The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-08-28
PROF. HENDERSON
PLACES PIONEER
ABOVE PILGRIM
Says Ideals of the Former
Characterizes America
of Today.

It's a brave man who ventures to
shy even a pebble. this year of the
Pilgrim Tercentenary, at the rock-fast
superstition that America was popu-
Hated, raised and saved by descend
ants of the Pilgrims and Cavaliers.
Yet Professor Arch ibald Henderson.
in the September Century, dares to
let fly one.
1t won't do any harm. With all
reverence for what oHr-P1ymouth and
jamestown ancestors did, it is worth
while to have a realistic idea of how
America actually grew, oerause we
shall not otherwise understand what
we are now. Since the upheaval of
the Great War which, like other
lstorms turned up all sorts OF things
from the deeps, we have been TealiZ-
ing to what an extent we are COM
posite and polyglot; but we still re-
tain a dim, persistent idea that the
foreign element is only a horde of
comparatively recent immigrants
("ignorant immigrants!') and that
somehow, by grace of "our" innate,
mysterious superiority our" idea of
civilization will control. We quote
Kipling:
His easy. unkempt hearth he lends,
From Labrador to Guadalupe,
TIL. e1bowed out by sloven friends,
He camps, at sufferance, on the stoop.
But we do 1T with shrug, and we
don't believe it, except oratorically.
Professor Henderson sums up this
attitude when he says:
s'It has been wittily said that when
the great fraternal crisis arose which
rent this country in twain, there were
not few in self-sufficient New Eng
land and patrician South who looked
upon that mighty war of brothers as
q conflict Of the ideals of the Lees
of Virginia with the ideals of the
Adamses of Massachusetts,
But he himself will not accede to
the great American superstition. He
chooses to quote President Wilson,
who will probably ne recognized as
one of Americas most enlightened
historians when the turmoil about
the conduct or misconduct. of his
great office is as forgotten as the
controversies that ragged about other
administrations.
America says Wilson, did not
come out of the South, and 1t did
not come out of New England. The
characteristic part of America orr
ginated in the Middle States of New
York and Pennsylvania and New Jer-
sey, because there from the first was
that mixture of populations that mix
ture of racial stocks, that mixture of
antecedents which is the most singu-
lar and distinguishing mark of the
United States
The most dramatic story which
America contributes to world his
tory" declares Professor Henderson,
is the arduous struggle, prolonged
through well nigh three centuries, of
the pioneer to conquer the red man,
to subdue the wilderness, and to
wrest civiliza ton from savagery. In
the future, | dare say, the pioneer
will displace the Puritan and the
Pilgrim, the Cavalier and the planter,
as the true progenitor of present
America and the most characteristic
type in our democ acy. The frontier
life, with it's purifying and harden
ing Influence, bred IN these pioneers
intellectual and social traits which
constitute the basis of American char
acter."
After a most intriguing discussion
or these traits-one which will chal-
Iense contradiction, perhaps!-Pro-
lessor Henderson finds the type
American, whose centenary Che died
in September 1920 he celebrates. in
Daniel Boone. In his time, pioneer
ing received new and a different
impuise-the impulse which built
america as she is. THE redirec-
tlon, says Professor Henderson. cot
the lrrepressible migrc ton from
soutnWestward to westward, the
LioIil IOtlOWlnE the line of
least resistance to boldly attackine
the supreme obstacles of geoeranbtcaI
barrier and embittered savage rasist
ance-all these find their classic enf-
tome in the monumental figure or
Daniel Boone" W
BUT he finds that Daniel Boone
mas become a myth, and that legends
ana traditions alien to his real life
ana real service to the nation have
gathered about him.
In the light of critical investirs-
ton Boone's national contribution 70
cusses into three genuine achieue
mentS which embody and signalize the
meaning Of his career Boone was
not the discoverer of Kentucky. the
columbus of the land Many white
men sololers, scouts, and hunters an
ucipated MIN in first setting foot up
on the virgin soil of Kentucky. r,
was Boone. however, who possessed
the initiative and the genius to war-
rant ana assure the utilizing of his
explorations and discoveries for the
Advancement of civilization. Az
early as 1854, certainly, Boone wa.
placing his unrfvaled knowledge. ac.
CURED through solitary hunting ex.
pedluons' at the service of the land
company known as Richard Hender.
son d Company, organized for the
purpose of studying out for specuIa
i've ends the geography and loco.
sraphy or the West Five years Ia
ter when he made his epochal two.
year exploration of the trans-Aue.
enemy region, Boone was again act.
ing in the interest of this same con.
structIve and creative force in wes4
ware colonial ton, the great North
Carolina land company. Speculate
enterprise and colonial ambition look
ed out over the oceanic expanse ~
Kentucky forests in 1869, through the
eyes or their agents, Boone and hi.
companions.
THE second great achievement TO,
whlch Boone will always be remem.
bered is the opening up of the wa,
TO the West, which will be known tf
history as the Pennsylvania Trail
This route passed through the high
swung gateway of the Cumberlands
and over it Boone led the advanced
guard Of civilization in 1878.
Last of all. and Derhar,S mast g.,