A NEW PATRIOTISM 



This article from the World's Work Magazine is certainly worth 

 thoughtful reading by all Americans. Don't fail to note its fine, 

 patriotic spirit. It is Gifford Pinchot, who has had every oppor- 

 tunity for twenty years to know whereof he speaks. It is said that 

 he accepted no salary for his work as chief forester of the United 

 States, but turned it back into the treasury for the good of the cause, 

 devoting the best years of his life to a labor of love. 



The people of the United States are on the verge of one of the great 

 quiet decisions which determine national destinies. Crises happen in 

 peace as well as in war, and a peaceful crisis may be as vital and con- 

 trolling as any that comes with national uprising and the clash of 

 arms. Such a crisis, uneventful and almost unperceived, is upon us 

 now, and unwittingly we are engaged in making the decision that is 

 thus forced upon us. And, so far as it has gone, our decision is wrong. 

 Fortunately, it is not yet final. 



The question we are deciding with so little consciousness of what it 

 involves is this : What shall we do without natural resources 1 Upon 

 the final answer that we shall make to it hangs the success or failure 

 of this nation in accomplishing its manifest destiny. 



Few Americans will deny that it is the manifest destiny of the 

 United States to demonstrate that a democratic republic is the best 

 form of government yet devised, and that the ideals and institutions 

 of the great republic taken together must and do work out in a 

 prosperous, contented, peaceful, and righteous people ; and to exercise, 

 through precept and example, an influence for good among the nations 

 of the world. That destiny seems to us brighter and more certain of 

 realization today than ever before. It is true that in population, in 

 wealth, in knowledge, in national efficiency generally, we have reached 

 a place far beyond the farthest hopes of the founders of the republic. 

 Are the causes which have led to our marvelous development likely 

 to be repeated indefinitely in the future, or is there a reasonable pos- 

 sibility, or even a probability, that conditions may arise which will 

 check our growth? 



Danger to a nation comes either from without or from within. In 

 the first great crisis of our history, the Revolution, another people 

 attempted from without to halt the march of our destiny by refusing 

 to us liberty. With reasonable prudence and preparedness we need 

 never fear another such attempt. If there be danger, it is not from 

 an external source. In the second great crisis, the Civil War, a part 

 of our own people strove for an end which would have checked the 

 progress of our development. Another such attempt has become for- 

 ever impossible. If there be danger, it is not from a division of our 

 people. 



Our Third National Crisis. 



In the third great crisis of our history, which has now come upon us 

 unawares, our whole people, unconsciously and for lack of foresight, 

 seem to have united together to deprive the nation of the great natural 

 resources without which it can not endure. This is the pressing dan- 

 ger now, and it is not the least to which our national life has been 

 exposed. A nation deprived of liberty may win it, a nation divided 



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