n 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 devot