The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-04-14
Galsworthy on Americas Future


 John Galsworthy, in Earpefs Magazine. Talk and theorize as we will, we all
 know from everyday life and businf ss that the real, the only real problem Is to get the best men, the right men, to run the show. When We get them the show runs well; when we don't all is dust and ashes The capital defect of modern Civ ilization based on democracy is the dlffi- culty of getting best men quickly enoug A, Democracy, to be sound, must secure and utilize not an autocracy, but an aristocracy of mind. The first. the really vital concern of the elected head of edu- cation would be the discovery and em- ployment of the best men, Lest heads of schools and colleges, whose chief co,l- cern, in turn. would be the discovery and employment of the best subordinatcs1 The better the teacher the better shd ideals. Inded, the only hope of raisins Ideals is to raise the standard of teach1 CTS and teaching.
 To readers in land not one's own ond has ever the fear of seeming as strangd and comic as was that native interpreted in Egypt who, when the authorities com1 blamed that he had overstayed his leavd of absence, wrote back: My absence id impossible. Some one has removed my wife. My God; I am annoyedr' Still | the risk of making fool of himself sometimes; and I ramble on about sucH remote things as civilization, education| and the future to American readers, fol this reason: America, after the war. i4 going to be more emphatically than evel
 in material things the most important and powerful nation of the earth, and mate and breathless interest in the us( she will make of her power, the turl| she Will give to her civilization, the lead she will set. All these depend, not oi| her material wealth, not on her armed power, not even primarily on her worl& policy; they depend really on what en attitude toward life, and the ideals her citizens, are gong to be- American have one quality for which I look in val
 in the old world-eagerness and opennesN of mind They have also, for all thaiI absorption in success, the aspiring eyd
 They do want the good thing Thrs
 qualities in combination with materis| strength, give America the chance lead a world which, after the war, ma --one hopes-be on the single plane democratic development but they i'm pose on her a corresponding and rarhe awful responsibility. If she does not sd
 her face firmly against "Gadarening.
 then We are all bound for downhi.
 she goes in for spread~eagleism, if he aspirations are not at once both high an humble, toward quality, not quantity, M are all in danger of being commonizet If she should get that purse-and- power proud fever which comes from natiocs succes and overlooking. we are all boun Tor another world f1are-up- The burde of proving that democratic Hive an let live world civilization can stan will be on her shoulders more than Q those of any other nation. It will all d. pend on what Americans make of the inner life, on their individual habits thought, on what they reverence an what they despise. If they despise msay ness and cruelty, injustice and oppression shoddiness and blataney: # they revcl ence chivalry. freedom, tolsration. goo order. and pride of work--America's sta will shine before all the peoples not blessed by fortune. She Will be love{ not feared; she will lead in spirit ana
 truth. not in mere monhy and guns. sl stands at the door of her real greatnos and she is malleable As yet, and Wisl for . long time to como HAT