Life — January 27, 1916 — page 21: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“John Anderson, my jo, John, When we were first acquent, Your locks were like the raven, Your bonnie brow was brent, bless this country. All the world finally recognized it in him, though it took time. But Lincoln, besides being born, was made. This country made him. It can make men. It cannot make them out of poor stuff, but it can make them out of good stuff, and it will always have the stuff great men are made of. A great leader does not lead as he will, He leads as he must; leads as the essential spirit of the country con- strains him to lead. Unless he can— unless he has the brains, the training and the instinctive courage to do it— he goes by the board, and we try an- other, We are going to get th ag we ought to have. The spirit of wiis coun- try is an immense force, and it will compel it. Perhaps we have it now. Perhaps Mr. Wilson is a great man. Perhaps he isn’t yet, but we and events can make a great man of him. Perhaps it isn't in him, and we must try some- one else; but somehow we shall get our dues. If they are over-dues before we But now your brow is beld, John; Your locks are like the snow; But blessings on your frosty pow, John Anderson, my jo.” get them we shall have a bad time, but we'll have to bear it. LL the time and everywhere in this country one runs across people who are trying to make the country better. There are a great many of them and they are always at it, wholesale or retail, sometimes with advertisement, sometimes not. Some of them try to do what ought not to be done, but we can bear that because it doesn’t stay done even if they do it. It should be a great encouragement to us, sinful ourselves and of a large acquaintance with sinners, that there are such a lot of people in the country who want and try to do it good. Everybody that we can think of in the administration wants to do the country good, but some of our present high officers of govern- ment are more successful at it than 137 others, The least successful, since Bryan quit, is Mr, Daniels. He occu- pies a place of very high importance just now. He is master of the navy and he does not get on with his men. His men—the men under him and subject to his orders—are the officers of the navy. It is matter of common knowl- edge that most of them find serv- ice under him exceedingly repugnant to their professional feelings. Some- how there does not shine out of Mr. Daniels that spirit above described which we so aspire to have control the policies and actions of this country. Mr. Daniels has lately had to gag some of his admirals because the opin- ions they expressed about the needs of the navy did not tally with those that he preferred to have expounded. The result is that inexpert readers who have little knowledge of their own about naval matters, are left wonder- ing how much of the naval informa- tion that Mr. Daniels puts out is so. That naval officers should be subject to the civil government is necessary, of course, but that the brains of the navy should be at loggerheads with the Sec- retary of the Navy is very unfortunate indeed. Such a situation need not con- tinue. We can’t spare the navy’s brains because we could not replace them. But we could easily replace Mr. Daniels. QQOSGLGIE. UR good friend the Ottawa Jour- nal reproaches Lire a little for saying that “France has the best case, and her allies shine with reflected light.” “Let Britain get equal credit,” says our Canadian neighbor. As for France, she is an invaded country, fighting magnificently for her existence. Her case is the plainest, and in that sense the best. But save for Britain, France would have been crushed before this. Britain went in to save France, to save Belgium, to save civilization and to save herself while she could get help. Anybody who wants a better case than that wants too much. There is credit enough, Heaven knows, for all the Allies. Germany had a case as against Eng- land, but she ruined it in Belgium. Since then Germany has been for Ger- many, and the Allies have been for all the rest of the world. comichooks.cey)