The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-05-26
American
Lndiuidualism
Timely Message to
the American People
By HOOVER
Secretary OF Commerce.

~ THE philosophlc side we can
agree at nee that intelligence,
character, courage, and the
divine spark of the human soul are
alone the property of individuals.
These do not lie III agreements, in or
CARNATIONS, in institutions, in masses,
or in groups. They abide alone in
the individual mind and heart.
Production both of mind and hand
rests upon impulses in each individual.
These impulses are made of the varied
forces of original instincts, motives,
and acquired desires. Many of these
are destructive and must be restrained
through moral leadership and authority
of the law and be eliminated finally
by education. All are modified by a
vast fund of experience and a vast
plant and equipment of civilization
which we pass on with increments to
each succeeding generation.
The inherited instincts of s%elf-pres-
ervation, acquisitiveness, fear, kind
ness, hate, curiosity, desire for self
expression, for power, for adulation,
that We carry over from a thousand
of generations must, for good or evil.
be comprehended in a workable sys-
ten embracing our accumulation of
experiences and equipment. They may
modify themselves with time--but in
terms of generations. They differ In
their urge upon different individuals.
The dominant ones are selfish. But no
civilization could be built or can en-
dure solely upon the groundwork of
unrestrained and unintelligent self-in-
terest. The problem of the world is
to restrain the destructive instincts
while strengthening and ~enlarging
those of altruistic character and con-
structive impulse-for thus we build
for the future.
From the instincts of kindness, pity,
fealty to family and race; the love
of liberty the mystical warnings for
spiritual things; the desire for fuller
expression of the creative faculties
the impulses of service to community
and nation, are nodded the ideals of
our people. And the most potent force
In society Is its ideals. If one were
to attempt to delimit the potency of
instinct and ideals, it would be found
that while instinct dominates in
preservation yet the great propelling
force of progress is right ideals. 1t
is true we do not realize the ideal !;
not ever a single person ~personifes
that realization. 1t Is therefore not
surprising that society, a collection Of
persons, a necessary maze of compro-
misses, cannot realize 1t. But that 1t
has ideals, that they revolve In a sys-
tenn that makes for steady advance of
them is the first thing. Yet true as
this Is, the day has not arrived when
any economic or social system will
function and last If founded upon al
truism alone.
With the growth of ideals through
education, with the higher realization
of freedom, of justice, of humanity, of
service, the selfish impulses become
less and less dominant, and If we ever
reach the millennium, they will disap-
pear in the aspirations and satisfac-
lions Of pure altruism. But for the
next several generations we dare not
abandon self-interest as a motive force
to leadership and to production, lest
we die.
The will-o'-the-wisp of all breeds of
socialism Is that they contemplate a
motivation of human animals by altru-
ism alone. 1t necessitates a bureau
cracy of the entire population, in
which, having obliterated the economic
stimulation of each member. the fine
gradations of character and ability are
to be arranged in relative authority
by ballot or more likely by a Tammany
Hall or a Bolshevist party, or some
other form of tyranny. The proof of
the futility Of these ideas as a stimu-
lation to the development and activity
of the individual does not lie alone in
the CHASTITY failure of Russia, but 1t
also lies In our own failure in at
tempts at nationalized industry.
Likewise the basic foundation of
autocracy, whether 1t be class govern
ment or capitalism in the sense that a
few men through unrestrained control
of property determine the welfare of
great numbers, is as far apart from the
rlghtful expression Of American In
dividualism as the two poles. The
will-o,the-wisp of autocracy In any
form is that it supposes that the good
Lord endowed a special few with all
the divine attributes. 1t contemplates
one human animal dealing to the 9TH
er human animals his just share Of
earth, of glory. and of immortality.
The proof of the futility of these ideas
In the development Of the world does
not lie alone In the grim failure Of
Germany, but 1t lies in the damage to
our moral and social fabric from those
who have sought economic domination
in America, whether employer or en-
ployee.
We in America have had too much
experience of life to fool ourselves
into pretending that all men are equal
In ability, in character, in intelligence,
In ambition. That was part of the
claptrap of the French Revolution. We
have grown TO understand that all we
can hope to assure to the individual
through government is liberty, justice,
intellectual welfare, equality of oppor-
tunity, and stimulation to service.
1t is In maintenance of a society
fluid to these human qualities that our
indiyidualism departs from the individ-