The San Francisco call., 1899-05-26
AMERICAN ALTRUISM.

THE Government of the United States when and
as it was established was not only unique but by
European imperalists it regarded as para
dox. Nevertheless it simply the first organized
expression OF the universal and ineradicabe desires
Of men. 1t rested upon the full recognition OF IN
alienabe human rights, unrestricted to class or race
and enumerated in the Declaration OF Independence
Its motive power was the sovereignty OF man, con-
troled by the essential moral law and unlimited ex
cept by social necessity. Its theory perfected in
dividualism. Political institutions contemplated
by the founders OF the American republic, compre-
hensively exercised functions, capable of many
subdivisions but permanent and the other tran
sient They were an established agency for the eco
nomical and effective transaction OF municipal, State
and national business, i'm which individuals in their
different yet harmonious relations equally
cerned and which they could not manage for them
selves. They were restraint both by suppression
and by punishment, upon the evil propenstes OF men
undergoing gradual process OF education and train
ing for the high functions OF American citizenship
But the theory to be practicalized through in
stitutions that OF perfected ndividualism The
belief OF creative statesmen that the developed
citizen would govern himself and would need but lit
tie positive and exraneous law. 1t assumed that
he would voluntarily maintain the barriers to the
exercise OF his own will that were necessary for the
fuhlment OF the royal precept incorporated in fra
ternity. 1t was considered that who possessed
their own bodies, their own minds and their own souls
could live their lives and work out their own des-
tnies without clash jar with each other and breath
ing the pure air OF liberty and roofing their characters
in the clean and fertile soil of uplifted civilization
could best fulfill their personal, their domestic and
their social obligations
American altruisn, therefore is the natural product
OF the American system and has its basis in individual
ISM The perfected citizen will be the perfected neigh
bor and, retaining his distnctiveness, will most
cffectuay secure the cooperative results, for which
socialism vainy strives. 1t is barely possible but
highly improbable, after than century's vindi-
cation of national experiment. illustrated notwth
standing failures and our inconsistencies by more
than seventy millions OF people peacefully and indus
riousy existing under constitutional government
that in danger of retrogression. But it GER
tan whether this republic ultimately DESTROYS itself
stands far the prophetic eye can reach for its
ideals, that it is the very anthesis of every So
cialistic conception. Not in their intentions but in
their methods socialism and imperialism are stril-
ingly analogous. They both operate upon the same
principle that leavens every consolidation that tends
to extingush personal rights and personal identity.
{. T. Huntington in his expressed opinion conscious
ly or unconscousy has advocated intense forms of
socialism The Monaghan races in which prevalent
and monotonous type is scarcely disturbed by per-
sona characteristics but the faces of men can hardly
be separately distinguished is warning of the conse-
quences that would inevitably follow the application
OF paternalism to rugged and intellectual race
The East Indian Nrvana with its thrilling Utilization
OF unconscious spirits would be an apt simle for
socalistic Utopia.
The American ideal applies to natural and secular
relations the deepest expression of all theoogies-
The Kingdom OF God is within you" 1t is within
the heart and the brain OF the citizen that his appre
citation of his own capacity and of his own powers in
his personal advancement and in all his external as