face other perils, the very existence of which it was impossible that they should foresee. Modern life is both complex and intense, and the tremendous changes wrought by the extraordinary industrial development of the last half century are felt in every fiber of our social and politi-5 cal being. Never before have men tried so vast and formidable an experiment as that of administering the affairs of a continent under the form of a democratic republic. The conditions which have told for our marvelous material well-being, which have developed to a very high degree our 10 energy, self-reliance, and individual initiative, have also brought the care and anxiety inseparable from the accumulation of great wealth in industrial centers. Upon the success of our experiment much depends; not only as regards our own welfare, but as regards the welfare of 15 mankind. If we fail, the cause of free self-government throughout the world will rock to its foundations; and therefore our responsibility is heavy, to ourselves, to the world as it is to-day, and to the generations yet unborn. There is no good reason why we should fear the future, 20 but there is every reason why we should face it seriously, neither hiding from ourselves the gravity of the problems before us nor fearing to approach these problems with the unbending, unflinching purpose to solve them aright.

Yet, after all, though the problems are new, though 25 the tasks set before us differ from the tasks set before our fathers who founded and preserved this Republic, the spirit in which these tasks must be undertaken and these problems faced, if our duty is to be well done, re

mains essentially unchanged. We know that self-government is difficult. We know that no people needs such high traits of character as that people which seeks to govern its affairs aright through the freely expressed will of the 5 freemen who compose it. But we have faith that we shall not prove false to the memories of the men of the mighty past. They did their work, they left us the splendid heritage we now enjoy. We in our turn have an assured confidence that we shall be able to leave this heritage unwasted 10 and enlarged to our children and our children's children. To do so we must show, not merely in great crises, but in the everyday affairs of life, the qualities of practical intelligence, of courage, of hardihood and endurance, and above all the power of devotion to a lofty ideal, which made 15 great the men who founded this Republic in the days of Washington, which made great the men who preserved this Republic in the days of Abraham Lincoln.

HELPS TO STUDY

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

Theodore Roosevelt (pronounced Rōz-velt), was born in New York in 1858, and died in 1919. No American of his day was so widely known, not only here but throughout the world. As author, political reformer, president, naturalist, and explorer he has accomplished an amount of work which few men could hope to equal. His writings on public affairs, on big-game hunting and exploring, and on historical events and characters fill about twenty volumes. His public life, as police commissioner of New York City, governor of his state, and president of the United States, was a constant fight for honesty and "the square deal" in politics.

He used to say that his abilities were only those of the ordinary man; and that he had developed them by sheer will-power and persistence. He was, in fact, a man of great ability, and of remarkable quickness and versatility. His energy and will-power were extraordinary. He developed himself from a rather frail boy into a vigorous man. He learned to ride, to shoot, to box; he lived a clean, wholesome, active life. He studied hard, and knew much about many things, especially science, politics, law, and history. Few men of his day could talk on so wide a range of subjects.

As governor and president, he was not only the fearless and uncompromising foe of all slackness and dishonesty, but he saw things in a large way. He looked not only at the interests of his own country, but, as the foregoing extract shows, at the interests of mankind. This broader vision marks the difference between the politician and the statesman.

Many of his phrases have become familiar to everybody: "the big stick," "the square deal," "the peace of righteousness," "the strenuous life," will long be associated with his name. And the one doctrine that he most often preached in his speeches and his writings is, that it is not enough to mean well and to have good intentions: we must work, struggle, and even be willing to fight, in order to make the good prevail; a good man is useless, or worse, if he is weak, lazy, or cowardly.

2. To what con

3. What should be our

1. For what have we as a people to be thankful? ditions of effort and struggle does he refer? attitude towards other nations? 4. What changes in our midst have brought new problems? Can you name some of these problems? 5. Why is it important to others, as well as to ourselves, that our experiment in free government should succeed? 6. Quote some passage to show that he thinks we shall succeed. 7. You might now get Lowell's essay on Democracy and see in what respects it agrees with this selection.

HOW DEMOCRACY MAKES KINDLINESS

Democracy has not only taught the Americans how to use liberty without abusing it, and how to secure equality; it has also taught them fraternity. That word has gone out of fashion in the Old World, and no wonder, considering 5 what was done in its name in 1793, considering also that it still figures in the program of assassins. Nevertheless there is in the United States a sort of kindliness, a sense of human fellowship, a recognition of the duty of mutual help owed by man to man, stronger than anywhere in the Old 10 World, and certainly stronger than in the upper or middle classes of England, France, or Germany. The natural impulse of every citizen in America is to respect every other citizen, and to feel that citizenship constitutes a certain ground of respect. The idea of each man's equal rights is 15 so fully realized that the rich or powerful man feels it no indignity to take his turn among the crowd, and does not expect any deference from the poorest. An employer of labor has, I think, a keener sense of his duty to those whom he employs than employers have in Europe. He has cer20 tainly a greater sense of responsibility for the use of his wealth. The number of gifts for benevolent and other public purposes, the number of educational, artistic, literary, and scientific foundations, is larger than even in England, the wealthiest and most liberal of European countries. Wealth 25 is generally felt to be a trust, and exclusiveness condemned

not merely as indicative of selfishness, but as a sort of offence against the public. No one, for instance, thinks of shutting up his pleasure-grounds; he seldom even builds a wall round them, but puts up low railings in a palisade, so that the sight of his trees and shrubs is enjoyed by the passers-by. That 5 any one should be permitted, either by opinion or by law to seal up many square miles of beautiful mountain country against tourists or artists is to the ordinary American almost incredible. Such things are to him the marks of a land still groaning under feudal tyranny.

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It may seem strange to those who know how difficult European states have generally found it to conduct negotiations with the government of the United States, and who are accustomed to read in European newspapers the defiant utterances which American politicians address from Congress 15 to the effete monarchies of the Old World, to be told that this spirit of fraternity has its influence on international relations also. Nevertheless, if we look not at the irresponsible orators, who play to the lower feelings of a section of the people, but at the general sentiment of the whole people, 20 we shall recognize that democracy makes both for peace and for justice as between nations. Despite the admiration for military exploits which the Americans have sometimes shown, no country is at bottom more pervaded by a hatred of war, and a sense that national honor stands rooted in 25 national fair dealing. The nation is often misrepresented by its statesmen, but although it allows them to say irritating things and advance unreasonable claims, it has not for more than forty years permitted them to abuse its enormous