THE NATION'S PRIDE 



603 



phases of the ever-widening life and ac- 

 tivity of this Nation. The United States 

 does more ; it furnishes playgrounds to 

 the people which are, we may modestly 

 state, without any rivals in the world. 

 Just as the cities are seeing the wisdom 

 and the necessity of open spaces for the 

 children, so with a very large view the 

 Nation has been saving from its domain 

 the rarest places of grandeur and beauty 

 for the enjoyment of the world. 



It is the destiny of the national parks, 

 if wisely controlled, to become the public 

 laboratories of nature study for the Na- 

 tion ; and from them specimens may be 

 distributed to the city and State pre- 

 serves, as is now being done with the elk 

 of the Yellowstone, which are too abun- 

 dant, and may be later with the antelope. 



If Congress will but make the funds 

 available for the construction of roads 

 over which automobiles may travel with 

 safety (for all the parks are now open to 

 motors) and for trails to hunt out the 

 hidden places of beauty and dignity, we 

 may expect that year by year these parks 

 will become a more precious possession 

 of the people, holding them to the fur- 

 ther discovery of America and making 

 them still prouder of its resources, es- 

 thetic as well as material. 



OUR FOREMOST INDUSTRY 



I turn now from young America, the 

 land that is underdeveloped, to Young 

 America, our twenty-two million school 

 boys and girls ; for these, after all, are 

 our chief resource and our chief concern. 

 Are we doing all possible to develop this 

 resource ? 



If there is any one of our institutions 

 in which the American people take un- 

 disguised pride and of which they feel 

 justified in boasting, it is the public-school 

 system, for this is "the greatest of Amer- 

 ican inventions" and the most successful 

 social enterprise yet undertaken by any 

 people. The United States maintains a 

 Bureau of Education in this department, 

 which, upon a small appropriation, col- 

 lates as best it can the figures and facts 

 which most inadequately tell the story of 

 the growth and use of this most bril- 

 liantly conceived piece of governmental 

 machine rv. 



The American people pay for the sup- 

 port of their schools almost as much as 

 they do for the support of the entire Fed- 

 eral government ; in round numbers, 

 three-quarters of a billion dollars a year, 

 which keeps an army of 600,000 teachers 

 at work. 



OUR LEAST PROGRESSIVE ACTIVITY 



Education is indeed our foremost in- 

 dustry, from whatever point of view it 

 may be regarded. Yet I am assured that 

 it has made less progress than any of our 

 other industries during the past 30 years. 



With all the marvelous record of what 

 the mind of a quick people may produce 

 to make life happier and nature more 

 serviceable, how little can be shown as 

 our contribution to the methods of im- 

 proving the mind and skill of the young! 

 We have gone to Europe — to Italy, Swit- 

 zerland, Germany, and Denmark chiefly — 

 for the new methods with which we have 

 experimented, and Japan has found a 

 way to instruct through the eyes and 

 hands that will make these very practical 

 people still more distinguished. 



Yet here and there, under rare leader- 

 ship, may be found in this country the 

 most striking proofs of what can be done 

 to tie our schools to our life. The hope 

 is eventually to make the school what it 

 should be, and easily may be made to be, 

 the very heart of the community — social 

 club and cooperative center as well as 

 school. 



There would seem to be nothing vision- 

 ary in such a hope. To effect this evo- 

 lution, there is needed primarily leader- 

 ship, and this the government must give 

 if it is to realize its desire for a people 

 who are both skilled and happy. 



The spirit of our people is against a 

 paternal government. We do not take 

 with kindness to an authority that is man- 

 datory. There is a sound belief that a 

 people who make their own way are in 

 the end riper and of stronger fiber than 

 those who accept what is not the result 

 of common determination. 



A NATION "SHOWING HOW" 



But this spirit of intense individualism 

 does not make us independent of or in- 

 different to useful methods and helpful 



