A Forgotten Maxim 287 



lift our heads higher because those of our country- 

 men whose trade it is to meet danger have met it 

 well and bravely. All of us are poorer for every 

 base or ignoble deed done by an American, for every 

 instance of selfishness or weakness or folly on the 

 part of the people as a whole. We are all worse off 

 when any of us fails at any point in his duty toward 

 the State in time of peace, or his duty toward the 

 State in time of war. If ever we had to meet defeat 

 at the hands of a foreign foe, or had to submit 

 tamely to wrong or insult, every man among us 

 worthy of the name of American would feel dis- 

 honored and debased. On the other hand, the 

 memory of every triumph won by Americans, by 

 just so much helps to make each American nobler 

 and better. Every man among us is so much the 

 better prepared for the duties of citizenship because 

 of the perils over which, in the past, the nation has 

 triumphed; because of the blood and sweat and 

 tears, the labor and the anguish, through which, in 

 the days that have gone, our forefathers moved on 

 to triumph. There are higher things in this life than 

 the soft and easy enjoyment of material comfort. 

 It is through strife, or the readiness for strife, that 

 a nation must win greatness. We ask for a great 

 navy, partly because we think that the possession 

 of such a navy is the surest guaranty of peace, and 

 partly because we feel that no national life is worth 

 having if the nation is not willing, when the need 

 shall arise, to stake everything on the supreme ar- 

 bitrament of war, and to pour out its blood, its 



