LOYALTY TO IDEALS

It need not give us an unpatriotic feeling to acknowledge the imperfections of our nation or of our government; for communities grow, not only in size, but also in ability to perform their proper work, just as individuals do.  We call a person conceited who thinks that he is perfect, especially if he boasts of it.  But his conceit is itself an imperfection and a hindrance to growth.  So the patriotic citizen is not one who is unable to see defects in his community, or who refuses to acknowledge them, but one who has high civic ideals and is loyal to them, who understands in what respects these ideals have not been reached, and who, as a member of the community, contributes everything he can to keep it growing in the right direction.

“The problem of government is, after all, the problem of human growth. ...  The one constant and inconstant quantity with which man must deal is man—­changing, inert, impulsive, limited, sympathetic, selfish, aspiring man.  His institutions, whether social or political, must come out of his wants and out of his capacities.  Luther Burbank has not yet made grapes to grow on thorns or figs on thistles.  Neither has any system of government made all men wise...”—­Franklin K. Lane.

Is it possible for a community to be 100 percent perfect?  Why?

What people in your community take no part in government?

May people who cannot vote have any influence upon government?  Explain.

Has a good citizen a right to criticize his government?  What is the difference between helpful and harmful criticism?

What is an “ideal”? a “civic ideal”?

WELDING OF THE NATION BY WAR

It is easier now than usual to think of our nation as a community, because the war with Germany served to arouse our “national spirit,” and showed very clearly the importance in our national life of those elements which characterize all community life—­ common purpose, interdependence, and organized, cooperation (see Chapters I-iii).  The creation of a National Army did much to bring this about.

When the benefits which come to the nation through the creation of the National Army are catalogued, the fact that it has welded the country into a homogeneous society, [Footnote:  “Homogeneous society”—­a society or community all of whose parts and members have like purposes and interests.] seeking the same national ends and animated by the same national ideals, will overtop all other advantages.  The organization of the selected Army fuses the thousand separate elements making up the United States into one steel-hard mass.  Men of the North, South, East, and West meet and mingle, and on the anvil of war become citizens worthy of the liberty won by the first American armies. [Footnote:  Major Granville R. Fortesque, in National Geographic Magazine, Dec., 1917].  How this welding of the parts of the nation together was brought about by the war is suggested by the words of an old Confederate soldier who wrote to a friend in the North: