Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1923-06-20
American
mdi.);dunlisn1
A Timely Message to
the American People
By HERBERT HOOVER
Secretary of Commerce.
W.-The Future.

b mary force of American civiliza-
ton for three centuries. 1t is our
sort of individualism that has sup
piled the motivation of Americas po-
litical, economic and spiritual institu-
tons in all these years. 1t has proved
its ability to develop its institutions
with the changing scene. Our very
form Of government is the product of
the individualism of our people, the
demand for an equal opportunity. for
fair chance.
The American pioneer is the epic
expression of that ndivdualism, and
the pioneer spirit is the response to
the challenge of opportunity, to the
challenge of nature, to the challenge
of life, to the call of the frontier. That
spirit need never die for lack of some
thing for it to achieve. There will al
ways be a frontier to conquer or to
hold as long as men think, plan and
dare. Our American indvidualsln has
received much of it's character from
our contacts with the forces of nature
on new continent 1t evolved gov
eminent without official emissaries to
show the way 1t plowed and SOW ed
two score Of great states; it built
roads, bridges, railways, cities; 1t car
ried forward every attribute of high
civilization over continent. The days
of the pioneer are not over. There are
continents Of human welfare Of which
we have penetrated only the coastal
plain. The great continent Of science
is as yet explored only on its borders
and 1t is only the pioneer who will
penetrate the frontier in the quest for
new worlds to conquer. The very
genius of our institutions has been
given to them by the pioneer spirit
Our individualism is rooted in our very
nature. 1t is based on conviction born
Of experience. Equal opportunity. the
demand for fair chance, became the
formula Of American indlvidualism
because 1t is the method Of American
achievement.
After the absorption of the great
plains Of the West came the era of
industrial development with the new
complex of forces that 1t has brought
us. Now haltingly, but with more
surety and precision than ever before
and with more conscious understand
ing Of our mission, we are finding solu.
ton Of these problems arising from
new conditions, for the forces Of our
social system can compass and COM
prise these.
Our individualism Is no middle
ground between autocracy-whether
Of birth, economic or class origin-and
socialism. Socialism of different varie-
ties may have something to recon-
mend 1t as an intellectual stop-look-
and-listen sign. more especially for Old
World societies. But it contains only
destruction to the forces that make
progress in our social system. Nor
does salvation come by any device for
concentration of power, whether po-
litical or economic, for both are equal
ly reversions to Old World autOcracy
in new garments.
Salvation will not come to us out
of the wreckage Of individuaism.
What we need today Is steady devo-
tion to better brighter. broader in
dividualism-an individualism thar
carries increasing responsibility and
service to our fellows. Our need is not
for n way out hut for way forward.
We found our way out three centuries
ago when our forefathers left Europe
for these shores, to set up here com
monwealth conceived in liberty and
dedicated to the DEVELOPMENT of indi-
viduality.
There are malign social forces other
than our failures that would destroy
our progress. There are the equal dam
gers both Of reaction and radicnl!Sm.
The perpetual howl of radicaliSm is
that 1t is the sole voice of liberia liSu--
that devotion to social progress is its
field alone These men would assume
that all reform aud human advance
must come through government. They
have forgotten that progress must
come from the steady lift of the mdi-
vidual and that the measure of m.
tional ideaism and progress Is the
quality of idealism in the individual,
The most trying support of rudic,''Sm
comes from the timid or dishoneS,
minds that shrink from facing the re-
suit of radicalism itself but are de-
voted TO defense of radioalism as proof
of liberal mind. Most theorists who
denounce our individualism as a social
basis seem to have passion for ignor
ance of its constructive ideals.
An even greater danger is the de-
structiye criticism of minds too weak
or too partisan to harbor constructive
Ideas. For such, criticism Is based
upon the distortion OF perspective or
cunning Misrepresentation. There is
never danger from the radical himself
until the structure and confidence of
society has been undermined by the
enforcement of destructive criticism.
Destructive criticism ran certainly
lead to revolution unless there are
those willing to withstand the malice
that flows in return from refutat!on,