covenants be not the sport of kings;
That freedom shall not perish from the earth,
We come; across a scarred and bloodstained sod,
Lead us, Almighty God!
--Beatrice Barry.
LEST WE FORGET.
In this time of war, it is of transcendent importance to take proper precautions against the starvation of the bodies of ourselves and of our allies by increasing the production of food and conserving food supplies, but let us not forget that it is of equal importance to take proper precautions also against the starvation of the minds and souls of our children by the preservation and the conservation of the means of education. Let us not forget that the preservation and the perpetuation of the freedom and the civilization that we shall save by victory, that the rapid repair of the waste and wreck and ruin of war, that preparation for the new duties of the finer civilization that shall follow, demand the proper education of the present generation of children.
While we are waging a patriotic crusade for food conservation, let us not forget also to wage a patriotic crusade for the conservation of the means of education. Let us not forget that the children of the present generation are the seed corn of future civilization. In spite of the direst needs of war, therefore, let us see to it that this seed corn be not ground up in its horrible mill, that our schools and colleges, the means for its preservation and cultivation, be not destroyed nor diminished. Let us not forget the lesson of the war between the states. The one most tragic loss of that war to this State, which has not been repaired in two generations, which can never be wholly repaired, was the loss of a whole generation of education through the destruction of its schools and colleges.
Let not that tragedy be repeated. When this war closes, the need for trained leaders and citizens will be greater than before. The danger of the terrible toll that war may take in killed and wounded from this generation of men increases the duty and the necessity of educating and training this generation of children and of supporting and strengthening the means therefor. Let it cost what it may, the school and college must be kept open that the youth of this generation may be properly educated and trained for the increased burdens and duties of the future.
J. Y. JOYNER,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Page 8
LIBERTY AND HER ALLIES.
(Let each country be represented by a girl dressed in white wearing a regalia on which is the name of the country she represents. Flags may be made by studying flag plate and color legend in this pamphlet.)
(a) Liberty takes her place at center of stage, facing the audience. (Liberty should be a tall girl, wearing a white robe and a crown, bearing aloft with both hands a large flag of the United States.)
(b) School stands and salutes flag.
Position for Salute: Stand, facing the flag. With the right arm at an angle of 45 degrees and the hand straight out, touch the forehead. At the word "flag," the arm is outstretched and with the palm upward, points to the flag. Remain in this position until the salute is over, then drop the arm by the side.
Salute (To be repeated by school in concert):
"I pledge allegiance to my flag, and to the republic for which it stands; one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
(c) School gives in concert, "Your Flag and My Flag." (See page 382 of the Free and Treadwell Fifth Reader.)
YOUR FLAG AND MY FLAG.
Your flag and my flag,
And how it flies today
In your land and my land
And half a world away!
Rose-red and blood-red
The stripes forever gleam;
Snow-white and soul-white--
The good forefathers' dream;
Sky-blue and true-blue, with stars to gleam aright--
The glorified guidon of the day; a shelter through the night.
Your flag and my flag!
And, oh, how much it holds--
Your land and my land--
Secure within its folds!
Your heart and my heart
Beat quicker at the sight;
Sun-kissed and wind-tossed--
Red and blue and white.
The one flag--the great flag--the flag for me and you--
Glorified all else beside--the red and white and blue!
--Wilbur D. Nesbit.
(From the poem, "Your Flag and My Flag," copyrighted 1916 and published by P. F. Volland & Co., Chicago.)
Page 9
Position for Tableaux of "Liberty and Her Allies":
| Serbia | Montenegro | |||||
| Portugal | Italy | Russia | Japan | |||
| France | Liberty | England | ||||
| Guatemala | Cuba | Belguim | Roumania |
(d) Belgium enters and takes her position, speaking to Liberty: (To be represented by a small girl, dressed in white, carrying Belgium's flag. Cuba should also be represented by a small girl.)
Belgium to Liberty:
"We stood on Belgium's tortured soil,
War-scarred it was--blood red,
While hunger stalked the smitten land
And widows mourned the dead.
And there was nowhere sign of hope,
And nowhere help was nigh,
Save in that spot where flew your flag,
The Stars and Stripes on high."
Liberty to Belgium:
"O little nation, valorous and free,
Thou shalt o'erlive the terror and the pain,
And rise from out thy charnel house, to be
Thine own immortal, radiant self again."
Enter England, bearing her flag.
England to Liberty:
"Who say we cherish far-off feud,
Still nurse the ancient grudges?
Our ways are one, and one our aim,
And one will be our story,
Who fight for Freedom, not for fame,
For Duty, not for glory."
Liberty to England:
"Because we are kindred souls and free--
We stretch you a brother's hand!
And who shall face us, together,
Nor bend to our high command?"
Enter France, bearing her flag.
France to Liberty:
"Take up our quarrel with the foe! To you from faithful hands we throw the torch. Be yours to hold it high and with us light the world to Freedom!"
Liberty to France:
"Rejoice that, deaf to every lure,
At last we gladly stand
With those who make the Right secure,
Comrades in heart and hand,
Like them, Crusaders, sworn to save the greater Holy Land!"
Page 10
All others representing allies enter, each bearing her flag and taking her position as described above.
Allies to Liberty:
"Shall hateful tyrants, mischiefs breeding,
With hireling hosts, a ruffian band,
Affright and desolate the land,
While peace and liberty lie bleeding?"
Liberty to Allies:
"Thrones shall crumble, kings shall perish,
Howsoe'er their legions strive,
But the liberties men cherish,
They shall triumph and survive."
All together:
"And we trace the message plain
Which the Hand of God hath lined--
Never for lust of power or gain
Be our splendid strength combined;
Only for right, for law and light, and the Soul that guides mankind.
"Oh, song on the wind that sweeps
The wild northeastern sea,
Sound once more o'er the vibrant deeps
For a truth that yet shall be--
For the day when we all stand as one, guarding a world set free!"
(We would suggest that Liberty and her Allies be seated on the stage during remainder of the program.)
WHY WE ARE AT WAR.
(Responsive Reading.)
Prepared by R. D. W. CONNOR, Secretary North Carolina Historical Commission.
(It is suggested that these questions and answers be used as the basis for history lessons for several days preceding and following North Carolina Day.)
1. What caused the great World War?
Many things, some of which it would take a long time to explain, helped to bring on this war, but perhaps the most important was the spirit of "militarism" which exists in certain countries in Europe, especially in Germany.
2. What is meant by "militarism?"
By "militarism" we mean the subjection of the people of a country to the rule of a class of military men, who have greater rights, powers, and privileges than other citizens; who control a great army; who rule by force of arms and not by the votes of the people; who believe that "might makes right" and that small nations have no rights which strong nations should respect; who, therefore, are always ready to use their military power whenever it pleases them to conquer and crush out the liberties of weaker peoples. The spirit of "militarism" is the spirit of pride, ambition, cruelty, and tyranny.
Page 11
3. How did this system of "militarism" grow up in Europe?
It started in the envy and jealousy which the various princes, kings, and emperors of Europe felt for each other. The greatest military nation is Germany. Many years ago Germany adopted universal military training, which means that all able-bodied men in Germany must serve in the German army. Army officers are the real rulers of Germany. They despise all those who are not soldiers and are harsh, cruel, and tyrannical in their conduct toward them. All their thoughts are devoted to military matters; to the manufacture of arms and ammunitions; to the building of fortifications for the defense of Germany; to the making of plans for attacking other countries; to creating for Germany the most powerful army in the world. This army is under the absolute command of the Emperor, a ruler who is ambitious for military glory, who wants to be known in history as a great conqueror, who long ago decided to take the first favorable opportunity to conquer the territory of his neighbors. His great military preparations compelled the other countries of Europe to keep up great armies for their protection against him. One European country, England, had no great army, but depended for protection upon her navy. The German Emperor, therefore, built a great navy, so when war came he could meet England on the sea. The expense of all these military and naval preparations was so great that England, France, and other countries tried to get the nations to agree to reduce the size of their armies and navies; but the German Emperor refused. We now know that he and his military leaders were all the time making secret plans for the conquest of Europe, so that they would become the rulers of the world; and that they were only waiting for some event that would be a good excuse for them to declare war.
4. What event gave the German Emperor his excuse for declaring war?
The murder on June 28, 1914, of an Austrian prince, the heir to the Austrian throne.
5. Explain how this event brought on the war.
Some years ago Austria seized certain territory inhabited chiefly by Servians. These people did not want to be under the rule of Austria, but of Servia, a little kingdom just south of Austria. So they were constantly making plots to cast off the rule of Austria. It was while he was visiting this region that the Austrian prince was murdered. Austria claimed that this murder had been planned in Servia with the consent of the Servian Government. So Austria made certain demands upon Servia and threatened to declare war unless Servia agreed to them in forty-eight hours. But these demands were so harsh that Servia could not agree to them without surrendering her independence, and as the Servians are the same race of people as the Russians, Russia declared that she would protect Servia. The German Emperor, who was the ally of the Austrian Emperor, backed up Austria. England tried to get all these nations to settle their dispute peaceably, but the emperors of Germany and Austria both wanted war and refused to listen to England's peace plans. So the German Emperor declared war on Russia; and France, who was Russia's ally, came to Russia's aid.
6. Why did the German Emperor back up Austria in her demands on Servia, and why did France come to the aid of Russia?
Because Germany and Austria were both members of what was known as the "Triple Alliance," and Russia and France were both members of the "Triple Entente."
Page 12
7. What is meant by the "Triple Alliance" and the "Triple Entente?"
The world had long been fearing that German "militarism" would bring on a great war. So the various nations of Europe looked around to see what other nations they could depend upon as friends if war should come. In this way the six great European nations--Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, France, Russia, and England--fell apart into two groups of three each. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy agreed that they would stand together if either of them should be attacked by another great nation; their agreement was called the "Triple Alliance." As a protection against these three, England, France, and Russia came to a like agreement, which was called the "Triple Entente"--(the word entente being a French word meaning agreement).
8. Why, then, is Italy fighting against Germany and Austria-Hungary in the Great War?
Because Italy declared that her agreement was to help Germany and Austria-Hungary only in case they were attacked by some other nation; but as they themselves brought on this war by attacking Servia, Russia, and France, she would not help them. Italy finally decided to join the "Triple Entente"; so the nations that are now fighting Germany and Austria-Hungary are called simply "the Allies"; and Germany and her allies are called the "Central Powers" because they are countries in the central part of Europe.
9. What other countries have joined in the war since it began?
Bulgaria and Turkey have joined the Central Powers, while Belgium, England, Roumania, Japan, China, Brazil, the United States, and many smaller countries are fighting with the Allies.
10. Why did England go to war with Germany?
England declared war against Germany because Germany violated the neutrality of Belgium.
11. What is meant by the "neutrality of Belgium"? And why should England go to war on Belgium's account?
Though Belgium is a small country, it occupies a very important place in Europe. It lies between Germany and France, and is separated from England only by a narrow arm of the North Sea. It would be a serious danger to any of those countries if Belgium should fall into the power of either of the others. Belgium, therefore, was such a tempting morsel that there was always danger that some great nation would try to conquer her and thus cause a great war. Therefore, the great nations of Europe entered into a treaty agreeing that in case of a war between any of them, they would not force Belgium to choose one side or the other, nor would they make use of Belgium's territory to attack each other. In other words, these nations pledged their honor to see to it that in a great war between them, Belgium should remain neutral. Germany, England, France, Russia, and other great nations signed this treaty. But when Germany declared war on France in 1914, she immediately broke this treaty and sent her armies across Belgium to attack France at an unexpected point. That is, Germany "violated the neutrality of Belgium," and England, as she was bound in honor to do, at once declared war on Germany, and hastened to send an army for the protection of Belgium.
12. Describe the German Emperor's methods of carrying on war.
On land, especially in Belgium and France, the German Emperor adopted a kind of warfare which he called "frightfulness." His plan was to make the war so cruel and frightful that his enemies would be terrorized into submitting
Page 13
to his power. He not only fought the armies of his enemies, but he burned their towns and cities; shot down hundreds of unarmed men; murdered defenceless women; tortured and killed children and little babies; dropped bombs on cities destroying hospitals, schools, and churches, and killing innocent people; and dragged thousands of men and women away from their homes to work as slaves for their conquerors. On the sea he adopted what is called "ruthless submarine" warfare.
13. What is meant by "ruthless submarine warfare"?
"Ruthless warfare" is warfare carried on without regard to the rights of anybody and without mercy. The submarine, as you know, is a war vessel that can sink beneath the surface of the water of its own accord, and thus attack other vessels without being seen. The German Emperor has a large number of submarines, so he declared that he would use them to destroy all ships, whether belonging to his enemies or not, which attempted to sail to or from England or France, regardless of whether or not those on board could be saved.
14. Has he actually carried out this plan?
Yes; his submarines have sunk more than a thousand vessels of nations at peace with him, and have taken the lives of hundreds of peaceful people. "Vessels of every kind," says President Wilson, "whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom without warning and without thought of mercy for those on board. Even hospital ships . . . have been sunk with the same reckless lack of compassion or principle."
15. Have any American ships been unlawfully sunk by German submarines?
Yes, eighteen. These vessels were unarmed; they were going on peaceful errands; they were going where they had a right to go; and they were engaged in trade which they had a right to engage in; yet they were deliberately destroyed at a time when we were still at peace with Germany and while the German Emperor was still pretending to be our friend.
16. Were the lives of any American citizens lost by this "ruthless submarine warfare"?
Yes; two hundred and twenty-six. One of them was an American consul from North Carolina who was on his way to take up his official duties. Many of these Americans, so cruelly murdered at sea, were women and little babies, for in carrying out his "ruthless submarine warfare," the German Emperor has shown no mercy to any one. When he sunk the Lusitania, he murdered 114 American men, women and little children and then gave the school children in Berlin a holiday in celebration of this awful crime.
17. Did the German Emperor have any right to order our ships off the high seas?
No. The high seas belong to all the nations of the earth and are free to all just as the public roads of a country are free to all. If two neighbors, living along the public road, were to get into a fight, and one of them declare that he would shoot anybody that tried to pass along the road, the other people of the community would not submit to it. They would compel such a man to obey the law and keep the public road, which belongs to all, open for the use of all. So it is with the sea. It is the right of all nations to use the seas, and it is the duty of all nations to see to it that the seas are kept open and safe for all lawful purposes.
Page 14
18. Was it then the duty of the United States to protect the lives and property of her citizens on the high seas?
Certainly, the protection of the lives and property of its people is chiefly what Government exists for. That is why we have a navy. The navy is the police force of the sea, and its business is to see that American citizens on their lawful errands are protected from robbers and murderers. President Wilson more than once warned the German Emperor against doing any injury to Americans; and the Emperor solemnly pledged his word that he would respect our rights.
19. Did he keep this pledge?
Only so long as it suited him to do so. On January 31, 1917, he announced that he would keep it no longer, but would sink without warning the ships of all nations that sailed in certain regions; and during the next two months he sunk eight American vessels and murdered forty-eight American citizens.
20. What did President Wilson say about this "ruthless submarine" warfare?
He declared before Congress that "It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, . . . [and] the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk . . . in the same way. The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. . . . We will not choose the path of submission and suffer the most sacred rights of our nation and our people to be ignored or violated. . . . I advise that the Congress declare the recent course of the Imperial German Government to be in fact nothing less than war against the Government and people of the United States."
21. Did President Wilson declare war on Germany?
No, the President of the United States has no power to declare war; only Congress, which represents the people, can declare when the United States shall go to war. Congress declared war against Germany on April 6, 1917.
22. What reasons did Congress give for declaring the United States at war?
Congress declared that the "Imperial German Government had committed repeated acts of war against the Government and people of the United States," and, therefore, that we were compelled to defend ourselves.
23. Why did Congress say that the "Imperial German Government" had waged war against the United States?
Because in Germany neither the people nor their representatives have the right to declare war; only the Emperor has that power. He can declare war when he pleases, how he pleases, for any reason he pleases, without consulting anybody. In this war, the German Emperor declared war and ordered his army to attack other countries without consulting the wishes of the German people. By "Imperial German Government," therefore, Congress means the German Emperor and those who help him in the government of Germany.
24. What "acts of war" committed by the German Emperor did Congress refer to?
As one of the members of Congress said:
"He has set the torch of the incendiary to our factories, our workshops, our ships, and our wharves.
"He has laid the bomb of the assassin in our munition plants and the holds of our ships.
"He has sought to corrupt our manhood with a selfish dream of peace when there is no peace.
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"He has willfully butchered our citizens on the high seas.
"He has destroyed our commerce.
"He seeks to terrorize us with his devilish policy of frightfulness.
"He has violated every canon of international decency and set at naught every solemn treaty and every precept of international law.
"He has plunged the world into the maddest orgy of blood, rapine, and murder which history records.
"He has intrigued against our peace at home and abroad.
"He seeks to destroy our civilization. Patience is no longer a virtue, further endurance is cowardice, submission to Prussian demands is slavery."
25. What has President Wilson declared to be our motives in going to war with Germany?
President Wilson said that we are fighting "for the peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German peoples included. . . . We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquests, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves. . . . We shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts--for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own Governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for . . . peace and safety to all nations and [to] make the world itself at last free."
26. In what way are we going to carry on the war against Germany?
By lending money to our allies; by sending them food and other provisions; by forbidding the shipment of food to countries that are friendly to Germany; by using our navy to destroy German submarines; and by sending our soldiers to Europe to help France, England, and our other allies defeat the armies of our enemies.
27. In what ways can those of us who stay at home help to win the war?
First, by seeking to understand clearly what the war means; by remembering that our country is fighting to keep that freedom which Washington won for us; by keeping in mind the thought that the blood of our soldiers, the struggles of our armies, the working of our fields and factories, and the spending of millions of dollars are all to secure for us and the world, peace and happiness, freedom and safety.
Second, by promptly and cheerfully obeying the laws and doing those things which our Government tells us we must do to win the war.
Third, by neither saying ourselves, nor repeating anything others have said that will weaken our Government, or create dissatisfaction, division, and discouragement among our own people, or give aid, and comfort, and encouragement to the enemy.
Fourth, by avoiding all kinds of waste and extravagance, especially of food and clothing, so there will be enough for our own needs and for the even greater needs of our brave soldiers on the battlefield and for the soldiers and people of our allies who are fighting and sacrificing for the same cause as ourselves--the cause of human freedom.
Fifth, by faithfully and cheerfully doing our daily tasks however humble they be, at home, at school, on the farm, or wherever our duties call us.
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The Flags of the Nations at War with Germany or Her Allies
BELGIUM CUBA FRANCE GREAT BRITAIN ITALY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA JAPAN MONTENEGRO PANAMA PORTUGAL ROUMANIA RUSSIA SAN MARINO SERBIA
- China (March 14)
- Brazil (April 10)
- Bolivia (April 11)
COUNTRIES WHICH HAVE SEVERED DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH GERMANY
- Guatemala (April 27)
- Honduras (May 17)
- Nicaragua (May 19)
- Haiti (June 17)
COUNTRIES WHICH HAVE SEVERED DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH GERMANY
COLOR LEGEND. Belgium--Black, yellow and red in stripes. Cuba--Triangle red with white star, blue and white stripes. France--Blue, white and red in stripes. Great Britain--Flag of the British Empire; blue ground, red cross, and red diagonals flanked by white. Italy--Green, white and red in stripes; crown and shield in white stripe. Japan--Red circle in white ground. Montenegro--Badge on red ground with white border. Panama--Upper left quarter, white with blue star; upper right quarter, red; lower left quarter, blue; lower right quarter, white with red star. Portugal--Green and red in stripes, escutcheon and sphere left of center. Roumania--Blue, yellow and red in stripes. Russia--White, blue and red in stripes. San Marino--Blue and white in stripes, badge in center. Serbia--Red, blue and white in stripes.
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THE OLD NORTH STATE.
Carolina! Carolina! Heaven's blessing attend her!
While we live we will cherish, protect, and defend her;
Though the scorner may sneer at and witlings defame her,
Our hearts swell with gladness whenever we name her.
Hurrah! Hurrah! the Old North State forever!
Hurrah! Hurrah! the good Old North State!
Though she envies not others their merited glory,
Say, whose name stands the foremost in Liberty's story?
Though too true to herself e'er to crouch to oppression,
Who can yield to just rule more loyal submission?
Hurrah, etc.
Plain and artless her sons, but whose doors open faster
At the knock of a stranger, or the tale of disaster?
How like to the rudeness of their dear native mountains,
With rich ore in their bosoms and life in their fountains.
Hurrah, etc.
And her daughters, the Queen of the Forest resembling--
So graceful, so constant, yet to gentlest breath trembling;
And true lightwood at heart, let the match be applied them,
How they kindle and flame! Oh! none know but who've tried them.
Hurrah, etc.
Then let all who love us love the land that we live in
(As happy a region as on this side of Heaven),
Where Plenty and Freedom, Love and Peace smile before us.
Raise aloud, raise together the heart-thrilling chorus!
Hurrah! Hurrah! the old North State forever!
Hurrah! Hurrah! the good Old North State!
--William Gaston.
THRIFT MONTH.
An appeal by Governor Bickett.
To the Farmers of North Carolina:
"Opportunity has hair in front. Behind she is bald. If you seize her by the forelock you may hold her, but once permitted to pass, not Jupiter himself can catch her again."
So runs the ancient aphorism. This year Opportunity stands before the farmers of North Carolina with a forelock that reaches to the ground. You have with superb common sense increased your food and feed crops. You have with splendid foresight canned and dried your surplus fruits and vegetables. For you the high cost of living holds few terrors. Empyrean prices are being paid for the products of your toil. Never before in this generation, and possibly never again will there come to the average farmer so large an opportunity to lift himself and family to a higher level of happiness and hope. Temptations to fritter away the proceeds of your crops will
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crowd thick upon you. Improvidence will lure to sleep, and pleasure and prodigality will call to you with many voices. The "blue sky" artists are already on your trail. They have heard that you are fat, and have marked you for their own. All kinds of get-rich-quick schemes will be dangled before you, and the voice of the agent will be heard in the land. Smooth and wordy vendors of lightning rods, and ranges, and organs, and pianolas, and sewing machines, and churns, and washing machines, and patent medicines, and county rights, and crayon portraits, and shares in excessively capitalized stallions will spring up around you as countless as the frogs that came upon the land of Egypt, and seek to enter into the reward of your labors.
In my Inaugural Address and in a series of bills submitted to the General Assembly, I endeavored to make plain a purpose to make life on the farm just as profitable and just as attractive as life in the town. The intensity of that purpose has deepened with the passing months, and I now call upon the farmers to make a supreme effort in this direction, and to capitalize the opportunity of the hour. To this end I earnestly beseech the farmers of the State to set apart the month of November as Thrift Month, and urge every farmer to do something definite and substantial during that month that will inure to the permanent betterment of his condition in life. I suggest the following specific accomplishments and appeal to every farmer to do one or more of these things:
- 1. Buy a Liberty Bond.
- 2. If he be a tenant to buy, if possible, a small farm and make the first payment on the purchase price.
- 3. To pay off all debts, and go on a cash basis next year.
- 4. To start a savings account in some bank or credit union.
- 5. To buy a milch cow or brood sow.
- 6. To install home waterworks and lights.
- 7. To paint his house.
- 8. To set out an orchard.
The Agricultural Department, the Joint Committee on Agricultural Work, and the State Department of Education will generously coöperate with the farmers in making Thrift Month a notable month in the agricultural life of the State. I call upon the teachers in the rural schools to read this appeal to the children. Complete plans for taking a census during the first week in December will be arranged, to the end that we may know at the end of the month just how many farmers have redeemed the great opportunity that now confronts them and have preserved for their wives and children some portion of the blessings of this unparalleled year.
Raleigh, N. C., September 15, 1917.
T. W. BICKETT, Governor.
CONSERVATION AND THRIFT FOR A LARGER SERVICE TO THE
STATE, THE NATION, AND HUMANITY.
Prepared and compiled by HENRY A. PAGE, State Food Administrator.
Conservation and thrift go hand in hand. Both are constant companions of wise men and women at all times. Of both are formed stepping stones to economic independence and that happiness that comes from right living and correct habits.
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Today conservation of food has come to be not a personal problem or a local problem, or even a national problem, but a policy upon which the fate of the world hangs. Food will determine whether the nations of the world hereafter are to be ruled "By the people and for the people," or "By Prussianism for the benefit of the Prussian Autocracy."
With 20,000,000 of their able-bodied men removed from the productive fields and factories, our allies--large importers of foodstuffs under normal circumstances--must depend upon other countries for 60 per cent of their foodstuffs. Because we have the greatest resources and are nearest, the burden of supplying their needs falls upon us. In England and France most days are meatless days. The consumption of wheat flour has been cut 50 per cent. The sugar used amounts to only half an ounce per day against a consumption in this country of nearly 4 ounces per day for every man, woman and child.
The 100,000,000 people of America can spare the full amount of foodstuffs necessary to keep the armies of our allies in good fighting trim and to keep their women and children at home from starving; but to do that we must consume at home such articles as are not suited for long-distance shipping and save for the allies wheat, beef, pork, fats and sugar, concentrated products with good keeping qualities, which are suited for export.
We have foodstuffs in plenty besides the articles named and no hardship will be imposed upon any one through following the Food Administration's suggestion and request that we save the foods named through economy and substitution.
What Each Can Do.
Every man, woman and child in America is in position to render vital assistance in winning the great war. Every person who eats corn products in place of wheat bread, who uses less sugar in its various forms, who substitutes fish, rabbits and other game and poultry for beef and pork, is strengthening the arms of our allies and enabling them to fight the more strongly.
Every person who helps to keep the armies of our allies in tip-top physical condition is saving American lives; because it is going to require a certain amount of fighting to win from the Germans, and if the fighting efficiency of our allies is lowered, the deficiency must be made up by American troops. We shall pay for the victory with blood and bread--the more bread and the quicker it is given, the less blood.
Every person who helps to increase the production of foodstuffs, either those which may be exported to our allies or others which may be used at home as substitutes for them, is helping to win the war.
Every person who raises a litter of pigs or a beef animal; every person who raises poultry, a sheep or a goat or who catches rabbits and other game to substitute for beef and pork, is rendering a service just as vital as that of the uniformed soldier.
Food will win the war! Produce it! Save it!
When Peace Comes.
America's place in the industrial competition of nations that will follow peace, will be determined in large part by the response that the American people make to the appeal of the Food Administration.
"When this war is over," Food Administrator Hoover has declared, "Europe will find herself with a reduced standard of living, with a people greatly disciplined
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in all directions and in a position to compete in the world's markets in a way that they never have been able before. We shall also face a world with a reduced consuming power, and unless we can secure some discipline in our own people, we will be in no position to meet that condition when peace comes."
It has been pointed out many times that war has little to recommend it. However, if the American people can instil in themselves the spirit of self-denial, can cut out some wanton extravagance and restore the pride in thrift that characterized them half a century ago, there will be an actual gain, even from this war.
As Mr. Hoover puts it, "Practically the only moral equalization there is in war is the inspiration to self-sacrifice and to service that comes out of war. That is its only moral balance, and unless we can inspire our people to a greater extent than they are today with the necessity for service, for self-denial, then we will have lost the only moral benefit that can possibly be derived out of the war."
On the other hand, unless thrift does become a national trait the war will become, even to those who have profited financially by it, a curse.
FOOD ADMINISTRATION ORGANIZATION.
The organization which is charged with carrying out the program of the Food Administration in North Carolina embraces more than 20,000 persons. The work is directed from the office at Raleigh which is in constant touch with headquarters of the Food Administration at Washington.
Mr. Henry A. Page, of Aberdeen, is State Food Administrator.
Mr. John Paul Lucas, of Charlotte, is Executive Secretary.
An executive committee consisting of Dr. J. Y. Joyner, Dr. D. H. Hill, Hon. W. A. Graham, Dr. B. W. Kilgore, Mrs. Jane S. McKimmon, Mr. W. C. Crosby, Dr. Clarence Poe, and Mr. James H. Pou acts in an advisory capacity and links up with the Food Administration the school system of the State, the State Council of Defense, the agricultural forces, the home economics forces and other agencies which can coöperate effectively with the Administration.
A Food Administrator has been appointed for each of the 100 counties of the State, and they in turn receive the coöperation of the county superintendent of education, the farm demonstration agent, the home demonstration agent and the chairman of the woman's committee of the County Council of Defense.
The County Food Administrators carry the organization to the community or neighborhood by appointing a committee in each white school district. Thus is served the United States Food Administration's purpose to bring the Food Administration into intimate and sympathetic touch with every American home.
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THE RED, WHITE AND BLUE.
O Columbia! the gem of the ocean,
The home of the brave and the free,
The shrine of each patriot's devotion,
A world offers homage to thee.
Thy mandates make heroes assemble,
When Liberty's form stands in view,
Thy banners make tyranny tremble,
When borne by the red, white and blue.
Chorus. When borne by the red, white and blue,
When borne by the red, white and blue,
Thy banners make tyranny tremble,
When borne by the red, white and blue.
When war wing'd its wide desolation
And threatened the land to deform,
The ark then of freedom's foundation,
Columbia, rode safe thro' the storm,
With her garlands of vict'ry around her,
When so proudly she bore her brave crew,
With her flag proudly waving before her,
The boast of the red, white and blue.
Chorus. The boast of the red, white and blue,
The boast of the red, white and blue,
With her flag proudly waving before her,
The boast of the red, white and blue.
Then sons of Columbia, come hither
And join in our nation's sweet hymn;
May the wreaths they have won never wither,
Nor the stars of their glory grow dim!
May the service united, ne'er sever,
But they to their colors prove true!
The Army and Navy forever,
Three cheers for the red, white and blue.
Chorus. Three cheers for the red, white and blue,
Three cheers for the red, white and blue,
The Army and Navy forever,
Three cheers for the red, white and blue.
--David T. Shaw.
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WHAT NORTH CAROLINA IS DOING.
Prepared and compiled by D. H. HILL, Chairman of State In every time of national stress North Carolina has fully done its part. In Colonial Days it led the country in boldly declaring for independence. In the Revolutionary War its Continental Troops under Gen. Francis Nash fought with Washington at Brandywine and Germantown, and shared in the desolate winter at Valley Forge, and at Stony Point under Major Hardy Murfee they dared with Mad Anthony Wayne in his brilliant capture of that stronghold. Its militia, under Gen. Robert Howe, Gen. John Ashe, Gen. Jethro Sumner, and Gen. John Butler, served so manfully in South Carolina that Charles Pinckney, of that State, wrote: "The North Carolina troops have been so willing and ready on all occasions to afford us all the assistance in their power, that I shall ever love a North Carolinian, and join with Gen. Moultrie in confessing that they have been the salvation of our country." In our own State they never hesitated to measure strength with an enemy, and even when defeated were ever ready to march back to the flag. In the Civil War North Carolina laid almost its all on the altar of country. Close to 125,000 troops from the State were under arms. So nobly did these troops meet the shock of battle that though thirteen States were in the controversy, one-fifth of the space in Richmond hospitals was reserved for North Carolina soldiers. In the present war, a war so big as to appall the imagination, we are trying to measure up to every call on our State. We want to keep step with every movement to help our Nation and minister to our troops. We want every young person in our Nation to feel that this is our war and we are going to win it. First, our National Guard was called to the colors, and with that call volunteers stepped to the front for many forms of service. So far the following organizations have passed from our State to the army. Some of these are perhaps already in France, and the others are training for foreign service:
The following table gives, as near as we can at present get them, the number of men now in service from North Carolina:
Council of Defense.
Our Record So Far.
What Has Our State Done?
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National Guard organizations, about
10,000
Enlisted in Regular Army
1,565
Enlisted in Regular Navy
797
At First Oglethorpe Training Camp
737
At Second Oglethorpe Training Camp
450
At other Training Camps
162
In call to colors for National Army
15,974
Marine Corps
130
Naval Reserves (approximately)
400
In Medical Corps
310
Naval Volunteers (formerly Naval Militia)
109
Regular Navy
797
Total
31,431
To support those who are in the field and to keep them supplied with even enough for a soldier's simple needs, will throw an immense burden on all our people. In these days of tremendous battles it is estimated that it takes the output in commodities or in service of twenty persons to keep up one soldier. If this estimate be correct, the time of 600,000 men and women will be required to supply the needs of the 30,000 North Carolinians who are at present serving under our flag in America and France. This does not include the money that we shall all feel called on to give.
Money Contributions.
So far our State has made the following direct contributions to war needs. These sums, however, do not include the many thousands of dollars given by individuals for the relief of suffering and distress in Europe:
| First Liberty Loan Bonds | $9,413,900.00 |
| Second Liberty Loan Bonds | 27,000,000.00 |
| First Red Cross Fund | 2,402,000.00 |
| War Fund for Y. M. C. A. | 42,000.00 |
| Total | $38,858,638.00 |
Civic Organizations.
Trained men and women, who are supported by two great benevolent organizations, follow the soldiers wherever they go. No place is dreary enough or dangerous enough to appall the stout hearts of those who minister in the name of these two organizations. Pestilence does not stop them, shrieking shells do not drive them from their sacred tasks. The one ministers to the suffering bodies of soldiers; the other to the loneliness of mind or sadness of spirit of duty-driven men of war. These two are the Red Cross Association and the War Young Men's Christian Association.
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The Red Cross.
In North Carolina the Governor of the State, who is so actively making his high office helpful, is Chairman of the Central Committee. Mr. Joseph G. Brown, of Raleigh, is State Treasurer of all funds, and Dr. Francis B. Boyer, of Asheville, is the Executive Director of all State-wide activities. There are local chapters, headed by country-loving women, in almost every town and in many rural communities. The Association has been most active ever since war was declared. In addition to raising funds for hospitals, doctors, nurses, and medicine, it has abounded in other good works. Through its local chapters it has added to the comfort and good cheer of temporary camps. It has united communities in doing honor to departing soldiers. It has welcomed troop trains and supplied tired soldiers with refreshments. It has joined hands with cities in trying to keep pure life in the military camps. All over the State its members are sewing and knitting and making bandages for soldiers. Many nurses and attendants have gone to the front in its name and under its care.
The War Young Men's Christian Association.
When war came this Association, which has been such a blessing to the young men of our country, saw a new field needing its aid. Young men by the thousands would be gathered in camps and then hurried across the sea to battle. Could it find a field more useful than in accompanying these boys thus hurriedly snatched from the tender care of home? Straightway it broadened the work to take in the men in uniform, and wherever soldier tents go up in number, a Y. M. C. A. tent goes up alongside.
Although this is a national body, each State has a separate organization. The North Carolina organization is directed by Mr. G. C. Huntington, of Charlotte.
State Council of Defense.
There is, however, in time of war, a call on every State for forms of service not so directly connected with soldier life as are the Red Cross and the Y. M. C. A. These forms of service are almost without number. They include efforts to increase our crops, to save every scrap of useful material, to make new forms of material and food, to raise money for governmental use, to provide for the families of absent soldiers, to help the health authorities in their duties among the homes and towns, to show the people the need of thrift and self-denial, and to persuade them to practice these virtues, to present and explain the plans of the government to the citizens, to try to secure the utmost harmony among all classes of people, to encourage the most devoted loyalty to flag and country--these and other kindred duties the Government has placed in the hands of a body of volunteer workers known as the State Council of Defense.
In our State this body of men is appointed by the Governor, and consists of the following members: Gov. T. W. Bickett and Adjutant-General Laurence S. Young, ex officio; James Sprunt, Wilmington; George W. Watts, Durham; Joseph Hyde Pratt, Chapel Hill; J. Bryan Grimes, Raleigh; D. H. Hill, Raleigh; C. C. Taylor, Greensboro; W. S. Lee, Charlotte; R. N. Page, Biscoe; F. L. Seely, Asheville; George Howe, Chapel Hill; and Mrs. Eugene Reilley, Charlotte. Of this body, D. H. Hill is Chairman, and W. S. Wilson Secretary.
In conjunction with the State Council there is a Woman's Branch of the
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Council, which is particularly charged with the activities of the home. This division has the following officers: Mrs. Eugene Reilley, Chairman; Mrs. Palmer Jerman, First Vice-Chairman; Mrs. W. N. Reynolds, Second Vice-Chairman; Miss Mary Hilliard Hinton, Secretary; Mrs. Eugene Sternberger, Treasurer; and Mrs. T. W. Bickett and Mrs. R. R. Cotten, Honorary Chairmen.
Food and Fuel Administrators.
As food and fuel have to be saved in days of war, our government asked that some patriotic man should be named in each State to undertake this service--one for food and one for fuel. These men serve without pay. Mr. Henry A. Page, of Aberdeen, patriotically agreed to take up the duties of Food Administrator, and Mr. A. W. McAlister, of Greensboro, in a spirit of self-sacrifice consented to act as Fuel Administrator. Both of these patriotic men are just entering on their new duties.
WHY WE ARE FIGHTING GERMANY.
BY FRANKLIN K. LANE, Secretary of the Interior.
Why are we fighting Germany? The brief answer is that ours is a war of self-defense. We did not wish to fight Germany. She made the attack upon us; not on our shores, but on our ships, our lives, our rights, our future. For two years and more we held to a neutrality that made us apologists for things which outraged man's common sense of fair play and humanity. . . .
Then why are we in? Because we could not keep out. . . . It is a war to save America--to preserve self-respect, to justify our right to live as we have lived, not as some one else wishes us to live. In the name of freedom we challenge with ships and men, money, and an undaunted spirit, that word "Frightfulness" which Germany has written upon the sea and upon the land. . . . We fight Germany--
Because of Belgium--invaded, outraged, enslaved, impoverished Belgium. We cannot forget Liege, Louvain, and Cardinal Mercier. Translated into terms of American history, these names stand for Bunker Hill, Lexington, and Patrick Henry.
Because of France--invaded, desecrated France, a million of whose heroic sons have died to save the land of Lafayette. Glorious golden France, the preserver of the arts, the land of noble spirit--the first land to follow our lead into republican liberty.
Because of England--from whom came the laws, traditions, standards of life, and inherent love of liberty which we call Anglo-Saxon civilization. We defeated her once upon the land and once upon the sea. But Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and Canada are free because of what we did. And they are with us in the fight for the freedom of the seas.
Because of Russia--New Russia. She must not be overwhelmed now. Not now, when she is just born into freedom. Her peasants must have their chance; they must go to school to Washington, to Jefferson, and to Lincoln until they know their way about in this new, strange world of government by the popular will.
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Because of other peoples, with their rising hope that the world may be freed from government by the soldier.
We are fighting Germany because she sought to terrorize us and then to fool us. We could not believe that Germany would do what she said she would do upon the seas.
We still hear the piteous cries of children coming up out of the sea where the Lusitania went down. And Germany has never asked forgiveness of the world.
We saw the Sussex sunk, crowded with the sons and daughters of neutral nations.
We saw ship after ship sent to the bottom--ships of mercy bound out of America for the Belgium starving; ships carrying the Red Cross and laden with the wounded of all nations; ships carrying food and clothing to friendly, harmless, terrorized peoples; ships flying the Stars and Stripes--sent to the bottom hundreds of miles from shore, manned by American seamen, murdered against all law, without warning.
We believed Germany's promise that she would respect the neutral flag and the rights of neutrals, and we held our anger and outrage in check. But now we see that she was holding us off with fair promises until she could build her huge fleet of submarines. For when spring came she blew her promise into the air, just as at the beginning she had torn up that "scrap of paper." Then we saw clearly that there was but one law for Germany--her will to rule.
We are fighting Germany because she violated our confidence. Paid German spies filled our cities. Officials of her government, received as the guests of this nation, lived with us to bribe and terrorize, defying our law and the law of nations.
We are fighting Germany because while we were yet her friend--the only great power that still held hands off--she sent the Zimmerman note, calling to her aid Mexico, our southern neighbor, and hoping to lure Japan, our western neighbor, into war against this nation of peace.
The nation that would do these things proclaims the gospel that government has no conscience. And this doctrine can not live, or else democracy must die. For the nations of the world must keep faith. There can be no living for us in a world where the state has no conscience, no reverence for the things of the spirit, no respect for international law, no mercy for those who fall before its force. What an unordered world! Anarchy! The anarchy of rival wolf packs!
We are fighting Germany because in this war feudalism is making its last stand against on-coming democracy. We see it now. This is a war against an old spirit, an ancient, outworn spirit. It is a war against feudalism--the right of the castle on the hill to rule the village below. It is a war for democracy--the right of all to be their own masters. . . .
America speaks for the world in fighting Germany. Mark on a map those countries which are Germany's allies and you will mark but four, running from the Baltic through Austria and Bulgaria to Turkey. All the other nations the whole globe around are in arms against her or are unable to move. There is deep meaning in this. We fight with the world for an honest world in which nations keep their word, for a world in which nations do not live by swagger or by threat, for a world in which men think of the ways in which they can conquer the common cruelties of nature instead of inventing
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more horrible cruelties to inflict upon the spirit and body of man, for a world in which the ambition or the philosophy of a few shall not make miserable all mankind, for a world in which the man is held more precious than the machine, the system, or the state.
MAKERS OF THE FLAG.
This morning, as I passed into the Land Office, The Flag dropped me a most cordial salutation, and from its rippling folds I heard it say: "Good morning, Mr. Flag Maker."
"I beg your pardon, Old Glory," I said, "aren't you mistaken? I am not the President of the United States, nor a member of Congress, nor even a general in the army. I am only a Government clerk."
"I greet you again, Mr. Flag Maker," replied the gay voice, "I know you well. You are the man who worked in the swelter of yesterday straightening out the tangle of that farmer's homestead in Idaho, or perhaps you found the mistake in that Indian contract in Oklahoma, or helped to clear that patent for the hopeful inventor in New York, or pushed the opening of that new ditch in Colorado, or made that mine in Illinois more safe, or brought relief to the old soldier in Wyoming. No matter; whichever one of these beneficent individuals you may happen to be, I give you greeting, Mr. Flag Maker."
I was about to pass on, when The Flag stopped me with these words:
"Yesterday the President spoke a word that made happier the future of ten million peons in Mexico; but that act looms no larger on the flag than the struggle which the boy in Georgia is making to win the Corn Club prize this summer.
"Yesterday the Congress spoke a word which will open the door of Alaska; but a mother in Michigan worked from sunrise until far into the night, to give her boy an education. She, too, is making the flag.
"Yesterday we made a new law to prevent financial panics, and yesterday, maybe a school teacher in Ohio taught his first letters to a boy who will one day write a song that will give cheer to the millions of our race. We are all making the flag."
"But," I said impatiently, "these people were only working."
Then came a great shout from The Flag:
"The work that we do is the making of the flag.
"I am not the flag; not at all. I am but its shadow.
"I am whatever you make me, nothing more.
"I am your belief in yourself, your dream of what a people may become.
"I live a changing life, a life of moods and passions, of heart breaks and tired muscles.
"Sometimes I am strong with pride, when men do an honest work, fitting the rails together truly.
"Sometimes I droop, for then purpose has gone from me, and cynically I play the coward.
"Sometimes I am loud, garish, and full of that ego that blasts judgment.
"But always, I am all that you hope to be, and have the courage to try for.
"I am song and fear, struggle and panic, and ennobling hope.
"I am the day's work of the weakest man, and the largest dream of the most daring.
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"I am the Constitution and the courts, statutes and the statute makers, soldier and dreadnaught, drayman and street sweep, cook, counselor, and clerk.
"I am the battle of yesterday, and the mistake of tomorrow.
"I am the mystery of the men who do without knowing why.
"I am the clutch of an idea, and the reasoned purpose of resolution.
"I am no more than what you believe me to be, and I am all that you believe I can be.
"I am what you make me; nothing more.
"I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself, the pictured suggestion of that big thing which makes this Nation. My stars and my stripes are your dream and your labors. They are bright with cheer, brilliant with courage, firm with faith, because you have made them so out of your hearts. For you are the makers of the flag and it is well that you glory in the making."
FRANKLIN K. LANE.
OLD FLAG FOREVER.
She's up there--Old Glory--where lightnings are sped;
She dazzles the nations with ripples of red;
And she'll wave for us living, or droop o'er us dead--
The flag of our country forever!
She's up there--Old Glory--how bright the stars stream!
And the stripes like red signals of liberty gleam!
And we dare for her, living, or dream the last dream
'Neath the flag of our country forever!
She's up there--Old Glory--no tyrant-dealt scars,
No blur on her brightness, no stain on her stars!
The brave blood of heroes hath crimsoned her bars.
She's the flag of our country forever!
--Frank L. Stanton.
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Feeling that the program for this patriotic celebration of North Carolina Day would be incomplete without a brief message from the Secretary of the Navy, Honorable Josephus Daniels, North Carolina's member of the "War Cabinet," of whose distinguished and patriotic services the people of the entire State are justly proud, the State Superintendent wrote him requesting a brief message and received in reply the following letter and message.
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY,
WASHINGTON.
NOVEMBER 1, 1917.
MY DEAR DR. JOYNER:--I am deeply interested in the plan of holding a great patriotic rally in every school house in the State, in celebration of "North Carolina Day." The progress of the war is making it more and more evident that the United States will be called upon to exert her full strength and undergo real sacrifice if victory is to be won. It is very important that all the people be fully informed of the reasons for our entrance into the war and of the ways by which all of the people may contribute their part toward securing victory. I know of no way in which people can be better informed and their patriotism more deeply stirred than by the holding of meetings such as are being planned in the school houses through the State of North Carolina. This patriotic movement has my cordial endorsement and support.
Sincerely yours,
JOSEPHUS DANIELS.
DR. J. Y. JOYNER,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Raleigh, North Carolina.
OUR COUNTRY ACCEPTS THE CHALLENGE.
By HON. JOSEPHUS DANIELS, Secretary of the Navy.
Two irreconcilable principles are contending for the mastery in the world today. We had believed until the Emperor of Germany plunged the world into war, that never again could the policy of Alexander and Napoleon jeopardize civilization. But the challenge has been made and the house of Hohenzollern by force seeks to impose its will upon every nation its military machine can overcome and chart the ocean highways for the great American Republic. If the policy of absolutism and force could succeed, free government would perish from the earth.
If the Imperial German Government had looked through the catalogues of insults in order to give an offense this country would most quickly resent, it could not have found one that cut to the quick more deeply than the assumption of the right to deny full liberty to sail the seas to the American People. The right to send its ships on the ocean highways is essential to our sovereign power, to our dignity, to the lives of our people and to the prosperity of the Republic. Since when did any nation obtain the exclusive dominion of the ocean?
If America had acquiesced in being driven from the sea, how long before the German Emperor would have sought to dictate its right to travel by land,
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to dominate its national policy, to set metes and bounds to its progress, and to make it a Hohenzollern colony?
Shall we be free men or shall we wear the Kaiser's yoke? That is the question which is addressed to the citizens of every free country in the world. Impudently claiming fellowship with the Almighty, the German Emperor by the profane assumption of divine right and Krupp guns demands to rule the world. The American people were slow to believe the medieval creed
"That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can"
found acceptance by any men in the twentieth century. Eveu when their ships were sunk and Americans drowned they hoped against hope that the Imperial Government would disown the acts of the murderous commanders of their stilettos of the seas. Patience is a virtue nearly divine.
This country practised patience long because it has a passion for peace. The day came, however, when patience ceased to be a virtue. Longer neutrality, after Germany boldly declared its resumption of ruthless submarine warfare, was impossible to a country that had never bowed the knee to usurped power. When it was a young country, poor and with little army and less navy, the United States went to war to preserve the freedom of the seas. It won that war. Its purpose then and now is unalterable, that for all time it would sail its ships without asking the permission of any other nation. Germany denied this hard-won right when it dared to tell us what lanes of the ocean our ships could travel and how many voyages they could make in a given time, or what cargoes they could carry.
We have accepted the challenge because there was no alternative except either to wear the yoke of the man on horseback, or battle to preserve the liberties our fathers won through sacrifice and blood. And we have highly resolved, and pledged all that we are and all that we have, that the only government that can endure among a free people is government by consent of the governed. Such government ends the power of crowned heads. It will cost much in blood and treasure to win the war for government of the people and by the people. Our land witnessed its birth. Our land accepts the challenge. Our land will win the victory, and will establish enduring peace. There can be no peace that abides until the doctrines enunciated by Jefferson's pen and won by Washington's sword are accepted by the whole world.
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BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can see His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.
He hath sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh! be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
--Julia Ward Howe.
BENEDICTION.
"Lord God of Hosts,
Be with us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget."
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