The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-05-23
American
ndiuidualism
A Timely Message to
the American People
By HOOVER
Secretary of Commerce.
TIE HAVE witnessed In this last
| eight years the spread Of rev.

n ElR0I APuIS lllE eDi eau VI rev
olution over one-third Of the
world. The causes of these explosions
lie at far greater depths thar the fail
ure of governments in war. The war
itself in its last stages was a conflict
of social philosophies-but beyond this
the causes of social explosion lay in
the great inequalities and injustices
of centuries logged beyond endurance
by the conflict and freed from restraint
by the destruction of war. The urgent
forces which drive human society have
been plunged into a terrible furnace.
Great theories spun by dreamers to
remedy the pressing human Ills have
come to the front of mems minds.
Great formulas came into life that
promised 70 dissolve all trouble. Great
masses of people have flocked to their
banners in hopes born of misery and
suffering. Nor has this great social
ferment been confined to those nations
that have burned with revolutions.
Now, as the storm Of war, of revo-
luton and of emotion subsidies there
is left even with US of the United
States much unrest, much discomfort
with the surer forces of human adj
vancement. To all of US, out Of this
crucible of actual, poignant, individual
experience has come a deal of new
understanding. and it is for all Of US
to ponder these new currents If We are
to shape our future with intelligence.
Even those parts of the world that
suffered less from the war have been
partly infected by these ideas. Beyond
this, however, many have had high
hopes of civilization suddenly purified
and ennobled by the sacrifices and
services of the war they had thought
the fine unity of purpose gained in war
would be carried into great unity of
action in remedy of the faults of civili-
cation in peace. But from concentra-
ton of every spiritual and material
energy upon the single purpose of war
the scene changed TO the immense COM
plexity and the many purposes of
peace.
Thus there loom up certain definite
underlying forces in our national life
that need to be stripped of the imagi-
nary-the transitory-and a definition
should be given to the actual, perma-
lent and persistent motivation of our
civilization. In contemplation of these
questions we must go far deeper than
the superfcials of our political and
economic structure, for these are but
the products of our social philosophy
the machinery of our social system.
Nor is it ever amiss to review the
political, economic, and spiritual princi-
pies through which OH country has
steadily grown in usefulness and great
ness, not only to preserve them from
being fouled by false notions, but more
Importantly that we may guide our
selves in the road of progress.
Five or six great social PHILOSOPHERS
are at struggle in the world for as
tendency. There is the I~ndividualism
of America. There is the Individual
ism of the more democratic states OF
Europe with its careful reservations of
munism, Socialism, Syndicalism, Cap
italism, and finally there Is Autocracy
whether by birth, by possessions,
militarism, or divine right of kings.
Even the Divine Right still fingers on
although our lifetime has seen fully
two-thirds of the earth's population, In
Guiding Germany, Austria, Russia, and
China, arrive at a state Of angry dis
gust with this type Of social motive
power and throw 1t on the scrap heap.
All these thoughts are In ferment
today in every country In the world.
They f%uctuate in ascendency with
times and places. They compromise
with each other In daily reaction on
governments and peoples. Some of
these ideas are perhaps more adapted
to one race than another. Some are
false. some are true. What we are
interested In Is their challenge TO the
physical and spiritual forces Of Amer
lea.
The partisans of some of these other
brands of social schemes challenge US
to comparison; and some of their par
tisans ever among our own people are
increasing In their agitation that we
adopt one or another or parts of their
devices in place of our tried individual
ism. They insist that our social foun-
dations are exhausted, that like fuedal-
ism and autocracy Americas plan has
served it's purpose-that it must be
abandoned.
There are those who have been left
In sober doubt of our institutions or
are COMPOUNDED by ~bewildering catch
words of vivid phrases. For In this
gelter of discussions there is much at
tempt TO glorify or defame social and
economic forces with phrases. Nor in
deed should we disregard the potency
of some of these phrases in their stir
TO action-"The dictatorship of the
Proletariat." "Capitalistic nations"
Germany over all and a o of 9th
ers. We need only to review those that
have Jumped to horseback during the
last ten years in order that we may
be properly awed by the great social
and political havoc that can be worked
where the bestial instincts of hate,
murder. and destruction are clothed by
the demagogues in the fine terms of
political idealism.
For myself, let me say at the very
outset that my faith in the essential
ruth. strength. and vitality of the de
reloping creed by which we have hith-
nell. J. W. Cordery, Walter Burns,
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