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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



States cannot suffer for lack of bread so 

 long as this great cereal, the staff of life 

 for the pioneers of Colonial days, is ours 

 in bountiful quantities. 



Already the proprietors of more than 

 5@o of the largest hotels in America have 

 pledged themselves to the no-wheat 

 movement, and many communities have 

 inaugurated campaigns enlisting their 

 citizens in the same cause. 



Will you join that movement? 



This appeal is to you personally, reader 

 of this copy of the Geographic and 

 member of the Society. If you will 

 pledge your support to the United States 

 Government and to our Allies in this 

 crisis by eliminating wheat flour from 

 your menu, your pledge and that of 



650,000 other members of the Society 

 will mean not merely that 3,000,000 loyal 

 Americans will consecrate themselves to 

 the saving of wheat for the next few 

 months, but your influence will be felt 

 and will be reflected in the attitude and 

 actions of millions of other Americans. 



This personal sacrifice — if sacrifice it 

 be called — will not end with the saving 

 of wheat. Another large and potent pur- 

 pose will be achieved. The daily con- 

 sciousness that you are aiding in the 

 noblest and highest cause of modern 

 times will bring to you an hourly renewal 

 of determination that America and her 

 Allies must zvin the zvar. 



The hour and the occasion are at hand ! 



Do you take the pledge? 



WHAT IS IT TO BE AN AMERICAN?" 



By Franklin K. Lane 



Secretary oe the Interior 



WE ARE not gathered to speak 

 bitterly of others or to speak 

 boastfully of ourselves. We 

 have gathered to talk together as to the 

 future of America and how it can be 

 made a more nearly perfect nation. 



We see clearly now what we have not 

 so clearly seen before, that a democracy 

 must have a self-protecting sense as well 

 as a creative spirit. 



We have lived in the full expression 

 of the most liberal and idealistic political 

 philosophy. There has been nothing of 

 paternalism in our government. We have 

 conceived it to be our high privilege to 

 open this continent to those who came 

 seeking the advantages and the beauties 

 of a new land, in which the individual 

 mind and heart could have free and full 

 development. 



The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the 

 World at the main gateway of our coun- 

 try has been symbolic of our national atti- 

 tude. We have believed, and we still be- 

 lieve, that liberty contains a magic heal- 

 ing power for many of the woes of man ; 

 that if we can turn its rays upon those 

 troubles which have caused bitterness be- 



tween peoples the world will be made 

 sweeter, safer, and saner. 



But in the ecstasy of our enthusiasm 

 over the discovery of this curative agent 

 which we had thought a panacea, we have 

 overlooked our own responsibility. We 

 have thought that it was enough to say, 

 "This is a land of freedom and equal op- 

 portunity," without teaching what these 

 terms meant. "Let us keep our hands 

 off ; let each man go his own way ; let all 

 things be thought, said, and done which 

 each may choose to think or say or do, 

 and sooner or later, by the conflict of 

 minds and acts, truth will prevail." This 

 has been our attitude, and it is one that 

 in the long run is right. 



AMERICANS OE NATIVE EINEAGE HAVE A 

 GREAT DUTY 



It is only in emergencies, such as that 

 at present, when we realize that this atti- 

 tude of laissez fairc, of a high indiffer- 

 ence or of a supreme faith, is a reason 

 for self-reproach. The native Ameri- 

 cans, those men into whom the traditions 

 of liberty have been sunk by experience 

 of generations, are primarily responsible 



An address delivered before an educational conference in Washington, D. C. 



