352 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



and of James, or the poetry of Whitman 

 and Poe, in the inventions of Whitney 

 and Edison — not even in the lives of our 

 great leaders. 



All these are expressions of the Amer- 

 ican spirit of adventure, of purposeful 

 searching after the thing that is better. 

 It is an expression of a divine dissatisfac- 

 tion. It may be that this nation, like all 

 others, will come to a period of decline. 

 We cannot expect to live forever. l>ut 

 if we do come to such a period, it will be 

 because we rest content. 



We are trying a great experiment in 

 the United States. Can we gather to- 

 gether people of different races, creeds, 

 conditions, and aspirations who can be 

 merged into one? If we cannot do this, 

 we will fail ; indeed, we will have already 

 failed. 



MAKING AMERICA THE GREATEST OE 

 NATIONS 



If we do this we will produce the 

 greatest of all nations, and a new race 

 that will long hold a compelling place in 

 the world. It is well, therefore, that we 

 come together at such times of stress as 

 this, and we should have come together 

 long since, and put our heads to the prob- 

 lem as to what are the initial steps in 

 bringing about that harmony within our 

 country which will give it meaning, pur- 

 pose, and cohesion. 



We should not be moved to this by 

 fear. There is nothing to fear. Our 

 wars have been fought by men of foreign 

 birth — Irishmen, and Germans, and 

 Swedes, and Scotchmen. We see their 

 names every day in the list of those who 

 are dead on the battlefields of France. 



There is no such thing as an American 

 race, excepting the Indian. We are fash- 

 ioning a new people. We are doing the 

 unprecedented thing in saying that Slav, 

 Teuton, Celt, and the other races that 

 make up the civilized world are capable 

 of being blended here, and we say this 

 upon the theory that blood alone does not 

 control the destiny of man; that out of 

 his environment, his education, the food 

 that he eats, the neighbors that he has, 

 the work that he does, there can be a 

 formed and realized spirit, an ideal which 



will master his blood. In this sense we 

 are all internationalists. 



so mi-: rxriJ'.ASAXT DISCOYKRIKS 



Now there are several things which we 

 have come upon recently which seem to 



be discoveries to those of us who have 

 not been wise. 



The first is that we have a great body 

 of our own people, five and a half mil- 

 lions, who cannot read or write the lan- 

 guage of this country. That language is 

 English. And these are not all of for- 

 eign birth. A million and a half are na- 

 tive born. 



The second is that we are drafting into 

 our army men who cannot understand the 

 orders that are given them to read. 



The third is that our man power is de- 

 ficient because our education is deficient. 



The fourth is that we, ourselves, have 

 failed to see America through the eyes of 

 those who have come to us. We have 

 failed to realize why it was that they 

 came here and what they sought. We 

 have failed to understand their definition 

 of liberty. 



To be an American is not to be the em- 

 bodiment of conceit as to all things that 

 are fundamental in America, or to be sat- 

 isfied with things as they are, or to let 

 things drift. 



We are taking a leaf out of Germany's 

 book in many ways these days. Our ways 

 of war must conform to her processes of 

 destroying human life. She has made 

 herself a composite, compact, purposeful 

 nation by methods of education as well 

 as by authority. We can make ourselves 

 a composite, purposeful nation and im- 

 pose no authority, other than the compel- 

 ling influence of affection, sympathy, un- 

 derstanding, and education. 



THE RESPONSIBILITY' OE THE HOUR 



Out of this conference should come not 

 a determination to make more hard or 

 difficult the way of those who do not 

 speak or read our tongue, but a determi- 

 nation to deal in a catholic and sympa- 

 thetic spirit with those who can be led to 

 follow in the way of this nation, and as 

 to those others who cannot, other proced- 

 ure must be applied. The keynote of this 

 conference is "our responsibility." 



