Milford chronicle., 1955-08-12

thorns and their wives who sus-
tanned and enlarged the spiritual
! forces which give the impulse to
our way of life today.
During the last score of years our
American way of life has been del
uged with criticism. 1t comes from
our own people who deplore our
faults and genuinely wish to RENE
dy them. Among these / myself
have Joined because of my anxieties
over mistaken policies and especial
lly the influence of Karl Marx on
our way of life. Criticism comes
daily from the habit of our political
parties to deplore the opposition.
1t arises from the fortnight refusal
of the American people to wash
their dirty linen in secret. 1t comes
| from our love of sensational Incl
dents where villanity is pursued by
law and virtue triumphs.
And it comes from the fuzzy
minded totalitarian liberals who be-
lieve that our creeping cOllectivism
can be adopted without destroying
the safeguards of free men. 1t comes
bitterly and daily from the Com
munists at home and abroad who
would overthrow our American
system. And it even comes from
free nations whom we have tried
to help.
Altogether, if we look at the criti-
cisms alone, we seem to be in a
very, very bad way and engaged in
our decline and fall.
But we should lift our eyes unto
hills from whence cometh our help.
We should occasionally mention
something good about ourselves.
We could point out that our
American way of life has perfected
the greatest productivity of any ma
ton on earth; that our standard of
living is the highest in the world.
We could point to our constantly
improving physical health and
lengthening span of life. We could
point out that the mechanical gem
ius of our people has, by millions
of labor-saving machines, taken the
sweat from the backs of most of
our people.
In the government field, we could
suggest that our supposedly deca-
dent people still rely upon the bal
lot and the legislative hall to settle
their differences without a secret
police with slave camps.
In the cultural field, we could
point out that with only about six
percent of the worlds population
we have more youth in our institu-
tions of higher learning than all the
rest of the world put together. We
could probably enumerate more Ii
braries and more printed serious
words than all other "a percent of
the earth put together.
On the moral and spiritual side,
we have more hospitals and charit-
able institutions than all of them.
And we could suggest that we
alone, of all nations, fought in two
world wars and asked no indemni-
ties, no acquisition of territory, no
domination over other nations.
We could point to our advance
ment of the spirit of compassion.
We could prove it by the billions
of dollars we have made as gifts to
have millions from famine and gov
ernments from collapse.
Much as / feel deeply the lag in
giving an equal chance to our Negro
yet / cannot refrain
from mentioning that our IA mill
lion American Negroes own more
that all the two hun
dred million Russians or the three
hundred million Negroes in Africa.
All of which is not boasting, but
Just fact. And we could say a good
0eal more.
What does all this mean? 1t
means that freedom of mind, of
spirit and of initiative still lives in
America. 1t means that our people
are strong in religious faith. Here
alone are the open windows through
which pours the sunlight of the hu-
man spirit. Here alone, even with
all its defects, is human dignity not
a dream but an accomplishment.