An interesting comment on the view is the fact that, in spite of all its horrors, this War has given no attested instance of arrant cowardice on any front.  Cruelty, lust, brutality, hate:  these have appeared in unspeakable guise, but apparently no cowardice or weak timidity; yet the mail clad heroes of ancient wars, who met their adversaries face to face, were subjected to no such strain as the men standing in trenches waiting momentarily death or mutilation from an unseen foe.  No, modern life has not lost strong fiber and is capable of supreme heroism.

The old society secured its leadership through noblesse oblige—­the obligation of nobility.  Men of aristocratic family and rank felt that, because they stood above the people, they owed a certain leadership and service, and they gave it, often in abundant measure, but always condescendingly from above.

We have lost “noblesse oblige”:  we may even be glad it is gone, if we can substitute for it something larger and better.  It is not the obligation of nobility, but the obligation of humanity that is the need:  to realize that all power is obligation.  As you can, you owe; and as you know, you owe.  If you have money, it is so much obligation of leadership and service.  If you have talent, education, social or political influence, it is all so much obligation of leadership and service.  If, as individuals, we can generally realize that and act upon it, then indeed we may hope to carry to successful completion the experiment of democracy and see our beloved country fulfill the measure of moral leadership to which we believe she is called among the nations of the earth, but fulfilling it not as master over slave, nor as one empire among others, but as a more experienced brother toward others following the same open path.

XXII

THE HOUR OF SACRIFICE

The supreme world crisis is on.  We have entered the War in the purest spirit of democracy.  We state frankly in advance that we want no indemnity, no extension of territory.  We war with no people, except as that people identifies itself with aggressive autocracy and imperialism, imperilling our safety, as of all democracies, and seeking to ride tyrannically and unjustly over the rights and liberties of other peoples.  Thus we enter the War solely for the cause of democracy and humanity.

The hour of sacrifice has struck for the American people:  will it rise to the test?  When one considers the characteristics of our surface life for recent decades—­the devotion to money-getting, the rapid increase of senseless and debauching luxury, the reckless frivolity, the unthinking haste and selfish pleasure-seeking—­one questions.  Underneath, however, is a tremendous latent idealism.  We are young, enthusiastic, capable of glorious consecration.  Cynical disillusionment is all upon the surface —­the cult of the clique of cleverness, uprooted from the soil of common life and the deeps of the eternal verities.  Beneath in the great mass of the people is profound faith in life, deep trust in the ideal, belief in the great future of humanity.  Democracy will justify itself.  We shall rise to the test; but how we need to hear and heed the call!