What Is Patriotism; What Are Its Costs; Why Is It Needed?

 Date Published: June 27, 2024

In July 1903, the McClure’s Magazine editorial staff published this article on “Patriotism.” Although it is now over a century old, it should sound alarm bells for many of us in this election year of 2024.

The magazine was taking on corruption across the United States of America. Its journalists—the foremost muckrakers of the day, were publishing exposés on Standard Oil and the corrupt political institutions that ran the cities of St. Louis, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. The editors were encouraged that their readers understood their motivations, but some readers were discouraged by what was being exposed. This is the resulting McClure’s Magazine editorial.

Peter E. Greulich edited this article and added headings for clarity and readability. As you absorb this article, think of today’s individuals and institutions that need a good dose of patriotism. In 2024, be strong … be of good courage … and display your peaceful, unifying patriotism by refusing to be corrupted by those with unethical compasses that seem to always point south, away from true north.

I praise the McClure’s editorial staff for continuing to express “truths.”

We should do the same.

Be not discouraged …

be courageous …
​
be patriotic.

Peter E. Greulich, Vietnam-era Veteran, June 2024

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PATRIOTISM
McClure's Magazine Editorial
Volume XXI, Number 3: Published July, 1903

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PATRIOT-"ISM" IS THE SOLUTION

​“Some of our readers’ editorial mail sounds a note of despair. The readers cannot see what is to be done about corruption in business and politics. They want the cure before the diagnosis is complete, and they turn in their pessimism to some panacea that has not been tested.

“One of these writers, a distinguished and patriotic man, high in the public service, and no socialist, points to “socialism as the coming ‘ism.’ He is mistaken. The coming ‘ism’ is not Socialism; the coming ‘ism’ is Patriotism.

​"If this editorial staff did not believe this, we should not have the heart to go on telling the truth.​

PATRIOTISM IN PEACE REQUIRES COURAGE

"​Patriotism is no child's play. ​Patriotism is easy enough in war, when all our friends recognize our courage, and physical pain or death is the singular penalty.

“But the patriotism of peace—within society, often with your friends against you, with possible business failure before you, and the comfort of your family behind you—that is hard. Patriotism is saying that if you cannot have a law passed without bribery to help your business, you will not have your business helped; that, if you know that a friend is corrupting your officials, or that your party is undermining the institutions of your country, you will fight—not for your friend or for your party, but for your country—just as you would against a foreign enemy in war when the crowd is all with you.

“This takes courage.

PEACETIME PATRIOTISM IS NOT ABOUT THE "ROCKETS' RED GLARE"

“Therefore, we shall proceed with our stories.

“In this, our July number, we print the most depressing of our city articles, and we regard it as a peculiarly appropriate reading for the glorious Fourth of July, the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which was adopted one hundred and twenty-seven years ago in Philadelphia.

“The new patriotism is not that which shuts its eyes and boasts, fires rockets and – then – fails to vote. It is that which sees the truth, faces and fights any enemy of the country, at home or abroad or in any disguise. And if we can finally persuade our readers to recognize as traitors some of the great men among us who have succeeded by means of boodling (slang term for bribery—giving someone money or gifts to get them to do something) and are being excused because of “success,” we shall have achieved our purpose.

“At any rate we shall try it. We propose when we are well acquainted with these individuals and their methods and excuses, we will turn from the poor, miserable, petty traitors who sell out their country, to analyze the respectable, leading men, who buy it—our focus will shift from the bribed to the bribers.

“A briber is a traitor. He may be a captain of industry, he may be a United States Senator, he may be a philanthropist. If he has won his fortune by bribery, the cost of his success is the undermining of the institutions of his country. He is not an example to youth; he is a corrupter of youth. He is a corrupter of everything he touches; he is a corrupter of everybody he inspires.

“He is an Enemy of the Republic, and the only force that can stop him is PATRIOTISM.”

The McClure’s Magazine Editor

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