The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1923-05-03

EXPRESSION of that indiydualiSm, and
he pioneer spirit Is the response to
the challenge Of opportunity, to the
challenge of nature, to he challenge
If life, to the call of the frontier. That
spirit need never die for lack Of some
hing for ii to achieves There will al.
WAYS be a frontier TO conquer or to
hold as long as men think. plan and
dare. Our American individualisn has
received much of its character from
our contacts with the forces of nature
on q new continent. Ii evolved gov
eminent without official emissarieS to.
show the way; 1t plowed and sowed
two score of great states; 1t built
roads, bridges, railways, cities; ii car
ried forward every attribute of high
civilization over a 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 II Is only the pioneer who will
penetrate the frontier in the quest for
new worlds to c0nqner. The very
genius of our institutions has been
given Il them by the pioneer spirit.
our i~ndividualiSm is rooted in u very
nature. II is based OF conviction born
Of experience. Equal opportunity, the
demand for a fair chance, became the
formula of American i~ndividualism
because il 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 IF forces that it has brought
us. Now haltingly, but with more
and with q more conscious understand
ing of II mission, we are finding solu-
tion 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 betw cen autOcracy-wtcther
of birth, economic or class origin-and
socialism. Socialism of diti"rent Varie-
ties may have something to recon-
mend il as an intellectual stOp-loOk-
and-IiSten-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
Iy reversions to Old World autOcracy
in new garments.
Salvation will not come to us out
of the wreckage of i~ndividualiSm.
What we need today is steady deVo-
tion to a better, brighter. broader in
dividualism-an individualiSm that
carries increasing responsibility and
service to our fellows. Our need is not
for a way out but for a way forward.
We found our way out three centuries
ago when our forefathers left Europe
for these shores, to set up here a com
mOnwealth conceived in liberty and
dedicated 10 the development Of indi'
viduality.
There are malign socia! forces other
than our failures that would destroy
our progress. There are the equal dan
gers both of reaction and radicalism
The perpetual howl of radicalism Is
that It is the sole voice Of liberalism
that devotion to social progress is Its
field alone. These men would assume
that all reform and human advance
must come through government. They
have forgotten that progress mus
come from the steady lift of the indi
vidual and that the Measure of ma
tional idealism and progress is th'
quality of idealism In the individual
The most trying support Of radicalisn
from the timid or dishones
minds that shrink from facing the re
suit Of radicalism itself but are de
voted to defense Of radicalism as proc
of a liberal mind. Most theorists wh'
denounce our individualism as a socia
basis seem to have a passion for ignor
ance Of Its constructive ideals.
An ever greater danger Is the de
structive criticism Of minds too veal
or too partisan 70 harbor eonstryctiy.
Ideas. For such, criticism is base'
upon the distortion of perspective o
cunning misrepresentation. There !
never danger from the radical himsel
until the structure and confidence o
society has been undermined by tn
enforcement of destructive criticism
Destructive criticism can certain.
lead to revolution unless there ar
those willing to Withstand the mallc'
that flows in return from REPUTATION
1t has been well said that revolution !
no summer thunderstorm clearing IN
atmosphere. In modern society II Is
tornado leaving In Its path the de
stroyed homes OF millions with thel
dead women and children.
There are also those who insist ina
the future must be a repetition OF ID
past; that ideas are dangerous, ina
ideals are freaks.
To find that fine balance which INK
the future with the past. whose visio
is Of men and not Of tools, that pos
sesses the courage to construct rathe
than to criticize-this is our nee
There Is no oratory so easy, nc wr'th
30 trenchant and vivid as the phrase