Unity and Liberty J&
is one of the marks of Americanism in a suburb, so there i* nt
reason why there should not be bridge clubs in schools. Th«
main political achievement of the high school? and gramma-
schools is to bring together the young of all classes anj ai
origins, to provide, artificially, the common background that ii
an old, rural society is provided by tradition, by the necessarj
collaboration of village life. The elementary schools, the
ugrade" schools do this, too, but as far as an American town
is broken up into racial blocks, the Ethan Allen Public Schoo]
may have mainly Polish pupils, the Zachary Chandler raainlj
Welsh. Only in the Warren G. Harding" High School is a
big enough common pool formed in which Americans can
be made.
Some of that Americanization is, of course, dene deliber-
ately and formally. Mr. Carlton Hayes pointed out long ago
that the ritual of flag worship and oath taking in an American
school was a religious observance. Little boys and girls, in a
school from which religion in the old sense is barred, solemnly
rising each morning and reciting together the "American's
Creed1'1 are performing a religious exercise as much as if they
began the day with "I believe in God the Father Almighty*'
or affirmed that "There is no God but God."
And that these daily rituals are religious has been at last
affirmed by the Supreme Court in a series of cases in which
tbe children of a fanatical sect, Jehovah's Witnesses, had
been excluded from schools for refusing to givte to the flag
honours that, their parents had taught them, were due to God
alone. In 1940, all the Court but Chief Justice Stone held
that flag worship was among the things that were Caesar's.
Now by a majority they have decided that the religious rights
of the children were being infringed. What is significant ia
the cases is not the reversal of itself by the Court, but the
reality of the issue presented to it. For to the Court, and to
* "I believe in the United States of America as a Government of the
people, by the people, for the people! whose just powers are derived from
the consent of the governed! a democracy in a republic, a sovereign Natkm
of many sovereign States! a perfect Union, one and inseparable I established
upon those principles of freedom* equality, justice* and humanity for which
American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it
is my duty to ray country to love it, to support its Constitution* to obey its
laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies/*