The Rising of the Tide

ing nerves and tormented mind. "Forget the war," counseled Ralph, when he telephoned he was off. He had done it fairly well. Spring is a lovely thing in the highlands a

es, children to wandering in the woods. Dick walked without other compass than his own experienced sense of direction and distance, shunnin

lated. How changed he was! How rested! How bright things seemed again! It would be good to get

of early days when things were busy-only half occupied now-a church-a school-a post-office in the wing of Miss Sally Black's house-a neat, prim post-office where nobody warmed his back long-though Miss Sally was not above keeping everybody long enough to feel out the news. There was a public telephone in the post-office, and over this it was the c

o-they say the Germans have sunk a ship-a big one with a lot of Americ

uld a submarine do that-sink a ship like that?-she'd have to b

submarine, but quickly stepped in and call

Mills. There's an ugly report here of the sinking o

y-she sank in a few minutes. There is a loss of twelve

" exclai

savagely, "my God!"

a battle lost or won. This was not war, as war was understood. It was a new factor in the awful problem. It was something quite outside the code-a deliberate effort to scare the neutral world into giving up the sea code it had been working out with such pain through the ages-scaring them into admitting that atrocities it thought it had done away with were legitimate if you invented an engine of destruction which couldn't be used unless you abandoned the laws. It was a defiance not only of all c

of fury against the Germans misses the point-the inner meaning which the country must see if it ever goes whole-heartedly in. Wanton piracy-as savage and unmerciful as the Wotan they worship. God! if I could get into it. But here I stay. I will go home-bathe-dress-read my mail-prepare for s

in that evening's

ll what's in your way. To debate your right to do what will injure an enemy is not the way of war. It is the way of peace. The destruction of the Lusitania was an act of war-that hideous, senseless thing to which Europe has appealed. It is a tragedy that America

ngratulated Ralph on the editorial, Ralph had said: "But you miss my point, Otto. I'm not defending your infernal country. It was cowardly business, but it was logical. You Germans are in a fair way to dem

g which did concern her, something that she must see through. There were a few, but only a few in the town, who insisted that we should plunge in immediately and avenge the outrage. Sabinsport was not ready to do that. The world was full of wrongs calling for vengeance, was the Lusitania the one out of all these many whe

on and Paris and Berlin now-a-days on legitimate business quite as freely as a few of her own citizens ran back and forth to New York. Going to Europe was still an adventure. There had been a time when Sabinsport numbered so few people that had been to Europe that she had formed a society, "The Social Club of Those Who Hav

observed; whatever rights we had must be defended. Here she followed Captain Billy, who said, "By the Jumping Jehosophat, we'll go where we have a right to." One wou

f that ship? It has a legal right to carry me. Of course they can come aboard and see if that ship has contraband and guns, and if they find them they can take me off;

y, who always took him literally, said, with a flutter, "William, you must keep off those ships, even

explained. There was the dwindling Peace Party. There was a small number of Socialists in the mills. But they made only a ripple on the su

ine"-"Just right"-"Don't give 'em a loophole," was the average opinion. Of course there were those in Sabinsport, though they were very few, that were, like Mr. Kinney, the pillar in Dick's church, who had found Belgium's resistance "impractical," and who now argued that the trouble with the

e Lusitania-and perhaps something more serious for Germany than anger, that was contempt for the act-stayed and increased in the town, he knew that she clung to the conviction that there ought to be a better way than force to settle it. Sabinsport felt and argued very much as she felt and argued about the attempts in a neighboring State where lynchings sometimes occurred-that the punishment should be left to the

urning over the mighty and unaccustomed problems. Sabinsport was learning new words, struggling with strange ideas, trying to grasp their relation to herself. Did these

tania. A week from the morning that he had heard the dire news at Jo's Mills, Dick came down

key been doing now?" He took it for granted it was Mikey.

for you. You never sent him away from me, Mr. Dick, and never said a wor

n't understand it. Tell me what's happened-that's a good soul." But all that

mpled, tear-stain

r Mo

I'll do his fightin' and don't you go off your head. I can't stick around Sabinsport any longer with su

by but I knew y

lovi

y Fla

ord to me that would make me suspect he was thinking of

t I tell him you was eatin' your heart out because you can't go, and he has been talkin' a lot of late about what you had been sayin' at the Club. Every night when he

put that nonsens

me things. I know you like I do the weather. You ain't been the same since the dirty Germans d

tie. Where'd

r you. I'm no coward. It ain't his goin'; it's his thinkin' I wouldn't let him. He's always beatin' up somebody-might as well be Germans. God

back. I'll go to Canada and have a search ma

rt that had the right to get up and go? Let him fight. I'll live to see him with the stripe on his sleeve-as grand as the grandest. You'

discerned-so he told himself-what nobody in Sabinsport but Ralph knew, and he had said enough to Ralph to explain his understanding. What was it that ran from soul to soul

ok in his eye when he came back from his effort to enlist. Many was the night during the days of that first approach to Paris that Katie had gone home to tell Mikey, "He's dyin' of grief, he is. He looks at his paper in the morning and drops hi

hen the battle was over and the Germans turned back, Dick's joy was so great that Katie herself began to rejoice. For Katie Flaherty, the war

way. It made Katie a town heroine. Certain well-to-do gentlemen in the banks, Cowder and Mulligan among them, sent her a purse. There was much talking to her in the streets as she did Dick'

Richard Cowder stopped more than once in his favorite South Side Alley to discuss with the "gang" what the runaway was probably doing at the moment. In reporting

ignificant effect was the way in which they cooled toward a movement which had begun to make strong headway in the factories and mills, a movement in which Ralph was taking keen interest as he saw in it a possibility of reviving the opposition to munition making which had been destroyed by Cowder'

e Council in it when there's plenty of work. This scheme's been sneaked in from outside, and it's being fed on the sly. What I can't make out is, Who

ournals they read, particularly the foreign journals-Slovak, Bohemian, Italian, Polish. He discovered that they were all carrying a surprisingly similar series of articles, protesting on the highest moral grounds against the dragging of the wo

that does this, Ralp

n to the cause. The agent offered it to me here. They would not give me the names of the philanthropists. I told the agent that I didn't advertise justice, I advocated it. But, Dick, it's all right. They're just silly, mistaken in their way o

mention this

spaper friend of his in New York spoke to him about it. I told him what I've told you: that people who believed in these notions

Cowder a

" he said, "but

," sai

en the two, that the humanitarian advertisers were the backers of the movement. He went to Ralph with the suggestion. That yo

us labor movement, I tell you, Dick. Our working people and our farmers don't believe in playing with fire-when the fire means war. They know this selling to the Allies what the Allies

this thing here? Where di

I tell you. I don't care-it's the

that she believes in war. You must realize that she has no objection to selling munitions herself. Why, half the world gets its big guns from her. It's because she hopes to trap

the party-as good labor men as the Federation has. You can't suspect them of pro-Germanism;

managing affairs, to the demand of honest working men for an explanation of the source of the funds that were being so lavishly used, "What if it is German money?"-that

look on munition making in this country as deliberate trading with the devil. Big Business never stops to consider humanity when there's money to be made. The Argus has consistently fought the making and the selling of munitions. When a party arose which had this end, the Argus welcomed it, supported it. The Argus was a fool in doing this. Closer contact with the leaders of the party proved to the editor that a bunch of grafting Americans had persuaded a thick-headed German agent that if he'd give them money enoug

the editorial over Sabinspo

editorial? Isn't it splendid? Isn't it just like him, the honestest thing in the world. Just can't be dishonest-oh, Dick

t was Patsy, though she hadn't announced

aned. "Maybe Dick will tell him," and Dick did two or three days later, but Ralp

this was a very insignificant activity of the German agents. He knew it to be a fact that they had vast stores of arms in New York, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and Omaha, and that if the United States wasn't mighty careful

n did on hot summer nights. Across the river on the hill at a dark corner he had slowed up a bit, just enough for a man to step on the running board and into the car. Katie

ar was Max Dalberg, the "wonder of the laboratory," whom Reuben Co

sneer, "your young man on the Argus is mighty high in his

can't be, and yet this whole business has been based on money. You know I never believed in this. I have been willing to put your cas

tes, too. Talk about neutrality! The whole bunch is like Cowder. Pitch you out if you suggest selling munitions to even another neutral countr

ot the Government. The Government is not preventing the munition makers from sell

ought to help teach this people what a strong nation really is. If this country expects to live she must learn to obey-learn that masters are necessary. What's she doing now?-tak

do you

have written them if he hadn't been

ust as Sabinsport does and he's doi

re of that. You know we can do it. Why, there's not a factory in the States that our people are not in, and there's not a vessel out that we can't split. We're giving them a chance-appealing to their own fool sentiments. 'Love peace?' Well, take peace-don't love peace and talk hatred of Germany. 'Ha

I'm willing to educate my country, but I won't reve

little, playing his piano often late after a busy day's hard work, friendly to little children, troubling nobody. "Never had a better man," said Cowder, who almost daily visited the labora

d Cowder. He never talked of the war mor

s he leaned over Otto Littman-his blue eyes glittering like steel points, his lips drawn back unt

when we've got him? We've got you, Otto Littman, and you'll do what the High Command orders. Come, come, boy, don't be an ass. And remember where your interests are

as he approached the dusky turn where his passenger had stepped in. He stepped out now as skillfully,

that's new and promises excitement, pulling out the instant it gets dangerous or pinches their cheap little notions of morality. Gott in Himmel! what does he expect?

The little frame house was built like many on the South Side, into the hill; its first story opened on one level, its second on another a street above. Max had this second floor to himself now that Mikey had flown. He had said to Mrs. Flaherty that

tor in world affairs, a man trusted by great diplomats and certain one day to be recognized as one of those that had helped hold the United States when she was on the verge o

is best for his only son. He himself was the best of men. He had come here in the early fifties-a lad of ten or twelve, with his father, a refugee of the revolution of 1848. They had found their way to Cincinnati and finally to a farm near Sabinsport. The land had thrived under the elder Littman's intelligent and friendly touch. He was a prosperous man when the opening of the coal vein under his farm made him

hey were not. Otto had been flattered, though not so deeply as his relatives felt that he should have been. He had not taken the attentions and opportunities with an especial seriousness. There was a considerable percentage of inner conviction that they were his due, that there must be qualities in him that the attentive had detected which were not in others. Being an American meant something in Germany

le gardens with every inch under immaculate cultivation-its tidy forests where the very twigs were saved-its people fitted into their particular niches like so many well-arranged books on a she

s familiar with at home; it was a thoroughly considered, scientific practice. To be sure, it seemed ponderous to him, but he felt as if it were sure. It had been thought out. Science-science in everything-nothing left to chance-no reliance on luck. He began to take the banking

ere not living for the present in Germany as at home; they were not accepting their place in the world as something fixed; they seemed always to have before them the future, and

it to the world, to take their proper place at the head of nations. "They're crazy," he told himself at first, "or I am." But later he began to see with them. Was it not the truth? What nation on earth equaled them-in effective action, in restraint, in fidelity, in valor, in bigness of vision? Wh

making things with her hands to making them with machines. She let her people think what they would, say what

th. It was right and inevitable that she should do it because she was superior. It was part of her greatness t

master was here, to prepare to receive him. It was an open notice to England, to France, to make way. The conqueror was coming.

s with a nation that for years had carried in its heart so wondrous and magnificent an ambition, that had so consistently and frankly prepared to make it real. Time t

ter of fact the relations of the United States never entered his mind. The United States had nothing to do with this. Germany had no thought of her. Germany admitted our claim to the Western Hemisphere so far as Otto's experience went. Germany in S

to dim the great conception he had caught. Indeed, everything in the country threw into

greater part of the town. Instead of a careful business management of town affairs, by men trained as they would have been for bank or factory, was an absurd political system of choosing men for offices. It was not the g

ny had taught him to be serious-oh, very serious, particularly in public matters. It shamed him that his h

eir ways, and their ways were not, in his judgment, "scientific." His father laughed at his impatience. "You must go slow, Otto. What peopl

ad brought the bank where it stood. Then constantly there was an irritation in business, a re

e criticized resentfully the habit of regarding pleasure as something to be bought with money-the inability to get it without spending. Indeed, Otto felt a thorough and rather bitter disgust at the place money held in Sabi

pleasures. Rarely would you find a German treating money with such carelessness, such contempt. It would seem as if the thing everybody sought was not worth keeping when won. Otto hated this. A German knew the valu

the country. The people were not working toward a definite national thing. Men and women seemed to think of nothing more magnificent than to gather and spend wealth. The idea of sub

pletely selfish lives and they save themselves any slight remorse they might feel for this selfishness by somehow convincing themselves that they are demonstrating the superiority of individual liberty. And what you are getting in America is an undiscipline

mes, walking up and down, would repeat the story of the incident which had led Otto's g

charge sprang at him with a savage oath and cut him with his sword across the face so that the blood ran in streams over his uniform. Rupert Littman finished the dri

t come to its shores are free, that never for a moment has dreamed of ruling other peoples, asks nothing of newcomers but that they don't interfere with other people's freedom. Oh, that country may not look as trim on the outside as Germany, its people may not spend their money as sensibly-probably they don't; and I know we think a good deal more about our own affairs th

means something. A nation must have a visible expression of power to be great and

, Otto, you don't understand." And Otto didn't understan

e. So filled was Otto with this sense of the magnificence of German destiny, he felt no criticism for anything that Germany could do, no doubt of anything she said. If she invaded Belgium it was

ing-nothing of the aspirations of a great nation, a nation with a genius for empire-people who can hardly name the countries of Europe and couldn't, for the life of them, tell where the Balkans are-what right have they to an opinion? He was outraged at the fact that everybody had an opinion and had no hesitation in giving it. The v

1914. Germany was unquestionably troubled by the judgment against her. She saw that the United States held her responsible for starting the war and was horrified by her first stroke. This w

their objects was to enlist quietly the aid of German-American citizens of position and education who had seen enough of Germany to understand and sympathize with her aspirations. There were many

eat affairs, to be asked to help with a campaign important to the Empire, to serve his own land at the same tim

nt to him as he could without attracting attention. He easily and naturally enough carried out the commission, and he did it without compunction. It seemed plausible and proper enough to him that Germany should i

ent into the campaign with gusto, working quietly through the men he had placed in the plant at Sabinsport, particularly Max Dalberg; working through unseeing Ralph, working in a dozen towns where he had business and social relations. His attitude was strictly correct. We were neutral. Why should we preach neutrality and make for one antagonist what circumstances ma

ed the suggestion that they sell to "Sweden" as an insult. It was this attitude, so hostile to Germany, that had made him completely lose his control with Cowder. It had been unbearable; this contempt, this resentment at

erican attitude. To pretend to be neutral and act as if you were insulted when it is suggested to you that you sell something so it will get to Germany as well as t

ments. If they can't make good the neutrality they p

Otto, sharply. "You can'

't," was all his

which he had labored so faithfully, this threat came back to him more often. It made him anxious. It was in the back of his mind when he flared at Max and brought upon his head the taunt that humiliated and alarmed him. What if they carried it out-these explo

awal, hard to define but very real to Otto. Again and again when he entered an office or room men stopped talking. There was a restraint at the War Board-the one group in the town which had al

e trying to keep out of the scrap is the work of a sneak. You know why I threw the Argus to the party. It was because I believed it an honest American effort to combat militarism in the United States, to stop the making and selling of munitions. Do you suppose I would have taken any stock in a German effort to stop munition making here? It's a scream-Germany spending money in such a cause while she's usi

he campaign-though he had been able to do

them so to himself. He might, as he did, see more and more clearly that Germany was trying to embroil the United States with Mexico. He might feel that he could put his finger on the human cause of half the explosions in the country, but he dared not speak, for to speak wo

le thing which followed him in the street find Nancy Cowder in Serbia and poison her loyal and honest mind against him? He had many reasons for knowing how candidly she weighed things. Would she be misled by gossip and the letters he'd been sending her, so full of his own importance in the great work of making America under