The McDowell times. [volume] (Keystone, W. Va.) 1904-1941, 1940-07-19

Is no reform, no desirable change,
to benefit humanity and right
wrongs, to control privilege and ex-
tend opportunity, that they can't &C
complish right here in their own
country, under their own flag"
II our worrying parents, alarmed
at the half-baked red doctrine that
so many of our college students
seem to be imbibing today, would
take this simple suggestion to heart,
we should soon see not only the
decline of anti-American influence,
but the healthy growth of new Amer
lean movements that might bring
our country back once more to the
standards of the great Fathers of
the Constitution.
Revive Dinnertime Discussions.
1t has often occurred to me that
it is pity that the old fashion of
good talk at dinner-time has gone
out. Judging from old American
books and biography and letters it
was pretty usual custom a hum
dred years ago. 1t may do the
whole family good to have you re-
vive it.
The father or man of the house
hold may greet this idea with q
groan.
Darling, I'm dead tonight. Do
we have to have politics at the ia
ble?" he may plead. But persist
anyway. The best system is quietly
to produce the book that is to be
read; handing it from one to an
other, and keeping steadily to a 10
minute program, night after night.
OF course it will presently run to
far more than 10 minutes, and lively
arguments will trail themselves
right out of the dining room and con-
tinue over the dishpan, but that's
exactly what you want. Drill them
all In Americanism until there re-
mains no question as to the potenti-
alities Of their own Constitution that
they need leave unanswered. Don't
warn anyone Of what you are doing,
for both husband and children have
a deep-rooted objection to being edu-
Gated, but make your dinner-table a
little political forum for a few
months, and you'll find that they
want to keep it up longer than
you do.
1t is a great tragedy that with a
governmental system as flexible and
as inspired as ours; with a begin
nlng only 165 years ago that star
tied the whole world with its ideals
OF universal suffrage, equality and
humanity, we should let our chill
dren grow up with the idea that we
are just about as reactionary, as
filled with class distinctions and So
cial injustices as are the old nations
OF Europe. It Is surely no fault of
Americas founders that we know so
little OF our own country's ideals,
and use so imperfectly those that
we do know.
HistOry's Greatest Experiment.
Truly, injustices and suffering
have long had a foothold here. We
have slums, we have unemploy-
ment, we have crime. But we also
have, as an excuse, the largest in
ternational population that the world
has ever seen; we are making his
tory's greatest experiment IN the
amalgamstion of races, and inciden-
tally succeeding at it.
1t is inevitable that to the top of
our great melting-pot scum shall
arise. The laws Of all the Euro
pean countries are far from being
the same; it Is for us to reconcile
them.
America must teach us the lesson
that Europe never has learned, that
all these may live together in peace.
Meanwhile, il that hot-headed revo-
lutionary boy of yours can be made
to read the Declaration of Independ-
ence, the Constitution, the Bill of
Rights, and il you ask him temper
ately and alphabetically what he
and his new red friends want from
their country that is not obtainable
under these franchises, you will be
taxing a great step to reduce all our
little scattered disease spots of for
eign isms to our one great ism:
Americanism.