Locate the sovereignty of government in one man, as in Germany and you bring the people under the peril, the despotism, and the oppression of absolutism in government. You bring upon them the menace of a kaiser whose power is an irresponsible power, to whose aspirations and pretensions there is no limit but his own will; and from whose will there is no appeal but the costly and perilous appeal to revolution.

But locate sovereignty in the people-in the governed-as in the American republic, and you have government that is responsible, sensitively responsible to the people; not their master to oppress and exploit them as in an autocracy, but their servant to do their will; to safeguard them in the peaceable possession and enjoyment of their natural rights and liberties, and to be a righteous and emancipating example and influence, to the gov ernment and people of other nationalities.

A great good comes to a people through their possession of the sov ereign power in government. It lays upon them a great responsibility— the responsibility for an administration of government in their interest, for the public good and that shall be a force for righteousness and justice and liberty in the civil life of universal human society. It opens to them a great field for the exercise and display of their patriotism.

Nothing develops strength, character, initiative and capacity for affairs like responsibility for the condition of affairs. Responsibility courageously faced and faithfully borne, will always develop resourcefulness, capacity and power in action.

Wendell Phillips used to say: "If your horse cannot draw his load, throw a sack of oats on his back and he will draw it with ease." Put upon the people the responsibility for good government as democracy does, and they will become equal to the task of securing good government. Lay upon the people the weight of such a responsibility and it will be to them an educating, training, character-making and upbuilding force that will come back to the government in the moral strength and support of an enlarged, invigorated, disciplined and resourceful patriotism.

Such has been the experience of both the people and the government of the United States. The statesmen of the American Revolution of '76 set up a government, republican in form and based on the sovereignty of the people. They made the people responsible for the success of the new government by making them responsible for its administration in the spirit of the truths and principles upon which it was founded, and in the spirit of the revolution of which it was born.

I need not take time to point out in detail the development in character, in steadiness, in initiative and in capacity for public and civil affairs that has taken place in the American people as they have loyally shouldered the responsibility thus laid on them. Unquestionably, the late Edward Everett of Massachusetts, eminent alike as a scholar, an orator, and a statesman, had his eye on this development of the people, when many years ago he said in the United States senate, "Nothing so distinguishes the great national race to which we belong as its aptitude for government by deliberate assemblies.''

Government by deliberative assemblies, chosen by the people and responsible to the people, is democracy in practical operation, as seen in the development and history of the American republic; and the aptitude acquired by the people for such government, as pointed out by Mr. Everett, is a most illuminating testimony to the patriotism of the people, as a strong and dependable working power in their government. Such a national "Aptitude" could be produced by nothing less than the voluntary and spontaneous and purposeful working of the deepest and strongest forces in human nature and life.

In the great national crisis of "The Sixties," the patriotism of the people proved itself to be the saving power of the nation. Suddenly the people of the free states of the Union found themselves face to face with the dread alternative of war-civil war, with its inevitable sacrifices and cost, the desolations it would cause, and the suffering and sorrows with which it would fill the land.

When the administration of Abraham Lincoln came into power in 1861, it faced a condition of appalling difficulties.

Seven states had seceded from the Union, had organized a separate government and were preparing to defend and maintain their action by military force if necessary. It was clear that other states of the Union would soon join the new rebel government.

Practically, the National government was without an army, without money, and without the means of enforcing its authority. Without any preparation for war, it was facing a great civil war. It had to have money, and armies, and equipment, and munitions, and it had to get them from! the people. To supply its great and many-sided needs, the government was obliged to depend on the resources of the people; and the spirit, the morale, the patriotism of the people would determine how much that dependence was worth-whether they would respond to the need of their government with themselves and their resources, or would let the government go down by withholding their support.

In the presence of that deeply testing crisis, there was naturally some shrinking and hesitation. But it was only for a very brief time. It vanished like the night before a clear morning sun, when Beauregard trained his Confederate guns on Fort Sumter.

Before that event, with many there were questionings and heartsearchings; but after that event the people knew their heart, their spirit rose to the demands of the hour. The chill of the danger side if the crisis, gave way to the thrill of the glory side, and under the noble impulses of the heart of the people; they, their services, their possessions, and their lives were freely offered for the maintenance of the Union, and the support of the government. Through all the varying phases of that phenomenal conflict, that source of the nation's courage and strength remained constant and dependable to the end.

In President Lincoln we have a noble example of the leadership that is able to realize on these resources of the people's patriotism and power.

Mr. Lincoln was of the people, he knew the people, he incarnated the sympathies and feelings of the people. His greatness was only a larger share of the qualities common to the people. He was like them, only larger; of greater capacity and girth; built to fill a larger place, to carry heavier burdens, to solve harder problems, and to navigate a stormier sea.

Mr. Lincoln never forgot that he was the executive head of a popu lar government: that the people must win the war, and that they naturally looked to him for leadership; and he saw clearly that his leadership, to be successful, must be a heart leadership—a leadership in most deeply sympathetic relations with the people.

To Mr. Lincoln, the confidence and the sympathetic heart-beat of the people were above all price. They were worth more than all the counsels of the politicians and all the theories of the reformers.

The sympathetic heart-beat of the people meant support for his administration; it meant men and money for the war; it meant all the resources and forces of the people, both material and moral, that could be made to contribute to the victory for which his great heart so earnestly yearned,-a victory that should mean righteousness, and peace, and larger liberty to his war-worn and wasted country.

The response of the people to this unique leadership of their President is best indicated in the refrain that became so popular during the war: "We're Coming, Father Abraham, Three Hundred Thousand Strong."

When seen in contrast with that spontaneous and masterful uprising of the people in "The Sixties," the patriotism displayed in this war seems common and tame. There is no such stir among the people now as then. They do not feel any such pressure now as they did then.

66

It is to be remembered, however, that there is a great difference in the conditions of the government and the country, now and then. Into the war of The Sixties," the government was plunged under the pressure of an overwhelming necessity. Into this war, the government entered after taking time for careful thought and deliberation; and doubtless, the deliberation in the patriotic support of the people is only the shadow of the deliberation of the government in its action.

There can be no question concerning the spirit and purpose of the American people in this war. Their patriotism, while less demonstrative than in "The Sixties," will be the same dependable source of strength to the government as in "The Sixties."

In what the people have already done: in the Liberty Loans they have subscribed; in the Thrift Stamps now being taken; in the large sums given to the Red Cross, the Y. M. C. A., and the Knights of Columbus; in the great work done and now being done by the women of the country in aid of the Red Cross work-in these voluntary offerings and contributions, we see that the heart of the people is right; and that they will stand by the government in this war to the end.

It is clear also that the spirit and purpose of the American people, will not be satisfied with simply a military victory. There must be moral

victory as well. There must be moral and political results that shall be commensurate with the dreadful sacrifices, losses, sufferings and sorrows of the war. The people have already decreed that there can be no righteous peace, until a final end is made of that militaristic autocracy against which they are fighting; and whose cruel, consciousless and criminal spirit, as seen in this war, has excited the horror and moral indignation of the world,

In this war, the United States is under a special responsibility. Among the nations of the earth, she is foremost as the representative and example of democracy; and that primacy of the nation indicates both the nature and extent of her responsibility. Great as may be the contributious of the country in men and means to win the war-greater far must be her contributions in moral courage and power-in wise statesmanship and leadership to win the cause.

MEETING HIGH PRICES

W. L. Kuser, Superintendent of the State Training School for Boys, Eldora, Iowa.

Every day we live we are impressed with the importance and value of the power of individual initiative. The world needs, and pays homage to the man who has ideas and possesses the courage to fight for them. But today each individual must be willing to, and capable of quickly adjusting himself to the other fellow's ideas and to new conditions and woe betide him, in this era of 42-centimeter guns and triplanes, who does not think and move with the progress of the period. The bewildering, chaotic changes of last year came in such rapid succession as to make the events of one day obscure those of the day before and in our efforts to forecast the future we gave up in despair and found ourselves unable even to comprehend the stupendous transitions as they were in progress. But we know they have occurred. Every man and every woman is affected in some way or another.

It is pleasant to be optimistic but the wisdom of the ostrich is not of great value in these times. Facts cannot be set aside by contending that they do not exist. Never was a nation forced to shoulder a load such as America stands resolutely under today, quivering in every fiber, yet magnificent in purpose and power. No agency perhaps, other than one directly controlled by the Almighty, could have more effectually brought us to a realization of our dependence, or rather our interdependence, and our duty to ourselves and the liberty loving peoples of the earth, than has the world struggle between the forces of autocratic and democratic governments. America must gird on her armor; her peoples must yield to discipline, and it is not the part of any loyal, citizen, unacquainted with the real, inside facts as he must be, to question this or that rule or regulation made by those, whom we as a sovereign people have chosen to lead us. Our service should be and will be measured in terms of cooperation, not criticism.

Almost four years ago the arch advocate of the divine right of kings; drunk with kingly authority and the achievements of his subjects; blinded by the dazzling light of unwarranted self-appreciation; insane with the thought and hope of world dominion, his war dogs fat and sleek and chafing under the leashes of years let loose upon humanity his hordes of trained warriors with the command that military necessity recognizes no law, the very edict itself being carte blanch to every soldier to out-Hun Attila. But lest some breast might harbor the still small voice and the heart bc not hardened to the full task of torture and pillage contemplated by those in authority, each soldier was admonished by the legend of his pocket-piece, that cruelty and savagery should know no bounds; that on the judgment day, at the mercy-seat, no questions would be asked. Therefore the plain duty of each subject under arms was to go the limit in murder and rapine