MY AMERICAN FRIENDS

States is not a thing that can be left to take
care of itself but must be cared for, tended and
fostered by all the means available, by the definite
teaching of patriotism, by flag-waving, by salutes
to the Stars and Stripes exacted from teachers
and children in schools, by frequent celebration
of national heroes, by public exaltation of every-
thing and everybody to whom the word
" American " can be specially attached. This
is natural and indeed inevitable. How often
have I heard the opinion expressed, by men
whose speech was worth attending to, that the
country was too big and too diversified to be
manageable by any form of government—as any
observer may see it would be if the economic
tie were broken. And here it is that standardi-
zation comes to the help of the Americans in the
mighty task of maintaining their national unity.

A patriotic Texan was discoursing to me not
long ago on the excessive bigness of the country
and wound up by lamenting that Texas had ever
surrendered her independence to the United
States. " We ought to have remained indepen-
dent,** he said, " after separating from Mexico.
We should then have conquered California,
and the two together would have become the
seat of a splendid civilization. But now we
are swamped in the general confusion." I replied
by telling him the story of the Maori chief who,
on being asked by a travelling anthropologist
to explain the unity of his tribe, pointed out