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6

AMERICA FACES THE FUTURE

complete the building of the ideal democracy whose foundation-stones they laid.

It cannot, then, be too forcibly said that our heritage is not a set of perfect institutions but a set of inspiring ideals. Just as Christianity for centuries has been hindered with superstitions and errors taken over from the Jewish and pagan faiths, and has had to struggle long to rid itself of these corruptions and realize its own ideal, so Americanism has been subject to all sorts of compromises and cloudings, and has never yet fully expressed itself in the general practice. No one of us is exempted from the task of scrutinizing our social and political life, to determine how far it truly reflects our avowed ideals, and how far it yet fails to do so. There is still need not only of devotion but of criticism; Americanism should be taken to mean not what we actually have achieved, but what the best of us are trying to achieve. The temptations that prosperity and power have brought to us make it peculiarly important that we renew the visions of our nation's youth. As the Red Queen found, in Alice in Wonderland, it takes a lot of running to stand still-to keep from backsliding.

The chapters that follow will, therefore, continually remind the reader "to distinguish between idealism and the idealization of ourselves." They are written in the conviction that the true solution for the illswhich every candid student recognizes-in our body politic is more liberty, more equality, more democracy, more efficiency, more patriotism. In short, that the way to save America is to genuinely Americanize Americans.

SUGGESTED READINGS

N. Foerster and W. W. Pierson, Jr., American Ideals. M. S. Fulton, National Ideals and Problems.

C. W. Eliot, American Contributions to Civilization.
H. W. Mabie, American Ideals.

H. van Dyke, The Spirit of America.
G. Rodrigues, The People of Action.
H. Münsterberg, American Traits.

J. G. Brooks, As Others See Us.

E. A. Steiner Introducing the American Spirit.
C. S. Cooper, American Ideals, Chapters I, IV, V, X.
B. M. Sheridan, The Liberty Reader.

C. A. and M. R. Beard, American Citizenship.

PART I

LIBERTY

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