Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1923-05-09


expression of that indivdualism, 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 1t to achieve. There will al
ways be frontier to conquer or to
hold as long as men think, plan and
dare. Our American individualism has
received much Of its character from
our contacts with the forces Of nature
on a new continent. 1t evolved gov
eminent without official emissaries to
show the way; 1t plowed and soWe
two score Of great states; it built
roads, bridges, railways, cities; it 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 it 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 individualism
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 individualism.
What we need today is steady devo-
ton 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 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 radicalism.
The perpetual howl Of radicalism is
that 1t 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 must
come from the steady lift Of the indi-
vidual and that the measure of ma
tional idealism and progress is the
quality of idealism In the individual.
The most trying support Of radicalism
comes from the timid or dishonest
minds that shrink from facing the re
suit Of radicalism itself but are de-
voted to defense of radicalism as proof
of liberal mind. Most theorists who
denounce our individualism as social
basis seem to have passion for ignor-
Rnce Of its constructive ideals.
An even greater danger is the de-
structive criticism of minds too weak
or too partisan to harbor constructive
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 can certainly
lead to revolution unless there are
those willing to Withstand the malice
that flows In return from reputation
1t has been well said that revolution is
no summer thunderstorm clearing the
atmosphere. In modern society it is
tornado leaving in its path the de-
stroyed homes Of millions with their
dead women and children.
There are also those who insist that
the future must be repetition OF the
past; that ideas are dangerous, that
Ideals are freaks.
To find that fine balance which links
the future with the past, whose vision
is of men and not of tools, that pos
sesses the courage to construct rather