New-York tribune., 1919-05-30
Americanization of Thoughts

Americanization of Thoughts
The committee on education of the
Reconstruction Commission does we'll
in its report to the Governor to stress
the fact that to achieve Americanzation
q more is necessary than to teach every
one to speak the common language or
to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner"
To be an American it is necessary
not only to speak like one and to feel
like one, but to think like one. Elements
of our population disclosed as most
dangerously anti-Amercan are we'll
enough educated. Indeed it has seemed
at times as if the places most in need
of rebaptisn are some of our colleges
and universities, particularly their teach
ing faculties
1t has been preached in not few
classrooms, for example, or at least i'm
piled, that a majority, its will duly as
certained and registered, has no right
to rule; that a minority, if it can get
force into it's hands, may seize and
exercise supreme power. AS to this
heresy the committee feels impeled
to say:
There is perhaps at present no need
more urgent than that of inculcating the
American habit of accepting the verdict
of the majority, whenever it has been
rendered according to law. There are
two kinds of minority rule: the one auto
cratic, the other revolutionary But
minority rula in o;+bor ,,,,;co
or revolutionary, is uncongenal to the
American mind. In America the majority
decdes-in the last ananysis must decide.
The habit Of peacefully, and even good
humoredly, accepting this decision, trust
ing in the long run to reason rather than
force to modify it, is the most precious
political habit which the American peo-
pie have acquired, habit in which they
should still more confirm themselves. and
which it is one of the prime objects of
the Americanization movement to instill
into those who join our citizenship from
abroad
From the continent of Europe, from
parts with little experience in self gov
ernment, has come the poison that the
law represents only power and any one
having power may of right give what
orders he pleases. A most pestilent toxic,
hostile to every instinct of sound Ameri-
canism.
The law functions when necessary
through force, of course, but it rests on
something else-on right or concep-
tions of right. The law is not merely
the Will of the Strongest, but an at
tempt to approximate abstract justice.
Being but an approximation, it is alter
able as men develop, and machinery
must be provided for change, but the
sanction is higher than force
In Oriental countries the law, whether
! from the edicts of conquerors or of
gods, is sacred in all its parts, to be
obeyed not because it is just, but be-
cause it is decreed. This Oriental con-
cept, finding lodgment in Germany, has
been conveyed hence. sometimes by i'm
! migrants and sometimes by professors.
1t is time to spew it out 1t is not
only alien to Americanism, but is based
on ignorance and prejudice Yet how
often are men who esteem themselves
learned heard preaching it. Such are
not to be gagged but those to whom
they speak should be equipped to ex-
pose the intellectual and moral INSULT
cencies of their instructors What irri
tates in the presence of such a doctrine
as Boshevism is not SO much the thing
itself Otis reputation can be left to time
and events), but the self-satisfied stu
pidity and density of men and womer
of presumed education who know so lit
tie about their own country and are sc
little generally cultured as to be i'm
posed upon.