Part 26 (1/2)

Of course you will belong to some political party. That is all right.

Be a partizan. And be a hearty partizan while you are about it. But do not be a narrow one. Never forget that parties are only modes of political action. They are not sacred, therefore. So never mistake partizans.h.i.+p for patriotism. Remember always that your only reason for belonging to any particular party is because you find that the best method of being an American.

When your party is fundamentally wrong on some absolutely vital question of _principle_ which affects the fate of the Republic, do not hesitate to leave it. It has ceased to be of any use to you. Because your political a.s.sociation has been with certain men is no reason at all for continuing it. Or, rather, it is purely a sentimental reason, like that which makes the companions.h.i.+p of friends so dear, or the comrades.h.i.+p of soldiers so lasting.

But do not break away from your party merely because you think it wrong on minor questions. _If you think its general tendency right, stay loyally with it through its common mistakes._ Try to prevent those mistakes within the party. Fight like a man to make your party take the right course on every question, big or little, as you see it.

But when you are unable to convince the majority of your party a.s.sociates that they are wrong; when they think that you are the person who is wrong, fall in line with them and march in the ranks, battling even more vigorously than you would had you prevailed. If the majority were right and you were wrong, you ought to help execute their views. If the majority were wrong and you were right, the earlier that fact is demonstrated the better for you and everybody.

So keep step with your rank and file, whether your party does what you think it ought to do or not on matters of pa.s.sing moment. But I repeat, on large issues which come to your conscience--_on questions which you think affect the destiny of the Nation_, you are a traitor to the Republic if, in spite of your convictions, you stand by your party and against your country.

But to break with your party on minor issues is foolish. A certain cla.s.s is coming to regard leaving one's party as a smart thing. But it is not a smart thing. Quitting your party does not necessarily mean independence. It may mean that, and then again it may mean stupidity; and still again it may only mean a ”sore head,” as the political phrase has it.

In a country as old as ours there finally comes to be in politics a fundamental division. There is the constructive and progressive on the one side, and the destructive and reactionary on the other side. These are merely the centripetal and centrifugal forces of nature at work in human society. Usually it is found that one of these parties is naturally the Governing Party, and the other one is naturally the Party of Opposition.

Not only your judgment but your instincts will tell you, young man, to which one of these forces you belong. Each has its uses. You can well serve your country in either organization. It is merely a question as to whether you are in character and temperament a builder, a doer of things, or a critic of things done and the doing of them. Each is necessary.

I have no quarrel with your partizan creed, no matter what it is. That is your business. But whatever you are, be National. Be broad. Do not be deceived by catchwords. Remember that this is a Nation in the making. When the first railroad was built across the boundaries of states it modified old-time interpretations of our Const.i.tution.

Telegraph and telephone wires, steam and electric railways, all the means of instantaneous communication which this wizard-like age of ours is weaving from ocean to ocean, are consolidating the American people into a single family.

Natural conditions and the ordinary progress of industry and invention are making old methods inadequate and unjust. So keep abreast of the growing Nation in your political thinking. Solve all American problems from the view-point of the Nation, and not from the view-point of state or section. Consider the American people _as_ a People, and not as a lot of separate and hostile communities. Be National. Be an American. Know but one flag.

Whatever party you belong to, and whatever your views on public questions, you will never make a profound mistake as long as you keep your civic ideals high and pure. Believe in the mission of the American people. Have faith in our destiny. Never question that this Republic is G.o.d's handiwork, and that it will surely do His will throughout the earth.

Understand that we are not living for to-day alone. Keep in mind the future--the tasks, opportunities, and rewards of which for the American people will make our large performances of to-day seem like mere suggestions. Strive to make yourself worthy of this Nation of your ideals.

And of all your ideals, let the Nation itself be the n.o.blest. Fear not lest you pitch your thought too high for American realities and possibilities. No single mind can scale the heights the American people will finally conquer. No single imagination can compa.s.s the American people's combined activity, power, and righteousness even at this present moment.

We have defects and deficiencies; fear not, they will be remedied and supplied. We have perplexities and problems; fear not, they will be untangled and solved. We have burdens, foreign and domestic; fear not, we will bear them to the place appointed, and, at the hands of the Master who gave us those burdens to carry, receive the reward for the well-doing of our work, and, strengthened by our labor, go on to heavier and n.o.bler tasks which He will have ready and waiting for us.

For this Nation of ours is here for a purpose. He did not give us our liberty for nothing, or our location or our physical resources, or any element of our material, intellectual, or spiritual power. No, the Father of Lights has thus highly endowed us that we may do the very things which are at our hands to-day, and those other and greater things which will follow. It is for us Americans to solve the problems that confront us now, and the still harder and deeper ones that we do not yet behold; and we will solve them, never doubt. Live up to this ideal of your Nation's place and purpose in the world, young man. Be an American.

CHAPTER XI

THE WORLD AND THE YOUNG MAN

There has been much counseling of the young man respecting the world.

But what of counseling the world respecting the young man? Do not men and women riper in years and richer in experience need to have their attention called to the young man and the potentialities of him. He faces the world with vigor, courage, and faith--this stout-hearted, hopeful young fellow with To-morrow and all its possibilities coiled up in his brain and heart.

The young man is the future incarnate. His soul is the abiding-place of uplifting ideals, and the world--that vast collective individuality to which you and I belong--too often dispels those sensitive enthusiasms by its neglect or disapproval. Do we not find in our daily speech a certain cynicism toward youth? Does not our skeptic wisdom paste the label ”illusions” over the word ”ideals” written on the young man's brow? Is there not a refusal to recognize young manhood's force until it compels recognition by sheer mastery?

If so, it is a fault that the world should remedy. Not that the young man should not prove himself before the world accepts him; not that he should not win his spurs before he is knighted. No one insists that he shall ”make good” more than I do. But in the testing of him, let us give him the help of our kindly attention. Let us lend him the encouragement of our applause as he rides into the lists.

Countless young men have been needlessly discouraged by the indifference of the occupied and the sneers of the calloused. Let us not be so chary of our sympathy. Faith in most young men is a much safer hazard than infidelity. For all things strong and pure and helpful to the world _may_ be possible of those young fellows who must, in any event, very soon possess the earth.

So let not the frost of the world's unconcern fall upon young manhood's unfolding powers. Let us beware how we extinguish the feeblest of youth's idealisms. Let us check not the onset of his knight-errantry. And the world does these things--not purposely, not even knowingly, but thoughtlessly. Many a young man has had his life's work kept back and the ardor of it chilled by rebuff at the beginning.

Many another has had his faith in G.o.d and humanity and the effectiveness of the eternal verities in the world's work enfeebled and even shattered by what he felt was the world's disbelief in them.