ours is the greatest land in the world, and we, the people of these united states, ought to be the greatest people.
at the present time it does not require any great amount of conceit to make us believe that we are superior to our neighbors, but it will not do to forget that the faculty of being up and growing is not one of which we have a monopoly.
one of the founders of the republic said: “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” he might have added that it is the price of pretty much everything else worth having and keeping.
we americans have led the world in a great many respects in most unexpected ways and at unexpected times, but seldom does a year pass in which we do not discover that we have no monopoly of the art of taking the lead. in one way or other, some nations of the earth are continually showing themselves superior to us in some respects. we have needed a great many warnings of this kind, and we will need a great many more{598} unless we act more promptly upon those which have already been granted us.
we have had enough success in other days to make us very conceited, so it is natural that occasionally we fall behind our competitors through the blindness of our fancied security. there was a time when american sails whitened every ocean, and more american ships could be seen in foreign ports than those of two or three other nations combined. the man who would now go out in a foreign port to look for an american flag, determining not to break his fast till he found one, would stand a fair chance of starving to death. whether the disappearance of our flag from commerce is due only to the ravages of the alabama and her sister privateers, or to the navigation laws now in force, is not to the point of the present situation, which is, that unexpectedly to ourselves and all the rest of the world we have taken the lowest position among the nations as carriers of what we have to buy and sell, and that we do not show any indications whatever of ever resuming our old position.
another instance: within the memory of half the people now alive, the world heard that cotton was king, and, as cotton was obtainable only from america, americans proudly assumed to be the commercial rulers of the world. owing to a little family trouble on this side of the water, the other nations began to look about elsewhere for{599} their cotton. they found some in unexpected places, and have been finding it there ever since. we still produce more cotton than any other country, but we are not kings of the cotton market any longer.
then came the time when corn was king. it is true we did not ship much of it in the grain, but between putting it into pork and putting it into whiskey, our corn became the first cause of the loading many thousands of ships to different foreign countries. foreigners have eyes in their heads and they began to look about and see whether they could not produce pork and whiskey as cheaply as those people across the water, who had to send their products three thousand miles or more to find a market. they succeeded. at the present day, although our distilleries and pig-styes are in active operation, a great deal of distilled liquors and also a great deal of the meat of the hog comes this way across the ocean. the market still is good abroad for american hams, sides, shoulders, bacon and lard, but the bottom has dropped out of the whiskey market, and seems to show no signs of a desire to return.
for a number of years, and until very recently, our wheat had made us commercially, in one sense at least, the superior of all the other nations of the world. the finer breadstuffs were not to be had in europe except from american sources. year by year the price of wheat increased until{600} the american farmer became so enviable an individual that a great many merchants went out of business, bought farms, and attempted to compete with him. as is usually the case when any business is so flourishing that every one wishes to go into it, endeavors were being made by hundreds of sharp-eyed observers to see whether wheat might not be more profitably produced in other portions of the world, and the success which attended these observations has been anything but gratifying to the american farmer. russia and hungary are producing more wheat than ever before. wheat is pouring into europe from asia, and even from africa, and the american farmer now is not quite so sure as to what will be the result of a good crop of wheat—not sure whether it will yield a profit or fail to pay expenses. even the reductions in freight rates, alike from the agricultural districts to the seashore and from america to europe, do not compensate him for the great reduction in the price of what once he fondly believed was an enduring source of profit. the time when it was safe to put an entire farm into wheat has passed. farmers are studying mixed crops now with all the intelligence that is in them, for a man’s first duty is to earn food for his family.
again, when it was discovered that, helped by some refrigerating process, we could send fresh meat to europe, the whole country arose, cheered{601} and patted itself upon the back. now, surely the whole world would be at our feet, for were we not feeding englishmen, frenchmen and germans cheaper than any of their home producers could do it? our self-satisfaction increased when it was discovered that live cattle also could be sent over to europe in immense quantities and pay a handsome profit in spite of occasional losses due to storms and injudicious loading of the vessels which carried the animals. about this time ranches began to cover all ground in the far west that was fit at all for grazing, and the estates, nominally the property of those who managed them, came to be of baronial extent. but what america could do, australia began to think she also could do, and even south africa was not averse to experimenting in the same direction. we still send a great deal of meat to europe, but ranch property is not as much in demand as once it was. there are ranches now to be had for the taking, but the takers are few.
just before the ranch fever began, we struck oil—struck it in such immense quantities, and also found men so competent to make it fit for general use, that petroleum in some of its forms promised to be the leading export article of the united states. there was not a civilized quarter of the world in which one couldn’t find the american kerosene oil can. our oil still continues to go abroad in immense quantities, but{602} the fortunes which have been made upon it have stimulated prospectors all over the world, and, as it is known that oil is not restricted to any single hemisphere, or even grand division of the world, the prospects begin to look rather dismal for america retaining supremacy in this particular article of commerce. the asiatic oil wells are far more valuable than ours and are worked at less expense, and the supply can be distributed in europe quite as easily and cheaply as that from the american wells and refineries. evidently we can’t afford to depend upon oil alone. large fortunes have been made upon it, but there is an old song which says: “the mill can never grind with the water that is passed.” we need something new to keep us at the fore. what it is to be has not yet been discovered.
some few unfulfilled expectations of this kind, some great commercial disappointments, are probably necessary to divest us of part of the overweening self-confidence which is peculiar to the inhabitants of all new countries. simple and unquestioning belief in manifest destiny and all that sort of talk has quite a stimulating effect at times, but it also is likely to lull people into a false sense of security. it already has done so to a large extent in the united states. we have been so well satisfied that we were superior in intelligence and resources to any other land on the face of the earth that we have been{603} inattentive to some of our greater interests. the shipping of raw materials of any kind is a reputable division of industry, but it is not the highest result at which a nation should aim, nor should any amount of success at it blind the people to their greater duties, responsibilities and opportunities.
on the other hand, no other nation of the world has so much as we to be thankful for and to encourage them. we have no bad neighbors who are strong enough for us to be afraid of, and all the greater powers of the world are far enough away to take very little interest in us, unless we annoy them in some way. we do not have to squander the energies and sometimes the life-blood of our race by putting all our young men into armies and navies and teaching them distrust, suspicion, cruelty and the spirit of rapine. our taxes are heavy, but, on the other hand, our national debt, once so enormous, is being reduced with such rapidity that soon we will show the world the astonishing spectacle of a great nation without a debt. there is nowhere else in the world where a person with money to invest and desiring it to remain absolutely secure, no matter at how small a rate of interest, cannot quickly obtain the securities of his own government for his gold or notes, but here there is very little encouragement any longer to buy the national bonds, for they are being redeemed at a{604} rate which makes it almost impossible for any one to retain them with certainty for a long time as a permanent investment. holders of the debts of other countries expect never to have their principal redeemed; they are satisfied to get interest perpetually, as undoubtedly they will unless the debts are repudiated. there is very little possibility of any foreign country of the first class ever discharging all of its financial obligations so far as principal is concerned, unless it provokes a fight with the united states and holds our cities for ransom. if we must, and certain economists say we must, continue to extract a large amount of money from the pockets of the people, we will at least have the satisfaction of seeing it spent for something besides dead horses.
we also are reducing the proportion of our uneducated and ignorant classes at a rapid and gratifying rate. other countries are working in this direction with more skill, thoughtfulness and accurate appliances, but, on the other hand, they have to contend against the apathy of a large portion of the population, an article which, happily, in this country is of very small proportions. besides the vast mass of uneducated beings who have come to us as immigrants, we have also the entire colored population of the south, but schools are built so rapidly and all classes of our people, even the most ignorant of blacks, are so{605} ambitious to be as good as any other class, that it is not at all difficult to get children to school and to persuade parents to take a hearty interest in education. whatever may be our faults in the future, ignorance promises not to be one of them.
there is another side to this subject, and one which cannot too quickly begin to turn the thoughtful portion of the public. “a little learning is a dangerous thing,” is a sentiment which has frequently been quoted. the inherent right of every citizen to reach the highest office of the government has so stimulated ambition that almost any one is willing to try for the position whether fit or not, and the same statement holds good regarding every other place of trust or profit in public or private life. half-educated men, men of almost no education, have brought this country to great peril again and again. their numbers are constantly increasing. we must be on guard against them. misdirected activity is worse than no activity at all, but there is something worse than that, and it is the ceaseless ambition of men whose conscience does not keep pace with their intelligence. the school supplies intelligence, but conscience is something which cannot be made to order, and no institution under charge and supervision of a government can be expected to supply it. the nations of the old world have attempted to do it for{606} centuries through the medium of the church, but good and noble and self-sacrificing though the church has been at many times and in many lands, its ministrations cannot be forced upon those who are unwilling to receive them.
the only available substitute is a high standard of public morality. this is voiced by the press, by the pulpit and in private life; but, unfortunately, when it reaches the domain of politics, it immediately becomes confused and enfeebled. a higher standard must be set by parties and maintained by the leaders and voters and adherents of those parties. the hypocrisy of all political utterances has been proved over and over again during the past few years in the united states. no man of honesty and high purpose can help blushing for shame when he reviews the broken promises of his own political organization, no matter what it may be. “promises, like pie-crusts, are made to be broken,” says the practical politician, and while for three years and six months of every four the respectable citizen protests against such shameful disregard of public and private morals, in the remaining six months he is likely to give his tacit assent and his active vote to the party with which he has always acted in politics, regardless of who may be its leaders and what may be its actual intentions. until both parties line down this disgrace and dishonor there will be a weak joint in our{607} armor and our enemies will sooner or later discover a way of piercing it. “righteousness exalteth a nation,” says an authority which most americans regard with great respect—except during a presidential campaign.
the stability and peace of our nation should be the great concern of our people, and as there is not a private virtue which may not be influential in this direction, each individual has it in his power to further the great purpose of the community. all the other nations envy us—envy us our form of government, our freedom from conscription, large armies, privileged classes, vested rights, ugly neighbors, churchly impositions and hopeless debts. but we can maintain all these features of superiority only by maintaining an honest and intelligent government. we cannot do it by being blind, unreasoning partizans of any political organization. to be a “strong democrat” or “strong republican” is often to be contemptibly weak as an american. loyalty to party often means disloyalty to the nation. party platforms are seldom framed according to the will of the majority; they are framed by the leaders, and often for the leaders’ own personal purposes. in all other lands where constitutional government prevails the intelligent classes sway from one party to the other, according to their opinion of measures proposed. loyalty is accorded to the nation first, the party afterwards. the party{608} is regarded as a means, not an end; it must be so regarded here, before we can rise to the level of our opportunities, and the number and greatness of these opportunities make this duty more imperative here, even for selfish reasons, than anywhere else. it is peculiarly stupid and disgraceful that any intelligent american should be able to say, with sir joseph porter, in “pinafore:”
“i always voted at my party’s call,
and i never thought of thinking for myself at all.”
no party should be a voter’s ruler; it is his servant, and if it is lazy, dishonest or does not obey him, it should be disciplined or changed.
we must do much else, by way of vigilance. we must insist that american land be held only by americans. a great many rich men on the other side of the atlantic are willing and anxious to reproduce here a state of affairs that has made endless trouble in europe. said president harrison, while yet in the senate: “vast tracts of our domain, not simply the public domain on the frontier, but in some of our newer states, are passing into the hands of wealthy foreigners. it seems that the land reforms in ireland, and the movement in england in favor of the reduction of large estates and the distribution of the lands among persons who will cultivate them for their own use, are disturbing the{609} investments of some englishmen, and that some of them are looking to this country for the acquisition of vast tracts of land which may be held by them and let out to tenants, out of the rents of which they may live abroad. this evil requires early attention, and that congress should, by law, restrain the acquisition of such tracts of land by aliens. our policy should be small farms, worked by the men who own them.” so says every thoughtful american.
we must give closer attention to the army of the unemployed if we wish to avoid the bad influence which discontent, of any class, has upon the prosperity of the community. the neglect of workers who have no work to do is a blot upon the fair fame of our people. financially, we do not seem to be affected, one way or other, when a lot of men are thrown out of work. says mr. t. v. powderly, long the most eloquent spokesman of the working class: “it matters not that the carpet-mills suspend three hundred hands, the price of carpeting remains unchanged. the gingham-mills and the cotton and woollen-mills may reduce the wages of employés five and ten per cent., but the price of gingham and calico continues as before.” but the men who suffer—they and their families—by partial or total loss of income, feel keenly the apathy of the general body of consumers, and their indignation and suspicion will be sure to make themselves known{610} unpleasantly when least expected. we are all working men; we owe practical sympathy to the least of our brethren.
we must make more of the individual, and unload fewer of our responsibilities upon the government, whether local, state or national. as editor grady, of georgia, said recently to the graduating class of the university of virginia: “the man who kindles the fire on the hearthstone of an honest and righteous home burns the best incense to liberty. he does not love mankind less who loves his neighbor most. exalt the citizen. as the state is the unit of government, he is the unit of the state. teach him that his home is his castle, and his sovereignty rests beneath his hat. make him self-respecting, self-reliant and responsible. let him lean on the state for nothing that his own arm can do, and on the government for nothing that his state can do. let him cultivate independence to the point of sacrifice, and learn that humble things with unbartered liberty are better than splendors bought with its price. let him neither surrender his individuality to government nor merge it with the mob. let him stand upright and fearless—a freeman born of freemen—sturdy in his own strength—dowering his family in the sweat of his brow—loving to his state—loyal to his republic—earnest in his allegiance wherever it rests, but building his altar in the midst of{611} his household gods and shrining in his own heart the uttermost temple of its liberty.”
on all this, and the general subject of this book, the editor begs to quote, in conclusion, from a well-known and highly respected authority.
“men and brethren, think on these things.”
