AMERICA HAS FOUGHT FOR THE FREEDOM OF OTHERS

At the time of the American Revolution the colonists had no desire to fight the English people, but revolted against the autocratic English government of that time, which refused to recognize the rights of the people.  The English people had many times fought for these rights, and many of them sympathized with the American colonists, The winning of American independence was a victory for free government in England as well as in America, and the government of England today is as democratic as our own.  This understanding about the American Revolution throws light upon what the President of the United States meant when he said that we fought Germany for “the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German peoples included.”  Another writer said, “We are not fighting to put the Germans out but to get them in.”

THE GROWTH OF HUMAN SYMPATHY

It has taken a long time for the peoples of the world to develop a sense of their common wants and purposes.  Differences in language, in race and color, in religious beliefs and observances, in forms of government, even in such matters as dress and other habits and customs, have tended to obscure the common feelings of all.  This lack of sympathetic understanding is suggested by Shylock, in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice: 

Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same Winter and Summer, as a Christian is?  If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? if we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.

Increased opportunity for travel, better means of communication, and more widespread education have greatly increased the understanding among peoples and nations, and have disclosed to view common purposes and ideals in spite of differences.  The fact that large numbers of people from every part of the globe have come to the United States to live together as one nation has contributed to the same result.

Give illustrations from your own experience and reading to show that differences in dress, language, race, and customs make sympathetic understanding difficult.

What is meant by “America, the melting-pot”?

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

As the peoples of the world have become better acquainted, individuals and groups have tended to associate themselves together, regardless of national boundaries, for the promotion of common interests.

One example of this is the common movement of organized labor which has overstepped national boundaries.