New Britain herald., 1916-08-10
New England and the National Sense.
 (New London Day)

(NeW London Day.)
 John Cotton Dana. librarian of the Free Public Library at Newark, whose name is of itself a sufficient guar antee of his New England origin, pro- poses that New England, by way of celebrating the tricentennial of it's settlement, do som ething more ser ious than to inaugurate a series of pageants, parades, etc. He suggests that there be established at Boston a New England institute the scope of which would include artistic, his toric, ethical, literary and industrial and financial demonstrations. MT Danas article which appears in the New York Sun, is too comprehensive to quote or even to summarize and no adequate idea of its thought can be conveyed by casual suggestion. But in his own words. what he aims at, by the establishment of this tn- stitute, is to "set on foot, through its studios, it's correspondence, it's teach ing collections, it's reproductions and its sheets of instructions, an interest on the part of all New Eng1anders, wherever they may be, old and young, in the recrudescence of the New England idea"
 MT. Dana's is not Q single track ! mind it appears, for he has antici- pated that his proposition will meet 1 with objections and he Is fair enough ] to admit that there may be merit to ] them. He says: Perhaps it is not important that New England, as we have known it, be preserved. There 1 are many who think it has already
 done all that it should do in guiding
 the morals and manners of the coun- i try and that the world be better from
 now on if New England, as such, 1 were to go quietly out of existence. Perhaps those who say this are right"
 We are very much inclined, here l tcal as it may sound, to believe that l they are indeed right. We are in
 clined to the belief that New Eng ] land itself would be very much bet
 ter off if she were to shake off some l thing more than half of her insular- l ity; if she would cease to regard her
 self as a section and begin to regard herself as a completely merged in | gredient in that great whole which 1 is so much bigger and more import
 ant than New England or any other 1 section-America.
 Sectionalism has been the bane of this country from the beginning. It | led us into a bloody and unnecessary l war It has stood in the way of the 1 development of a true national spirit. l It influences unfavorably our mater l ial progress. It is at this time es- l pecially antagonistic to what MT. l Hughes at Detroit declared to be a | prime essential in this country, the | elimination of the personal equation and the creation of a sense Of na- 1 tionalism. Men have been content,
 said he, living apart in their separ-
 ate lives, to try to make something for their individual selves
 And sections, too, have been living
 apart. If the time has arrived when l 1t is necessary to regard the business l of the United States one business, l then the time has arrived when It l is necessary to regard its people as | one people. And New England will l contribute best to the achievement | of that condition by ceasing to re- | gard herself as a distinctive geograph- l ical. moral and intellectual member | of a mere confederation.