The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-07-01
Frederic Haskin's Letter
CongrafuIating Missouri.

washington, d. c., June 29,-The
state of Missouri, 100 years old,
will this summer tell the world
the story of its achievements. In
addition to the state fair at Seda.
liza, there will be many minor local
celebrations. Missouri will loom
large in the public eye and In the
public prints.
The most interesting thing about
this proposed celebration is the
large part which pageantry and
story are to play In it, according
to the plans which have been made
public. Missouri is a great indus
trial state, as all the world knows,
and 1t is probable that most of the
rest of the country thinks OF it as
a business-minded place, famous
for its corn and pork, its hard COM
mon sense and sound finance.
All OF these things it has. and
all of them will be duly illustrated
in the coming celebrations. But in
addition to that, Missouri will be
revealed as q state with q roman
tic past and vivid imaginative con-
seriousness of it. All of its story
will be told in pageants and in To-
cal histories. Missourians will be
taught to see themselves as the de-
cendants of an heroic race, holding
soil for which men have dared and
died.
That, of course, Is the way any
people should think of itself. 1t
should have a national or race con-
seriousness with roots that go deep
into the past A man should think
of himself, not as a being isolated
in space and time, but as part of a
long and interesting romance.
Merely to know the vague out
lines of national history is not
enough. A man should know init
mately the story OF the soil on
which he is born and lives and the
part his forebears played on it.
National heroes and remote events
are hard to grasp, but the dofngs
of your own flesh and blood and
the things that happened in your
own country easily become vivid to
you and give you a new perspec-
tive on life.
Americas Untold Story.
There is perhaps no country in
the world which is SO devoid of
this historical consciousness as the
United States. An erroneous idea
of the Revolutionary and Civil
wars, set forth in dull histories and
taught to sleepy school children, is
all we have.
It is not this academic dishing
up of history cut and dried which
captures the popular imagination.
In every other civilized country
history has been made forever real
to the people in great works of
novels, poems, songs.
Think of any period of British his
tory that you please. and you can
find a great story about it. in prose
people has been immortaliZed by
great artists from Chaucer to-
The same is true of
France and Germany and of the
Scandinavian countries. In addi-
ton to great formal works of art,
these countries have folk tales,
ballads, songs, many Of them of I'M
known origin, that carry the ma
tional story and traditions from
generation to generation.
What has the United States to
compare with this? Its story has
been short, but one of the most
striking in the history of the race.
The Revolutionary war produced
nothing worthy to be called a great
work of art. We have nothing left
Of that great epoch save canned
and somewhat ridiculous school
book version of it, in which George
is represented as tin
saint. and the causes of the trouble
are all obscured. Its emotions and
color, its human values, are lost !
brewer Only art can preserve |
hese.
The Civil war was a vastly more |
significant human event than the |
and we have nothing