Evening star., 1919-07-20
Nation to Celebrate Birth of the Constitution

grandeur of few individuals. self
selected out Of each class.
my idea Of propaganda Is only
hasty education Of the nation. The
man educated In and of and for
America needs no propaganda OF
Americanism. The German educated
in. and of and for Germany needed
none Of Germanism.
But in America we have not unified.
through education. the fundamental
ideas Of the people. When by propa-
ganda we prepare man for entrance
into citizenship 1t Is like cramming
a student for the passage of an ex-
animation; he gets small good out OF
1t. We do unwisely II we merely burn
foreigners bridges behind him by
making him forswear allegiance to his
old land and swear allegiance to his
new one; we must build bridges be-
fore him-bridges Of that education
which will lead him into real Ameri-
can citizenship. go "' - =
During our past history we have
been thriftless in this matter. trust
ing to the casual education which we
furnished. That may have been all
right while we were isolated from the
balance Of the world. butt we have
learned of late how slight our present
Isolation now Is. a.I4 a- ,..
Free government now Is facing
world-wid testing. All look to us for
leadership. We stand out as the great
example. We automatically have be-
come world leaders. II we do Ill we
may be copied in our errors. If we do
well we certainly shall be copied in
our worthiness. To do our duty to the
world. therefore, we must make a far
greater success Of our republic during
the next fifty years than we made of
1t during the half century just passed,
Our failures are not due to the type
Of the government which we have
established they are due to the fact
that we never really have tried that
experiment of actually free govern
ment which was guaranteed by our
forefathers as the basis of the chosen
type. Now the time has como when we
we really must make good our promise
to the world. when we must think Of
ourselves not only as self -contented
people living prosperously on our own
continent. but as teachers OF the bal
ance of the world-teachers Of the
great art of democracy.
ION the 17th of September. 1857. tho
delegates to the federal convention
signed their names to a document
which created what now is the oldest
republic in existence. In the discus
sion Of the convention Gov. Morris,
who furnished tho style for the Con-
stitution. said that he sat as In some
degree the representative Of tho whole
human race. for the whole human race
viii be affected by the proceedings Of
the convention The whole human
race has been 80 affected; II will be
moro 30 in the future: we must see
to 1t that tho effect invariably is good.
'Since that time nation after nation
has organized some kina OF liberal
government and in every instance the
American Constitution has been drown
from moro freely than any other
source Laws change and must change
as conditions change, but political
philosophers realize that the great
fundamental political principles are
singularly changeless. All fundamen-
tai political doctrines. many Of which
row are being paraded as II they we're
quite new. the discovery Of some single
modern man. with the one exception
of the representative plan were old
when Plato walked amid the groves
and Solon gave his constitution to the,
Athenians. The stars by. which the
early Cretans steered their barks will
be the guides of mariners to the end
of time. .,. &,
&* A* 4
80 now it must be our task to-,
make the American people. realize that,
their Constitution, embodies those,
great fundamental, changeless politi-,
cal truths and that they need not,
change as laws must, change: II we;
can only make them realize that under
the elastic provisions of that docu-
ment they can have whatever they
want without revolution. without
bloodshed. without sacrificing the re-
suits of centuries Of struggle for po-
litical liberty our present will be safe,
our future certain.
'The people of America today are