New Britain herald., 1916-04-26
PRESIDENT BUTLER TALKS TO THE A. p.
Head Of Columbia Delivers Patri- OtiC Address on Nations Ideals

i New York, April 26-Addressing 1 the annual luncheon of The Asso- ciated Press here yesterday, Nicholas
 Murray Butler spoke as follows:
 ITO this assemblage, composed as
 it is of men who are in close touch
 with affairs and who have intimate
 knowledge of the movement of opin-
 ion in all parts of the world, it is ! hardly possible for me to say any, thing that you do not already know. Yet it is out of the reflections of in- dividuals and out Of the reactions of those individuals to the changing course of events. that there is made first public opinion and then history. If any significance be attached to what l shall briefly say in your press cnce, it can only be because it rep rcsents the attempt of one American who feels keenly the responsibility of his country and of it's entire citizen ship at this moment when the world stands at a crossroads in it's path of progress.
 Have VIC an American nation? If so, does that nation feel a sense of unity in purpose and in ideals? If so, then what is to be the course of action of that nation in the imme- diate future?
 Tt must not be forgotten that na- ticns are comparatively new in hu-
 man history. There were no nations in the ancient world Men were grouped In empires, in races, as fol- lowers of a religion, as clansmen, owing allegiance to chief, but not as nations as we use the word. There were no nations until the dream of a universal political empire had pass ed away; until the stately magnjf- cence of Rome had broken into hundred fragments. It was then and only then that a new organizing force made itself felt in the thoughts and deeds of men. This new consciousness of unity was in part the outgrowth of unity of race origin, in part the outgrowth of unity of language, in part the outgrowth of unity of in stitutional life, in part the outgrowth of unity of military and religious tra- dition. It seized hold of the minds of men in most practical fashion. The result is that from the time of the death of Charlemagne to the time of the present German emperor the his tory of the world is the history of nation-b building and the by-products of nation-building A, nation is scien- tifically defined as a population of n ethnic unity inhabiting a geographic unity under a common form of gov ernment. The exceptions are quite numerous enough to prove this rule. AS the centuries have followed one after another it is not difficult to see how the several nations have en- deavored to possess themselves to territory that is a geographic unit. They have sought natural boundaries, whether of high mountains. or of broad rivers, or of the sea itself. One war after another is to be explained in terms of nations definite pur- pose to possess itself of a geographic unity as it's home. There has been by no means equal care taken by the nations to establish and to protect an ethnic unity A strong people has usually felt confident that it could hold an alien element in subjection and yet preserve national integrity and unity of spirit. So one after another of the greater nations of the world has, in seeking for geographic unity, insisted on incorporating in its own body polite alien and often dis cordant elements and holding them in stern subjection. The examples are too familiar to be recited here.
 Nation Highest Type of Patriotism
 ''This process of nation building has gone on until the nation has como to be conceived as an end in itself, as superior to the rules of law, TO the conventions of morality and to the pVecepts of religion. A form of patriotism has been developed all over the world which finds in the nation itself the highest human end. The logical result, and indeed the