You are the hope of the world; an appeal to the girls and boys of America

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You Are The Hope
of The World

BY

HERMANN HAGEDORN

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YOU ARE THE HOPE OF
THE WORLD

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

NEW YORK • BOSTON" • CHICAGO • DALLAS
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.

TORONTO

YOU ARE THE HOPE
OF THE WORLD

AN APPEAL TO

THE GIRLS VXD BOYS

OF AMERICA

VXW A YD REVISED EDITION

BY

HERMANN HAGEDORN

AUTHOR OF "THE BOYS' LIFE OF
THEODOBE HOOSEVELT "

Xfto Yorfc

THE MACMLLAN COMPANY

1924

All righti reterved

Coptbight, 1917, 1920,
By HERMANN HAGEDORN.

Set up and electrotyped. Published January, igao.

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YOU ARE THE HOPE OF
THE WORLD!

Girls and boys of America, you are
the hope of the world I

During the Great War, boys of
your age in Europe have died by
thousands ! Millions lie dead ; other
millions are shattered for life by
wounds or the privations of prison-
camps. Millions! Can you imag-
ine it? Five million! Ten million!
God knows how many million more!
Twelve million. Fifteen million,
perhaps. It is an impossible figure
— so huge that it means nothing.
It means something only when you
consider that the trench in which

[1]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

the dead alone could be laid shoulder
to shoulder would stretch from the
Gulf of Mexico through Louisiana,
through Arkansas, through Missouri,
through Iowa, through Minnesota to
Canada ! From our southern border
to our northern border ! Laid shoulder
to shoulder the dead would stretch
from the outlet of the Mississippi to its
source, and beyond ! What of the other
millions, blind, lame, incapacitated?
They could stand with arms on each
other's shoulders, a shining belt of
manhood, from Sandy Hook to the
Golden Gate ! But they will not stand
anywhere again in strength and splen-
dor with arms on each other's shoul-
ders. They lie scattered in fields and
forests, in villages and bleak cities.
Boys who might have been great

[2]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

leaders of men lie there; boys who
might have been great scientists, great
poets, great tellers of tales, great in-
ventors, great merchants, great phy-
sicians, great preachers. Europe does
not know yet what she has lost. Eu-
rope has great scientists still, great
poets, great tellers of tales, inventors,
merchants, physician-. preachers.
But they are old, or aging. They will
pass away, and Europe will look
around and cry : "My old heroes are
passing. It is time for my young he-
roes to take the places of honor." And
Europe will call for her young heroes.
Europe will call for new poets, new
tellers of tales, new scientists, new
inventors, new merchants, new phy-
sicians, new preachers. And no one
will answer. No young heroes will ap-

[3]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

pear. And then Europe will know at
last how much she lost in the terrible
years of the Great War.

You have been dancing through
those years and spinning tops and
going to the movies and loafing at
street-corners (which is pleasant when
Spring is in the air) and reading
the sporting-columns and dolling up
your figure and your face; and over
there across the ocean every twenty
seconds, on an average, down has gone
a brave boy, and out has gone another
candle, and on one of you over here
suddenly has fallen a new responsibil-
ity. That French boy, or that Eng-
lish or German or Russian boy, may
have left his watch-fob to his brother
and his watch to his best friend,
but his chance in life he has left

[4]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

to you. He might have been a
great scientist and drawn some wiz-
ardry, yet unknown, out of the air ; he
might have been a great musician, a
great engineer; he might have been
the immortal leader men have been
looking for, ages long, to lead the
world to a better civilization. He's
gone, dead at nineteen. Young
America, you are his heir! Don't
you feel his mantle on your shoulders ?
"Mantle?" says Young America.
"What stuff are you giving us any-
way?" And off you go dancing, and
off you go to the movies, and off you
go joy-riding in Pa's car, spending Pa's
money ; and the twin-six sings as you
go, and the wheels sing, and you whis-
tle; and the gasoline flows into the
carburetor. Only it isn't gasoline;

[5]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

not really gasoline. It is the life-
blood of little children in Europe, not
flowing as blood flows on battlefields,
but just going off into thin air. For
children, too, have been dying in
Europe, starving, failing day by day,
going off into thin air. And each
little girl as she goes leaves her doll to
her sister, and each little boy as he goes
leaves his trumpet or his pocket-knife
to his brother ; but their chance in life
they leave to you. Don't you feel
the ragged mantles on your shoulders ?
"Mantles ! Come off !" cries Young
America. " What in blazes is all this
talk about a mantle? A mantle's a
sort of cape, an' capes are out of style,
an' I don't know what you're talk-
ing about, an' what's more, I don't
care, an' there's a new picture at the

[6]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

Bijou, an who are you anyway, I'd
like to know?"

"I'm a fellow who thinks a lot of
you, Young America."

You don't answer me right off.
You look me up and down and you
look me in the eye, and perhaps you
decide that I'm not trying to "save
my soul off you," and perhaps you're
a bit lonesome and unsatisfied and
perplexed for all the bluff you throw,
and perhaps you haven't so many
friends but that you'd be rather glad
for a new one, particularly if he's
young enough to remember what a
devil of a job it is at sixteen or there-
abouts to make heads or tails of your
place in Creation. And suddenly
something seems to open in your eyes,
and you let me look away down into

[7]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

that magic Ali Baba cave that is your
heart and you say :

' You said you thought a lot of me.
Do you mean it?"

"Yes."

You shrug your shoulders at that.
'Why do you feel that way ? " you ask.

"I think at bottom you're rather
fine."

You look away. "No, I'm not. I
don't — amount to anything. Least-
ways — "

"There's a whole world of people
these days hoping that you'll amount
to very much."

"Me?"

'Yes, you and boys and girls like
you. They call you the hope of the
world."

You shrug your shoulders again and

[8]

THE HOPE OF THE WOK LI)

sniff, and pretend you don't car.-.
But you do. You care a great deal.
But you'd rather not have anybody
know. So you smile a bit patroniz-
ingly, so I won't forget that you're
doing me a favor ; and offer me a ciga-
rette and light one yourself and blow
a puff or two through your nostrils;
and at last you ask :

"What's all this talk about a
mantle?"

"Just this, Young America. Once
upon a time there was a fine old fellow
named Elijah, a prophet. And there
was a young fellow who went around
with him named Elisha, a sort of as-
sistant prophet. Elijah did wonderful
miracles, parted the waves, for in-
stance; and people said there was
magic power in the mantle he al-

[9]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

ways wore. Elijah didn't die like or-
dinary men. He was suddenly carried
off to heaven in a chariot of fire.
But he left his mantle to Elisha, and
when Elisha wore it, carrying on the
old man's work, people said : ' The
spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha.'
And Elisha did great things. He was
the old man's heir. He wore the man-
tle of Elijah. Get me?"
"I — think — I — do— "
'Those English and French and
German and Belgian and Russian
boys have died by millions, with all the
great things they might have accom-
plished left undone. They've gone like
Elijah, not like ordinary men, but in
chariots of fire. Their mantles flutter
off and fall upon the shoulders of the
girls and boys of America."

[10]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

"That means me," says Young
America softly.

"Yes, Young America, that means
you."

Then you're silent for a bit, and
at last you say: "I hadn't thought
about it that way. Perhaps I haven't
thought about it much any way. I
suppose some of those young fellows
that have got blown to shucks in the
trenches over there might later have
been — why, all sorts of things —
Washingtons and Lincolns. And now
no one'll ever know. If Washington
and Lincoln had been mashed up at
nineteen we'd never have known.
Say, that makes you think, doesn't it ?"

"It does. For if they had been
mashed up at nineteen we might not
have a country now. We might be an

[11]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

English colony still and the slaves
might still be slaves."

"It makes me sort of sorry for Eu-
rope. Why, when the old duffers die,
they'll holler for new men and — "

'There won't be any new men."

' They'll get into a scrape — per-
haps another war like this — and
they'll holler for a Washington or a
Lincoln, or even for a What's-his-
name ? — Foch — or a What's-his-
name ? — Lloyd George — to pull 'em
out, and there won't — "

'There won't be any Washington
or Lincoln or Foch or Lloyd George."
"Who'll there be?"
"Perhaps nobody — in Europe."
You sit a minute, Young America,
thinking that over. And then sud-
denly you rise to your feet, and throw

[12]

THL-: HOPE OF THE WOULD

away your cigarette, and frown,

puzzled a bit. And then very slowly
you say :

""Why. it looks as though when that
time comes perhaps — it may —
be — up to us."

Right you are, Young America!

[13]

II

Girls and boys of America, you are
the hope of the world!

That isn't an empty phrase. What
remains of the youth of Europe is sick
and crippled and scarred in body
or spirit; and those who are chil-
dren to-day will have to give all their
energies to the mere physical rebuild-
ing of shattered cities and the more
difficult and delicate reconstruction
of shattered social systems. There
will be a dynamited Church that will
have to be restored ; and more than
one torpedoed Ship of State that will
have to be raised from the sea-bottom
and tugged into port and built over on
new lines (with only one class of pas-
[14 J

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

sengers and no steerage) and launched
again and put into commission with
new and wiser officers. All that will
have to be done. Schools will have to
be overhauled, histories will have to
be rewritten. There will be no time
for men to struggle long and patiently
in art or science or literature. There
will be too much common drudgery
that will have to be done, day by day,
too much plain manual labor. And
the men of vision will be few.

Girls and boys of America, you are
the hope of the ivorld! We have a rich
country. We have not been touched
by the War. Not really touched by
it. Not touched as Belgium and
France and England and Germany
have been touched, clutched, throt-
tled, flung down by it ! You who are
[15]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

ten, twelve, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,
or seventeen now have felt the War only
as a thrilling and romantic adventure
which you shared with your elder
brothers in your day-dreams. You
iiave had a little less sugar than usual,
a little less meat and wheat flour —
and that is as near as the pain and
privation and sorrow of the War has
rome to most of you.

It is as near as the War has come to
eighty-five out of every hundred in
America. Most of your elders have
taken up life where they dropped it
when war came upon us. They talk
and they act as though these years
of gigantic struggle and upheaval
had never been. They cannot or
they will not see that the world is
an utterly changed place, and that

[16]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

our America has, overnight, l';illen
heir to the responsibilities of world
leadership.

It is a terrible thing that they
should be blind to this, and heedless
of their own share of those responsi-
bilities. But it would be a worse
thing ■ — it would be disaster — if you,
girls and boys, should be blind to it.

Bill and Jack and George and Mary
and Susan and Jane - have you eves
to see, minds to plan, wills to act,
backbones to carry through ?

That is the great question. At
bottom, it is the greatest question
confronting this dear country of ours.
At bottom, it is greater than any
question of presidents or political
parties — the question, In the
nation's crisis, in the world's crisis, of

[17]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

what stuff are the girls and boys of
America made ?

You are the hope of the world! That
isn't empty rhetoric. That is hard
fact. But, you say, there are girls
and boys in other countries scarcely
touched by the War ; in India, for in-
stance, in Japan, in China, millions of
them ; there are girls and boys in Nor-
way and Sweden and Spain and Hol-
land and South America. Why, you
say, are we the world's hope? Why
must we carry that responsibility?
We'd rather not, you say.

You can't evade it, Young America.
The stars have conspired against you.
Destiny, which made your country
rich and gave her great leaders in time
of need, and helped her to build a mag-
nificent republic out of many race*

[18]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

and many creeds; Destiny, that
brought you lo the light under the
Eagle and the Stars and Stripes;
Destiny, that chose America to be I In-
greatest laboratory, the greatest test-
ing-ground of democracy in the world ;
Destiny, Fortune, God, whatever you
want to call it, laid on you the privi-
lege and the responsibility of being
the hope of a world in tears. You
can carry this responsibility, and be
glorious. You can throw it off, and
be damned. But you cannot ig-
nore it.

Before the War, the civilized world
looked to Europe for leadership and
inspiration. Henceforth, the world
will look for them to America. We
have the wealth, we have the energy,
we have the youth. The European

I 19]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

nations, victors and vanquished, are,
in a sense, like men blinded by the
dust and poison of battle, groping over
their shell- torn fields for some one to
tell them which way to turn for light
and air. And all that is the reason
why one question is so surpassingly
important: Girls and boys of Amer-
ica, are you making ready to be their
guide ?

You are the hope of the world! And
are you, while brave men wrestle in
America and in Europe with revolu-
tion and the problems of making this
earth of ours a safe and decent place
to live in, are you going to go on
dancing and spinning on your ear
and going to the movies and the
music-shows and loafing at street-
corners and reading the sporting-page
[20]

Tin: hope of tiik world

and dolling up your figure and your

face? Or are you going to wake up
suddenly to the emptiness and the
Ugliness of all this, and throw it aside,
crying, "By crickets, there are big
things in this world, and, by all that's
clean in me and true iu m< and brave
in me and American in me, I'm going
out to find them and give my heart
and soul to them and make myself a
part of them; so that, as Ear as 1 am
concerned, the hope of the world shall
be fulfilled!"

Young America, of what stuff are
you made?

[21]

Ill

Girls and boys of America, you are
the hope of the world!

And, what's more, taking you all
in all, you deserve to be. Asia can't
show your equal, nor Europe, nor
Africa, nor South America. You
have poise and ease of bearing, strong
bodies, strong wills, alert minds,
big hearts; freedom of manner and
speech — great freedom at times —
persistence, flexibility, large-minded-
ness; love of wild country and of
violent exercise ; truthfulness, tender-
ness, candor, courage; a sense of
humor, a sense of decency; purity,
chivalry, loyalty, imagination. I know
nothing more wonderful in poetry or
[22]

THE BOPE OF THE WORLD

life than some of you at ten, twelve,
fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen.
At your best, you are like new swords,
drawn for battle, keen and bright ; fit
for any high service under heaven.

Of course, you're not always at
your best. You can be almost unbe-
lievably cheap; when you haven't
had the advantage of poverty, you
can, now and then, be a disgusting
Rat. But you don't often lie, and you
very seldom cheat ; and you cherish
the terms gentleman and fair play and
get together (which, after all, are the
terms on which democracy is based,
and the new world we hope for will be
based) ; and you hate a quitter as
you hate nothing else on earth. You
have only one unforgivable vice : you
have a terrible habit of throwing
[23]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

away your most precious possessions.
You are ashamed of having imagina-
tion, ashamed of having aspirations,
ashamed of being the splendid human
beings that you are. And so, day in,
day out, you sell your birthright for
a mess of pottage. There's a tradition
among the girls and boys you run
with that the things that really count
in life are dancing and the movies and
clothes and the sporting-page and
cheap talk and making money ; so you
try dutifully to choke off the other
things, imagination, poetry, the spirit
of adventure, and the old-fashioned
notion that it would be rather fine to
be a great man or a great woman some
day and help to run the world. It
isn't always easy to choke them off,
but you go at them as a knight-

[24]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

errant goes at a dragon ; and one by
one you get them ; and you're a great
success in society and you acquire a
lot of money; but you don't amount
to much as a man or a woman. A lot
of you who were an inspiration at
sixteen, the kind Shakespeare calls
"golden lads and girls," are deadly
at twenty-six. You're a desert — just
hard, gray sand and hard, blue sky,
and an occasional cactus, and, scat-
tered here and there, a skeleton or two
of things that have died of thirst.

I have watched you for a good many
years, Young America, because I am
fond of you, and because you are such
good company. And again and again
I have said to myself : "Thai fellow's
going to amount to something. That
fellow's going to put it over." And

[26]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

almost every time you've fooled me.
The bright sword rusts easily, it seems,
and sticks in the scabbard. At any
rate, one doesn't seem to see it flash-
ing in great battles for a high cause as
often as one would expect. Out of
every hundred girls and boys who are
fine fires sending sparks rushing up-
ward to the stars — at ten, twelve,
fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen —
ninety-nine, it seems, burn out or are
drowned out before they are twenty-
two.

There is something deeply tragic
about that. I am not sure that it isn't
as tragic in its way as the killing of
men in Europe. Perhaps it is because
no one calls you forth to a campaign
that can enlist all that you possess of
aspiration and idealism ; perhaps it
[26]

THE HOl'E OF THE WORLD

is just lack of leadership that makes
you lose your fresh splendor so quickly.
For, somehow, girls and boys of Amer-
ica, between the years of seventeen
and twenty-two the fine edge of your
spirits is blunted. You have a way of
becoming commonplace, dull, matter-
of-fact, mercenary, cheap ; insensitive
to beauty, insensitive to others' pain ;
{ more or less efficient machine with a
money-bag where the heart was when
you were ten, twelve, fourteen, fifteen,
sixteen, seventeen.

[27

IV

Girls and boys of America, you are
the hope of the world!

Not men and women of America,
not even young men and young
women of America, but girls and boys !
You who carry the unblunted swords
of ten-to-seventeen, you are the ones
who are the hope of the world. Not
to die for the world, but to live for
it, to think for it, to work for it ; to
keep sharp and unstained by rust
the splendid sword of the spirit !

It is not only because you are your-
selves fine and true and upright and
daring and free, Young America, that
the world finds its hope in you. The
world knows the men, the great deeds

[28]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

and the principles, greater than men

or deeds, that have made this Amer-
ica of yours and mine. The world
knows that in you, whether your an-
cestors came over in the M<t//Jloirer
three hundred years ago, or in the
steerage of a liner twenty years ago,
lives the spirit of a "Teal tradition.
The world puts its hope in you, bill
not only in you. It puts its hope in
the great ghosts that stand behind
you, upholding your arms, whispering
wisdom to you, patience, persever-
ance, courage, crying, "Go on, Young
America! We back you up!" Wash-
ington, first of all ! And around him,
Putnam, Warren, Hancock, Samuel
Adams, John Adams, Hamilton, Jef-
ferson, Marshall, Greene, Stark ! You
remember Stark ? Stark held the rail

[29]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

fence at Bunker Hill. But Congress
thought the country could do without
Stark, and they promoted youngsters
over his head and Stark resigned, and
then came trouble and Congress yelled
for John Stark, and John Stark came
and won Bennington ! And because he
won Bennington, Schuyler and Gates
won Saratoga and Saratoga licked
Burgoyne and decided the Revolution.
A great fighter was John Stark ! And
John Stark is behind you, Young
America! Anthony Wayne's behind
you, Mad Anthony of the immortal
charge up Stony Point ; Morris, going
from house to house, collecting dollars
for the starved Continentals; Ben
Franklin, in France, fighting to win
friends for the new nation ! They are
behind you ! And there is Marion
[30]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

with his men, living in the wilderness
like Robin Hood in Sherwood.

Our band is few, but true and tried.

Our leader frank and bold ;
The British soldier trembles

When Marion's name is told.
Our fortress is the good greenwood

Our tent the cypress tree;
We know the forest round us,

As seamen know the sea.

Woe to the English soldiery

That little dread us near !
On them shall light at midnight

A strange and sudden fear:
When, waking to their tents on fire,

They grasp their arms in vain,
And they who stand to face us

Are beat to earth again ;
And they who fly in terror deem

A mighty host behind.
And hear the tramp of thousands

Upon the hollow wind.

[31]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

Marion is behind you! Marion,
who said: "Never shall a home be
burned by one of my people. To
distress poor women and children is
what I detest ! " You remember what
the British officer said of Marion's
band? "They go without pay, they
go without clothes, living on roots
and drinking water — all for liberty.
What chance have we against such
men t

Splendid ghosts! They stand be-
hind you, solid and strong !

And there at your back is Paul
Jones of the Bonhomme Richard.
You remember? He swept the seas,
he landed in England. But when his
men stole an English lord's silver, did
he let them keep it ? Not a bit of it !
It took him years to find a way to get
[32]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

that silver hack where it belonged, l>ut
back it went at last, with his apologies !

Young America, t he men who stand
behind you fought hard when they
fought, but they fought men, not
women and children ! And they were
not pickpockets !

Look behind you, Young America!

Bainbridge, Preble, Decatur !

You remember? All Europe paid
tribute to pirates in Barbary, and
America paid tribute, because every-
body else did it ; it seemed to be
the style. But then some Bashaw in
Tripoli or Tunis, seeing easy money,
jacked up his price. And Europe
said: "Oh, all right. If you'll only
keep quiet !" But the little U. S.
cried : "No, you dirty pirate ! We're
hanged if we'll pay you another cent ! "

[33]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

And the ships went over, gallant ships
with all sails full, and there was no more
tribute-paying after they came back !

Hull of the Constitution which
whipped the Guerriere; Perry of Lake
Erie; McDonough of Lake Cham-
plain, gallant men all, stand behind
you. Jackson is there, Jackson who
whipped the troops that whipped
Napoleon ; that sturdy fighter for free
speech, who died with his boots on in
the halls of Congress — John Quincy
Adams — is behind you !

Union, one and indissoluble!

You remember ? Webster said that.
Webster is behind you. Clay is be-
hind you ! Rogers and Clark are be-
hind you, Fremont, Daniel Boone, Kit
Carson, Sam Houston, Davy Crock-
ett. You remember? "Ther-
[34]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

mopylre had its messengers of death,

the Alamo had none." The frontiers-
men, the Indian fighters, the pioneers
are behind you, dauntless of spirit;
the colonists of Virginia, Massachu-
setts, Connecticut, the New Nether-
lands, the Carolinas ; the settlers in
wild lands, pressing westward to
Ohio, to Illinois, to Kansas, to Cali-
fornia, men and women, unafraid,
clear-eyed; the brave builders of the
West are behind you. Young America,
upholding your hands ! It is a great
army of ghosts, Young America, that
stands back of you ! Armies in Blue
and Gray, brave, noble, true to the
best they knew ! Farragut is there !
Grant is there, silent, tenacious, mag-
nanimous ! Stonewall Jackson is
there, and Lee! And in the midst
[35]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

of them, the greatest of all, Lincoln,
with his hand on your shoulder,
Young America, saying, "Sonny, I'm
with you. Go on !"

"Captain, my Captain !" Whitman
is there, immortal crier of democ-
racy ! Hosea Biglow is there ! Long-
fellow is there, Bryant, Emerson,
Whittier, Hawthorne, Poe, Lanier,
Moody ; the inventors, Fulton, Whit-
ney, Morse ; the orators, Garrison,
Phillips, Beecher!

Look behind you, Young America !
As far as the eye can see, ghosts, splen-
did and serene, builders and servitors !

There's Patrick Henry ! Can't you
hear his words echoing down the
dark places? "Is life so dear, or
peace so sweet as to be purchased
at the price of slavery?" Glorious

[36]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

ghost! Thank Cod, we have proved
that we have not forgotten him !

There's Seward, there's Schuyler,
there's Franz Sigel, there's Lafay-
ette, there's Steuben, Rochambeau,
Pulaski, Kosciusko!

There's Standish, there's Winthrop,
there's Nathaniel Bacon, there's
Jonathan Edwards, there's Mark
Twain (bless his heart !), there's Hor-
ace Greeley (a great fellow, though
he did bother the life out of Lincoln) ;
there's Sergeant Jasper, there's Carl
Schurz, there's Pickett of the Charge,
there's Mary Eddy (a grand fighter,
whether you like her or not !) ; there's
Grover Cleveland, there's Booker
Washington, there's Shaw with his
negroes, there's Custer, there's Park-
man, there's John Hay, there's Wil-
[37]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

bur Wright, there's Dewey, there's
Inez Milholland!

And there with the greatest is
Theodore Roosevelt, joyous, coura-
geous, magnificent, stern, immortal
leader of youth !

Heroes all, Young America, as far
as the eye can reach ! And beyond
them, into the gray distance, the
heroes without name — in war, the
soldiers, the sailors, the nurses, the
women who waited at home ; in
peace, the school-teachers, the scien-
tists, the parsons, the physicians,
the workers in slums ; the fighters
everywhere for justice, for truth, for
light ; for clean cities, clean business,
clean government !

Heroes are behind you, upholding
you, Young America !
[38]

Girls and boys of America, you arc
the hope of the world!

Why ?

Because the youth of Europe is dead
or bent beneath the burden of daily,
unrelieved drudgery; and because
you possess in a greater degree than
the youth of any other country, un-
ravaged and unspent by the War, alert
minds, large hearts, adventurous and
indomitable spirits; a tradition of
freedom ; a past peopled with the
ghosts of intrepid, liberty-loving men
and women ; and a pure ideal of
democracy. And it is to democracy
that the racked, the tortured world is
turning its eyes.

[39]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

Young America, our country has
fought and helped to win a great war.
You know what the war was about.
It was a war between kings and free
men. The nations that believed in
kings and distrusted the people
challenged, with intent to destroy or
render helpless, the nations that be-
lieve in the people and won't let kings
out in public without a license, a
muzzle, and a line. It was war be-
tween autocracy and democracy, and
beyond that it was a war to make an
end of war; a struggle between the
powers who believed that there was
profit in war and the powers who
knew that there was no profit in it;
between the powers who were looking
back to a sort of spectacled cave-man
as an ideal and the powers who were
[40]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

looking forward to a reasoning, reason-
able, law-abiding man with a ballot.
The Great War was begun by kings ;
it was ended by men named Smith and
Jones and Robinson. The kings arc
• lead or in exile. Out of the loin-
years' agony has come "a new birth
of freedom."

Young America, to-day we all know
what formerly only a few inspired
leaders recognized, that civilization
demands the spread of the democratic
idea. Kings take to war as Con-
gressmen take to Appropriation bills,
and for the identical reason. Noth-
ing in history is surer. Kings found
war profitable, no doubt, even before
King David discovered a new use for
war by sending the husband of Batli-
sheba "to the forefront of the hottest

[41]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

battle." When kings wanted glory,
they went and won it at the expense
of their neighbors ; when they wanted
to round out a corner of the nation,
the way you and I like to round out
a corner of the farm, they went to
war and took it. And when their
people rebelled, they went to war for
no reason at all, but just to quiet them
by the presence of danger without.
A good many men died and a good
many women and children became
destitute in the course of those ad-
ventures, but kings have romance on
their side and they have always made
believe that they had God on their
side, too. The Kaiser isn't the first
king who has chattered about Me und
Gott. He is merely the last of a long,
sad line of self-deluded frauds.
[42]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

Kings gain by war, and cliques of
nobles or plutocrats gain by war ; the
Lords of Special Privilege, the Junk-
ers, the reactionaries, the "standpat-
ters," thrive and grow fat on aggres-
sion. But the people do not thrive
on it. Smith and Jones and Robinson
do not gain by aggression. Uncle
Sam might annex Cuba, Mexico, Can-
ada, South America, and Siberia to-
morrow, and Smith and Jones and
Robinson would gain nothing from it
all. They would lose. For, while a
few unscrupulous men grew rich, ex-
ploiting the new-won territory for
their personal gain, public attention
would ,be so fixed on the romantic glit-
ter of conquest that, in its shadow,
corruption would thrive as never be-
fore. Progress within the nation would

[43]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

cease while we pursued the treacher-
ous will-o'-the-wisp of imperialism
into distant marshes. Smith and
Jones and Robinson know this, and
where they control the government
there is not much talk of colonies and
the White Man's Burden. The gov-
ernments that are controlled by Smith
and Jones and Robinson, which means
the Common People, are called de-
mocracies ; and in so far as they are
true democracies they are a force for
the abolition of war.

[44]

VI

Girls and boys of America, you are
the hope of the world.

Why?

Because the world is sick to death
of war. and the world knows that kings
favor war and democracies abhor war ;
and because the United States is the
most powerful democracy in the world
and because, when Europe's present
leaders are dead, you, girls and boys
of ten, twelve, fourteen, fifteen, six-
teen, seventeen, will be governing the
United States, and therefore, if you
wish, leading the world ! Be clear
about this. The world looks to you
in hope because you are the logical
heirs of the present generation of

145]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

leaders. If you have the gumption
and the go, the knowledge, the vision,
and the largeness of heart to accept
that inheritance, you will have it in
your power to determine the course of
the world's history for centuries to
come !

Does that startle you a bit, Young
America? I hope so. Perhaps you
need to be startled a little. Surely,
you are not entirely conscious of the
responsibility that this Great War has
laid upon your shoulders; or fully
aware of the complete shift in your
point of view which that responsi-
bility is going to demand. It is easy
for you to recognize that the War has
completely changed the life and the
interests of the girls and boys of your
age in Serbia and Belgium ; it is easy

[46]

THE HOPE OF THE WORU

for you to see also how much it must
have changed the lives of your
brothers who went to camp and to
France and came back with a new
vision, a new understanding, a new
regard for their potentialities as
citizens of a democracy. What I am
trying to make clear to you now,
Young America, is that the War
changed the conditions of your lives
no less than it changed the conditions
of the lives of the boys of all nations
who worked and fought and bled and
suffered in France. They were called
to serve their country, and you are
called to serve your count ry. They
were called, if need be, to die for their
country; you are called, on the other
hand, to live for your country. Those
who died in the fight for democracj

[47]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

died for more than their country ;
they died to build a lasting peace.
You who live for the service of democ-
racy live for the service of more than
your country. You live to build, out
of the agony and the ashes, a better
world than the sun has yet shone upon !
Girls and boys of America, you are
the hope of the world! But you can't
go on living as rashly and unconcern-
edly as you have until to-day, if you
intend to fulfill that hope. No one
is demanding impossible deeds or
sacrifices of you. What is it that the
world does ask ? First of all, it asks
this : It asks you to stop dancing for
a minute, give up the movies for an
afternoon, run Pa's car into the
garage, and sit down and think about
your country.

[48]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

The world asks you to think. It
doesn't ask you to stand on a street-
corner and wave the Sag; ii doesn'1

ask you to enlist. The world asks you
to sit down and think about your
country.

The world, mind you !

It isn't only America that demands
that yon sit down and think about
America. It is the world, it is the
broken hearts in all the world, -- in
England, Germany, Prance, Belgium,
Russia, Serbia. Armenia, Africa, In-
dia, Australia, Canada, Mexico, —
who ask you in the interest of the
whole wTorld to sit down and consider
what America stands for, what Amer-
ica is, and what America might be.

What does America stand for? The
Declaration of Independence has

[49]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

something to say about that. "We
hold these truths to be self-evident,"
it declares, "that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Govern-
ments are instituted among Men, de-
riving their just powers from the con-
sent of the governed." Lincoln, too,
has something to say about what
America stands for; it is "govern-
ment of the people, by the people, for
the people." In short, what America
stands for is democracy.

" Chestnuts ! " says Young America,
aged, say, thirteen. "Tell us some-
thin' new. Teacher learned me that
in the Third Grade."

[50]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

"Right you arc. Young America!
What else did she learn you?"

"I dunno." (Which is probably
true.)

"Did she tell you that democracy
was a success?"

"Well, I just guess! She wasn't
a lady with a little hammer. She was
a real American."

"I see. A real American, you
think, is somebody who tells you that
everything is going well with the
grand old U. S. A. Is that it?"

"Yes, sirree !"

"Or put it another way. Some-
body who tells you that everything
isn't all running smoothly with Amer-
ica is a bad American, eh?"

"You bet. If Teacher tried to geV
oft' any knocks on Uncle Sam, I'd tell
[51]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

my father, and my father' d get her
discharged."

'You're off, sonny. And your
father's off. All you spread-eagle
people, who think that the only way
to be loyal to Uncle Sam is to pretend
that he's perfect as a cottonwool peach,
are off. Your Uncle Sam isn't perfect,
sonny. In fact, he's just about a hun-
dred thousand miles from perfect."

The Patriot, aged thirteen, stiffens
up at that.

"I guess your name's Benedict
Arnold," says he.

Off again, Young America! I'm
not Benedict Arnold — and you're not
George Washington. We're just two
plain, loyal Americans, trying to lend
our Uncle Samuel a real helping hand.
Look at it this way. Your Uncle

[52]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

Samuel, we'll say, La .1 t>it of a rough-
neck still; that is, be hasn't had
all the advantages. He's of mixed
blood, English, ( rerman, Scotch, Irish,
Dutch, Italian, Jew, Slovak, and SO
on, and the various red, white, and
blue corpuscles in his veins aren't
always on speaking terms. He's sub-
ject to all sorts of disorders that make
him peevish now and then ; and now
and then they make him sluggish and
want to go to sleep. But, when he's at
his best, he's trying with all his might
and main to make a great, splendid
man of himself. A sort of Abraham
Lincoln is what he wants to be, pa-
tient and magnanimous, but stronger
than concrete and more powerful than
"Busy Berthas" when it comes to
sticking up for right and justice. If

[53]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

Uncle Sam is ever going really to re-
semble Abraham Lincoln, he'll have to
get after some of his bad habits — soon.
He'll have to look at himself squarely
and without blinking, and say : "Sam-
uel, there are certain things about you
I don't like. Cut them out!"

Uncle Sam — he stands for the
United States, trying to be good and
great. He stands for all of us to-
gether, trying to make ourselves a
good and great nation. But the only
way our U. S. A. ever will be good and
great is for us all to look at ourselves,
to look at our nation squarely and
without blinking, and keep our minds
alert lest we get into bad company
and do things that George and
Abraham might not like.

But there are folks who go about,

[54]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

crying: "No! Don't look at your
own faults. Look at the faults of
others and forgel your own. You'll
be mueh happier thai way!" And
because it's less of a strain on their
mental apparatus to preach lhat
America is always righl and the other
fellow is always wrong than to tell you
the truth, these folks tell you that
everything is fine and flourishing, thai
the U. S. A. has never done a mean
thing or a stupid thin.-, and thai we've
won every war we've walked into, and
that democracy is a great and glorious
success. Young America, there are
times when I should like to see certain
folks shot at sunrise in that empty lot
down the block.

For that sort of jabber is, in the
first place, a lie.

[55]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

And in the second place, it's a
silly lie.

And in the third place, it's treason,
for it makes you think there's nothing
for you to do. And that's like putting
a bomb under the Capitol.

Young America, I know you don't
like to have me say that democracy
isn't a success. It sounds disloyal
somehow. But it isn't disloyal. It's
just trying to look at things squarely,
and without blinking, as you and I,
being heirs of a gallant tradition, want
to look at them. Democracy isn't a
success — yet. Government of the
people, by the people, for the people,
isn't achieved — yet. Do you think
it is?

You remember what the Grand Old
[56]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

Fellows said in the Declaration : Men
are "endowed by I heir Creator with
certain unalienable Rights . . . Lite,
Liberty, and the pursuit of Happi-
ness." Look about yon. Does it
seem to yon that the slums in your
own city afford life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness to the men and
women and children, freezing and
starving in winter, sweltering and
starving in summer? Does it seem
to yon that the factories where chil-
dren work eight, ten, twelve, fourteen
hours a day help those children
achieve those unalienable rights ? Do
"pork-barrel" bills, political rings,
boss rule on the one hand, indifference
to the duties of citizenship on the
other, graft, bribery, corruption, spe-
cial privilege, and the faces of your
[57]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

representatives in Congress convince
you, Young America, that we have
achieved what Lincoln wanted us to
achieve and to hold — government
of the people, by the people, for the
people ? Doesn't it seem to you that
what we have is government of the
people, for a part of the people, by a
fraction of the people, who, because of
idealistic or sordid motives, have the
gumption to get out and do, what we
all, every mother's son of us, should
be out and doing ?

Democracy isn't a success, Young
America, — not yet. But it isn't a
failure, either. Not yet. It's just a
gorgeous experiment, that you and
I and Tom and Mary and Jane and
Betty and Larry and Jack and Susan
and Bill could make a success that
[58]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

would shake the world, it" we'd only
make up our minds to take democracy
as seriously as we take, say, baseball
— or crepe de chine.

We know what America stands for ;
we know what America is. Golden
girls and boys, have you ever thought
what America might be?

[59]

VII

You are the hope of the world! And
the world asks you, first of all, to sit
down and think about your country —

It is a mystery to me, Young
America, why the great men, whose
lives and heroic deeds make up the his-
tory of this Republic, should have per-
mitted us, the nieces and nephews of
Uncle Sam, to take democracy, to take
the principle of popular government,
as lightly, as carelessly, as we have
taken it. Perhaps they lacked im-
agination to see what a republic, based
as firmly as ours, might accomplish
with an alert and conscientious
citizenry ; perhaps, like Lincoln, they

[60]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

were too busy with enormous prob-
lems, concrete and immediate, to do
more than point out t li«- direction of
progress; perhaps they were just
optimistic, trusting blissfully in the
old, convenient notion that, by means
of some piece of divine jugglery, some
light-fingered shifting of omelets under
a hat, the voices of five, ten, fif-
teen million farmers, factory-hands,
brokers, lawyers, clerks, longshore-
men, saloon-keepers, Tammany Hall
heelers, murderers, repeaters, and
hyphenates became the Voice of
God. Our great men have been
loyal to the principle of democracy.
All of them have praised it; all of
them have worked for it ; some of
them have called upon us to die for
it, and have themselves led the way.
[61]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

But few, if any, have hammered into
our heads the simple truth that
democracy is like religion ; it isn't
a Sunday overcoat, but a beautiful
and delicate plant, set in that most
precious of flowerpots — the human
heart ; and that, like other plants, it
must be watered and fed and tended.
You might as well throw it into the
furnace at once as neglect it.

Young America, doesn't it seem to
you that, although our great men have
been discoursing much and very nobly
concerning the general principles of
horticulture, they have been neglect-
ing the individual plants, and letting
them wither for lack of food and
drink? It seems to me so, Young
America. We're never tired of talk-
ing about the glories of popular gov-
[62]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

eminent, and very few of us admit
that we're ever tired of hearing about
them, bul what definite thing do we
ever do t<> keep alive that little sprig
of democracy which is native in the
heart of «\ ery American girl and boy ?
What do we do to feed it and tend it
and water it? America depends for
its life, its liberty, its happiness, on a
wide-awake and conscientious citizen-
ship ; but what do we ever do to build
up such a citizenship? What do we
do to bring the individual sprig of de-
mocracy to flower ?

You know the answer, Young Amer-
ica. Wre don't do anything. We
don't weed, we don't water. WTe
trust to luck, or to the Lord, who is
supposed to be especially gracious to
incompetents; though I dare say, if
[63]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

the Lord's opinion were really known,
the trust-to-lnck incompetents might
feel impelled to scurry to cover.
Those of us who trust neither in luck
nor blindly in the Lord trust in some-
thing vague but radiant which we call
the Destiny of America. Good ! We
have a right to trust in it. But before
you lie down and leave the work to
that shining spirit, Young America,
I recommend that you go boldly
toward Brother Destiny and confront
him and look him in the eye. Would
you be terrified, would you be sullen,
or would you be glad and supremely
proud if you were to discover that the
face and features of that figure you
call the Destiny of America are your
own?

Young America, I said that we who

[64]

THK BOPE OF THE WORLD

make 1 1 1 > this grand Republic of ours
make no pretense of taking really
seriously the principles of popular

government on which this country is
based. Am I wrong? Democracy^

to be a success, depends on alert and
conscientious citizenship. What do
your elders do to build up such citizen-
ship ? What school or college that
you ever heard of has in its curriculum
emphasized the prime importance of
citizenship? Do they teach you
civics in your school ? Perhaps. Do
they make it hopelessly dull ? Un-
doubtedly. Perhaps they give you
a dab at current events — mostly
events, and mighty little, I'll swear,
about the current on which they float.
For history, I suppose they give you
the same accumulation of pleasant

[65]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

legends they gave me when I was
fifteen or thereabouts. All about the
glory, and nothing about the shame,
the stupidity, the greed ! As though
you were a fool who didn't know that
no man and no country can be all
good or all bad ; that both are a
mixture of good and bad, and will be
loved by their children even if they
do make mistakes ! Young America,
the next time you hear anybody
spread-eagle, whisper Bladensburg in
his ear. You will probably find he
has never heard of Bladensburg.
No spread-eagle man ever has. In
that case, you might explain to him
that at Bladensburg, near Washing-
ton, in 1814, the American army faced
the British army, and President Madi-
son and his Cabinet came out to see
[66]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

the fun, and after one volley the
American army turned and ran and
the President ran with the rest of
them and the Cabinet trailed along
as tight as it could go. And that
night the British burned Washington.
Bladensburg doesn't offer an inspiring
picture, but it points several interest-
ing little morals. What happened
once may happen again. It is wise
now and then to brush your teeth,
and it is wise now and then to sit
down and think of Bladensburg.
Both of those operations would be
described by doctors as prophylactic.
Young America, if you had a phono-
graph factory that demanded skilled
labor, and you found you could get
nothing but greenhorns to work for
you, what would you do ? Would you
[67]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

gather the greenhorns together in
your office, and invite Caruso to
address them on the Educational
Value of the Phonograph and some
one else to lecture on the History of
Voice-Recording Instruments, and a
particularly Pompous and Standpat
Ass to say a few words about the
Dignity of Labor? Not a bit of it!
You and your foremen would take
those greenhorns each to a machine
and you'd explain the machine ; you'd
tell him what it was supposed to do
and how it was supposed to do it.
And you wouldn't leave that machine
at the mercy of that greenhorn until
you were sure that he knew how to
handle it.

The government of the United
States is a great factory. It is a fac-
[68]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

tory for the manufacture of pros-
perity, happiness, and spiritual well-
being. Bui we do doI handle it as
you or any other sensible man would
handle a factory. In the firsl place,
we do not select our foremen as a rule
because they know the particular job
we wish them to handle better than
any one else knows it, but because
they are good mixers, good trimmers,
and have fewer enemies than the
other man. Coldly analyzed, that
does not seem a very brilliant thing
to do; in fact, it rather seems the
sort of antic the Mad Hatter might
have proposed to Alice in Wonderland
if they had decided to depose the
blood-thirsty Queen and set up a
government of their own. But it
isn't any sillier than the attitude of
[69]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

your elders, Young America, toward
the men who keep the wheels of the
factory moving — the citizens. As
boys, they are all greenhorns ; and the
sad thing is that as far as citizenship
goes, most of them stay greenhorns
all their lives. Every American boy
becomes a hand in the great Factory
of Public Welfare we call the United
States, the day he is twenty-one. He
knows he is going into that factory,
and his elders know he is going into
it, and they all know that his happi-
ness and their own happiness may
depend on his loyalty to the interests
of that factory and his understanding
of the machinery of that factory.
You'd think they'd tell him some-
thing beforehand about machinery in
general, wouldn't you ? You'd think
[70]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

they'd prepare him ;i bit to be a
good mechanic when his time came.
The machinery is so fine and deli-
cate, you'd think the Directors would
insist on reducing to a minimum the
risk of smashing it up.

But they don't.

Directors arc runny things, as you
know. These Directors go from
school to school, and instead of scold-
ing the school-teachers for failing to
give you training in government-
mechanics, they pat you on the back,
Young America, and tell you to be
good factory hands, nice factory
hands, loyal factory hands ; and that
the Factory is the grandest factory in
the world, and you ought to be glad
that you belong to that particular
factory, because it is a free factory,

[71]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

where every one can do exactly as he
pleases. The Directors say a great
many uplifting things, but do they
take you to the machine and explain it
to you, and stand over you until you
know what makes it go ?

Oh, no ! Nothing like that !

They tell you that you are the
greatest little mechanic in the world
and then leave you to wreck the ma-
chine as thoroughly as your native
common sense will permit. As for
freedom — for the ignorant and the
untrained there is no such thing as
freedom. The ignorant and the un-
trained are slaves to their own ineffi-
ciency. Those only are free who
know.

Young America, girls and boys can
be trained to the work of citizenship
[72]

THE HOPE OF THE WOULD

even as greenhorns can be I rained
to the use of machinery; trained in
the home, trained in school, trained
in College. And we must be trained.
Young America, it' this country is
ever going to l>«- the wise, the just,
the humane force for progress in the
world thai we want it to he. We
must be taught the meaning of govern-
ment, and the relation and the respon-
sibility of the individual citizen
toward his government. We must be
taught the responsibility in a democ-
racy of each for all, the necessity of
keeping the laws abreast of changing
conditions, the need for cooperation,
for individual initiative, for integrity
in office, for conscientious fulfillment
of promises. We must be taught the
meaning of international law and the
[73]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

responsibility of each nation for the
upholding of international law; we
must be taught American history,
not as it might have been, but as it is ;
and we must be taught enough world
history to help us understand our
place in the congregation of nations.
We must be taught the perils of un-
preparedness, in personal life as in na-
tional life, in matters civil as in mat-
ters military, unpreparedness for
peace and unpreparedness for war.

You would think that all this would
be so obvious that schoolmasters
would have begun to hammer such
matters into American girls and boys
the morning after the Declaration of
Independence was signed. The thing
seems so clear :

A. We are a democracy.
[74]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

B. The success of a democracy de-

pends on the initiative, knowledge,
and conscientiousness of the indi-
vidual citizen. Therefore,

C. Emphasize in your educational
system everything that will stimulate
your Future voters to think for them-
selves, to keep themselves informed,
and to feel a personal responsibility
for the welfare of the nation.

You would imagine that no one but
the Mad Halter would fail to see tin-
logic of that. But it doesn't seem so,
or there are more Mail Hatters than
you would believe. Until very re-
cently, you could go from coast to coast
trying in vain to find a man or boy
who had seen or even heard of a school
or college that tried deliberately, fear-
lessly, and thoroughly to train its girls

[75]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

and boys to be intelligent citizens.
Colleges teach government and his-
tory, but the courses are optional.
Nothing in their catalogues suggests
that a patriotic citizen will apply him-
self to these subjects. Physics may
be compulsory and Latin or German
or French may be compulsory, for
those constitute Culture; but never
by any chance the subjects that con-
stitute the background for good
citizenship. Doesn't it seem ludi-
crous to you, Young America, when
our lives, our institutions, all our fine
ideals, may depend on our ability to
deal critically and justly with the
hundred matters that come before us
as citizens between November and
November, that our schools and col-
leges do nothing whatsoever to give
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THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

us a definite background for judg-
ment? The schools have their flag
exercises, bul do your schoolmasters
tell you how to strive daily and hourly
to keep thai flag unsullied? And do
they strive at your side, daily and
hourly, to make sure yon understand ?
Do they bend over you with a blessing
or a club and say: "You'll be a
decent citizen, my son, or I'll know
the reason why!" do they? You
miuht think your schoolmasters had
never heard of such a thing as citizen-
ship. Most of them, indeed, never
mention it, and the limelight catches
it only once a year, when the Pompous
Old Party delivers a baccalaureate
sermon about it, convincing his
hearers definitely that ii is an unde-
sirable matter, which Gentlemen and
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THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

True Sports will leave, as heretofore,
to those who find some profit in it.

Girls and boys of America, your
schools and colleges are doing you an
injustice as they did me and my con-
temporaries an injustice. It is the
same sort of injustice America has so
often done to its youth, sending it to
battle untrained! Those were brave
fellows who made up the American
army at Bladensburg. They were the
sons of the boys of '76 and the fathers
of the boys of '61 ; but they ran like
rabbits. They couldn't face veter-
ans. They simply did not know what
to do. You are good fellows, Young
America, brave, intelligent, quick-
witted, but — however estimable you
may reveal yourselves in private life —
what earthly good will you really be

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THE HOPE OF THE WOULD

to your country as citizens, what will
you really be but handsome targets for
the corrupt veteran > of politics, if you
have never been trained to think in-
telligently on public ma! ters and stim-
ulated to serve? You will shoot your
ballot and run. Bladensburg ! And
the politicians will, as usual, burn the
Capitol.

[79]

VIII

Girls and boys of America, you are
the hope of the world!

What now does the world ask you to
do to fulfill that hope ? It asks you,
first of all, to sit down and think about
your country ; and then, when you
have taken thought, it asks you to
jump to your feet and do something !

Young America, you and I and
our hundred million fellow-Americans
have passed through a great war. As
a nation, we did well. We fought
bravely in the field and at home. We
gave our money with a free hand, we
made sacrifices with a cheerful heart.
Now suddenly we who were weak,
we, who a few years ago were a joke
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THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

as a military power, have become
colossally strong. We have not been
chastened by the War. We did not
have to face the horror of bombs
dropping in our si reds, of hostile men
breaking down the doors of our
houses, of enemy armies surging
through us and past us and over us
to a succession of victories Ilia I seemed
to have no end. We never felt the
chill apprehension of defeat. We
came, we saw, and (because the time
was ripe and we had great allies) we
conquered. Our victory was com-
paratively easy. We did not strain
our resources in money or men ; we
scarcely more than tapped those re-
sources. Our endurance, our stick-
ing-power, was not tested. The War
had for us not yet gone out of the
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THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

stage of thrills and romantic satis-
faction, when it was over. We never
knew that other period of grim,
miserable resolve to do or die that
England and France knew, when
dying seemed an outcome more prob-
able than victory.

We have had more than our share
of glory ; we have had less than our
share of pain.

We stand before the world to-day
like a young giant who in the flush of
victory has himself just become aware
of his enormous strength. How will
we use that strength? Will we be
overbearing, arrogant, bellicose,
shouting to the world, 'Look how
strong I am ! Don't you dare oppose
me!" — will we? Or, like an
over-trained football-player, will we

[82]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

go suddenly soft, resting on our
laurels ?

This is no time for arrogance or for
softness. I do not know in whal
period of history, if ever, any genera-
tion has had such Deed, as your
generation will have, of patience and
toleration combined with great physi-
cal force On the one hand, Looms I he
red terror of Bolshevism ; on the other,
the dark blight of reaction. Your
pari will he to steer a firm and steady
eourse midway between the two.

Does that seem to yon an easy
thing to do? Does it sound to you
like straddling ?

It is the hardest thing in the world

to do and it is the farthest removed

from straddling, for steering the

middle course is not serving two

[83]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

masters, the extreme radicals and the
extreme conservatives, flattering both.
It is serving neither one nor the other,
but solely your own conscience. It
is easy to be a red-hot radical, deaf to
all opposing arguments, blind to con-
flicting evidence. You will always
have a crowd with you ; all the other
red-hot radicals will praise you. It is
easy also to be a cold-blooded, rock-
ribbed conservative with your back
set rigid against all change. You will
have "powers and principalities, the
world rulers of this darkness" backing
you up, giving you money and houses
and fame and political jobs. But it
is not at all easy to walk the narrow
path of real progress that lies between
the two. For you will be hated and
distrusted as a reactionary py the
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THE HOPE OF THE WOULD

radicals, and hated and disl rusted as
a radical by the reactionaries; and
you will be called a trimmer and a
turncoal by both classes.

In American history, Roosevelt is
Ihe mosl striking example of the man
who dares to take the middle course.

"Al last," said a labor man once
to President Roosevelt, " Www is a
hearing for us fellows.

"Yes!" <-ricd the President em-
phatically, "the White House door,
while 1 am here, shall swing open as
easily for the labor man as for the
capitalist — and no easit r."

Boys and girls of America, the
world asks you to think, really to
think. It asks you to disregard the
old party slogans and the battle-cries
which have long lost their meaning,
[85]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

if they ever had any, and, with an
open mind, not as Democrat or Re-
publican or Socialist, not as Polish-
American or German-American, not
as labor-man or capitalist, not as
Catholic, Jew, or Gentile, but as a
straight American, to study and weigh
the problems which some day will
come before you for solution. As
never before, the world will need clear
thinking, free from the claptrap and
hocus-pocus of party and class preju-
dice ; as never before, the world will
need the discriminating mind and the
courageous heart. You, who are now
boys and girls, will be asked to steer
the ship of civilization between the
rocks of mad reaction on the one side
and the whirlpool of mad radicalism
on the other. You will need the

[86]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

courage and the cool head of a 1 lysses
or a Roosevelt to keep the course.

The world asks you to think. Il
does not ask you to daydream. It
does nol ask you to float off over the
heads of people to the balloon of
theory and to hang amid clouds and
plan beautiful, visionary Utopias; it
asks you to stay ou the ground, to get
acquainted with the world about you,
and when you build your dream-
palaces to build them on the concrete
foundation of fact.

If you want to be of any use as an
American citizen, begin now to culti-
vate a respect for facts.

Men may be divided into two

classes, those who are willing to face

facts and those who are not. The

latter we call theorists — men who

[87]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

conceive a theory and follow it regard-
less of whether it conflicts with the
facts of life and human nature or not ;
or sentimentalists — men who are
shocked or annoyed by the existence
of evil things and therefore close their
eyes to them and pretend that they
do not exist ; or visionaries — men
who endeavor to reconstruct the
world on the assumption that human
nature is more perfect than it ac-
tually is. The theorist, in the years
before the Great War, said that war
was impossible because the nations
of Europe were tied together too
closely by the bonds of finance and
commerce ; the sentimentalist said
that war was too terrible to think
about and therefore it was impossible ;
the visionary said that man had out-

[88]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

grown the fighting stage and thai the
"era of peace" was at hand.

Opposed to those were the realists
— the men who saw thai the com-
petition in armaments all over the

►rid, due primarily to the militaristic
and swashbuckling spirit of modern
Germany, must inevitably sooner or
later lead to war, and who did what
they could to meet it. They recog-
nized certain facts and faced them
squarely, without wincing.

A fact is like a bully, and it is as
cowardly to dodge and run away from
a fact as it is to dodge and run away
from a bully. You do not make the
neighborhood safe by running away
from the bully, and you don't make
the world safe by running away from
a disagreeable fact. Both have to

[89]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

be faced with clear eyes and a strong
heart and made not the masters but
the servants of man.

The only men of vision who are of
use to mankind are those who weave
their patterns of a better world upon
a background of plain, hard facts.

The only Americans who are of any
use as citizens are those who will face
facts.

The rest are just sand in the gear-
box.

[90]

IX

Girls and boys of America, you are
the hope of the world!

A century and a half ago hoys of
your age were fighting for the liberty
you now enjoy. Have you ever con-
sidered what it would mean to you if
that libertv should be taken from
you? Liberty has come to you as a
birthright. The institutions under
which you live seem to you firm and
eternal as the Rockies. But they are
not firm and they are not eternal.
They are neither fire-proof nor bomb-
proof. They are not even rat -proof.
This nation cannot exist on its splen-
did past. It must have a splendid
present, or it will have no future at

[91]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

all. The present is yours. What
are you going to do with it ?

I believe I know what you are go-
ing to do, because I believe, Young
America, that I know you. Only a
quitter would cry in perilous days :
"I'll do what I've always done — go
my own way." But you are not
quitters. You are the opposite of
quitters. You are the worthy heirs
of an heroic line. The men and
women who have gone before you
loved democracy and many of them
labored and died, on our own shores
and in France, that democracy might
grow strong and expand. In twenty
or more great camps your elder
brothers were taught how to defend
democracy against assault from with-
out. It is your part now, you who

[92]

THE BOPE OF THE WORLD

are ten, twelve, fourteen, fifteen, six-
teen, seventeen, to begin to acquire

that more difficult training which
shall enable you to defend democracy
againsl assaull from within. The
enemies of democracy do not always
come as armies with banners. The
most potent enemies th<- American
democracy has are men who call
themselves Americans — politicians
who use an indifferent citizenry for
their own selfish ends; and supine
citizens who allow themselves to be
so used.

Consider this, girls and boys of
America !

There are two kinds of wars : the

war without, and the war within.

You are too young to fight in foreign

wars, but the youngest of you is not

[93]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

too young to fight here at home for
a keener participation of all in the
government of his town, his state, his
nation. Let us pray heaven that
there be no need for you to die for
democracy ; there is need enough in
all conscience for each of you to live
for it!

In your nation's critical years, girls
and boys of America, what are you
going to do ?

"What do you think we are?"
shouts that part of Young America
that's in trousers. "We're going to
fight for democracy ! "

"Good boys!"

"We too, we too!" cries that part
of Young America that's in skirts.

Great girls ! Hear them, the boys
and girls of America ! Like organ-
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THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

music from every corner «»f the land,
the voices of awakened patriots!

M> counl r\ . 'tis of t bee,
Sweel land of liberty,
Of thee I sing !

Land where my fathers died,
Land of the Pilgrims' pride.

From every mountainside,
Let freedom ring !

Great girls and boys ! Now, then,
clear the deck for action ! Away with
lies first of all ! Overboard with self-
delusion ! This is our first labor for
democracy, that we look at ourselves
squarely and try to see ourselves as
we are.

Clear eyes now, and no wincing !

We're first of all sentimentalists. We

believe what we want to believe, and

what we don't want to believe, we ig-

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THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

nore. Three years of conflagration all
around us and the sparks falling on
our roof, and we said it was no con-
cern of ours !

We're wasteful — look at our for-
ests, look at the youth in our slums !

We're materialistic — look at the
faces in our cities, look how hard we
are to arouse in defense of a principle,
look how quickly, after our moment
of exaltation and sacrifice, we drop
back into the sordid round of getting
and spending !

We're improvident, blindly care-
less of everything beyond the present
hour — we never prepare!

As citizens we are indifferent — we

will endure in our government every

form of extravagance, inefficiency, and

corruption conceivable rather than

[96]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

jump into the midst of the mess and
help to dean it up.

Wha1 is the effect on our national

life of our sent iiiiciitalism, our prodi-
gality, our materialism, our improvi-
dence, our indifference? You know
as well as I, Young America. It is
hush money and bought policemen,
bought legislatures, special privilege,
corporation joy-riding, and dollar-
votes; venality and stupidity in
office; unemployment, strikes, misery
and want, child labor, waste of public
funds and public lands and public
resources of power ; filth and disease,
robbery and murder. And in the
presence of a foreign foe, it is counsels
of crawl and scuttle on every side, and
for those who walk in the light of the
Great Tradition, it is helplessness —
I 97]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

no ships, no arms, no men trained to
fight, if need be, for liberty and justice.

"We know all these things," you
say, a little wearily. "But what can
we do?"

You? You can do everything.
Your elders are busy, and many of
them are stodgy; and they are ac-
customed to waste and corruption
and muddling, and many are afraid of
change, any change, and resent as an
imposition any attempt to make them
think. Thinking is more laborious
than digging trenches after you're
forty, especially when you're out of
training ; and many of your elders are.
But you, Young America, are not.
Thinking to you isn't a chore; it is
an adventure ! Your minds are like
a fresh horse, crazy to take six bars.

[98]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

You are the hope of the world, be-
cause you have enthusiasm and

ginger, because you feel, and you
haven't yel forgotten how to think.

What can you do?

You know what the men and women
of your country did to defend Amer-
ican principles abroad. Let it be
your part to find out what your city,
your state, your nation are doing for
the welfare of their citizens and 1 1n-
upholding of American principles at
home.

You can do more. You must do
more. You, the girls and boys of
America, must create a new standard
of values for your generation. For a
century, men the world over, but
especially here in our United State-.
have bowed to material success as to
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THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

the greatest god they knew. We
have exalted the man with money as
we have exalted no other type in
American life. We have praised his
virtues and ignored his vices, we have
listened to him as we never would to
a saint in glory when he told us the
stages of his progress toward success ;
we have pointed to him as a shining
example of the best to which a youth
might aspire.

He who has dollars, we said, has
success ; he who has not dollars, has
not success. It is the first duty of
man to be successful, we said. There-
fore, get dollars !

The youth of America has obeyed
that insistent mandate, generation
after generation ; and in countless
hearts, aspirations for something

[100]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

higher than dollar-chasing have been
sternly crushed in order thai the
golden quesl should be unimpeded;
and men have made unbelievable
fortunes; and the glamour of their
achievement has made other men
everywhere a little greedier, ;i little
more ruthless, a little more jealous
of their own, a little more envious of
others, impatient of law, intolerant
of opposition, scornful of all things
that cannot be clutched with hands.

We have been taught that success
can be written only in figures ; and
a few men have gathered in the dol-
lars of the many, and, in consequence,
we have slums and child labor and
strikes and starvation and bomb out-
rages and the rumbliDgs of revolution.
No reform that social theorists can

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THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

devise can sweep those offspring of our
god, Success, for long out of our
national life. As long as the gather-
ing of dollars is regarded as the highest
form of victorious effort, we will have
inequality, injustice, bitterness, and
class strife. If we are ever to be free
of them, we must have a new standard
of success. We must learn that suc-
cess consists not in what we have but
in what we are, not in what we hold
in our pockets but in what we hold in
our heads and our hearts, not in our
skill to buy low and sell high, but in
our ability greatly to dream, to build,
to battle, to kindle, to serve.

Young America, it must be your

business in these years to raise this

new standard before the eyes of your

fellow-citizens, your aim to give them

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Till: HOPE OF THE WORLD

a new ideal of whal constitutes suc-
cess; for without such ;i new stand-
ard, without such a new ideal, all
that you do for citizenship and de-
mocracy will he only a stop-gap thai
will hold I lie floods of corruption back
here or there for a year or for ten
years only to release them at last in
increased volume.

Our present ideal of success is based
on selfish, individualistic enterprise
and greed.

How can that harmonize with
democracy, whose essence is service?

The answer is simple. It cannot
harmonize with it; it never has, it
never will. In every village, town,
and state, greed and selfish enterprise
— the qualities that make for "suc-
cess" as we know it — are the invet-
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THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

erate enemies of democratic institu-
tions.

If you want dollars above all, do
not talk of citizenship and democracy.

But if you want democracy above
all, know that success in life lies not
in the accumulation of unnecessary
bonds and houses, but in service, in
knowledge, and in the appreciation of
beauty.

If you want honestly to help your
country, set about now to give her a
notion of what makes real success.

[104]

Girls- and boys of America, you are
the hope of the worldl

Revolution is in the air, reaction is
on the horizon. All eves I urn on

i

America. Which way in I lie next
quarter century will America lead
mankind? Which way, that means,
will you, who will he the government
of these United Stat es, lead mankind?
Do you call yourselves really
Americans ? Then jump to your feel ,
resolved that in the day of testing, this
country that you love shall not be
found wavering, sordid, and afraid !
She has wasted too long the shining
opportunities her freedom has given
her.

[105]

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

Think what the oppressed peoples
of the world, suffering under this form
or that of autocratic tyranny, would
give for the democratic institutions,
wise and just, which you possess !
Their lives would seem to them pay-
ment ridiculously inadequate. And
you possess these institutions and
shrug your shoulders and say, in
effect, that you should worry what
happens to them. Do you say that,
you who read these lines ? If you do,
you are base, and deserve to die as
Benedict Arnold died, in a garret in a
foreign land, cursing the day that he
betrayed his country !

Does that sound harsh and violent

to you, girls and boys of America?

I tell you, the time has passed when

we could afford to chatter lightly over

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THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

the teacups concerning the needs and
the shortcomings of our country.
Smash the cups. Young America, and
come out and fight, thai government
of the people, by the people, for the
people shall not perish from the earth.
Fight ! Not with guns bul with your
brains! Your elder brothers have
had to fight with guns; many of them
have had to die here or with their
fellows-in-democracy in France and
Flanders.

To them our love, our praise, our
everlasting gratitude!

To you, girls and boys of ten,
twelve, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, sev-
enteen, is given a work every bit as
grand as dying for your country ; and
that is, living for the highest interests
of your country !

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THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

Those interests are the interests of
democracy.

If, therefore, you live for the high-
est interests of America, you live at
the same time for the highest inter-
ests of the world. In that struggle,
the goal is neither nationalism nor in-
ternationalism. It is democracy. It
is a lasting peace among nations ; and,
as far as it is humanly possible, amity
among men.

Go to it ! Go to it, girls and boys
of America !

You are the hope of the world!

THE END

Printed in the United States of America

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