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This is a worthy platform, worthy of the great American people.
It has twenty-one planks. If you want a still simpler platform, go
back to the ancients. They recognized four cardinal virtues—prudence,
justice, temperance, fortitude. You will find it interesting and worth-while
to take these four cardinal virtues of the ancients and see how
many of the planks noted above you can put under them. The im-portant
thing is not a platform that reads well, but one that carries
over into daily behavior. If rightly used as a basis of action your
ideals will determine the course of your life and your ultimate goal.
They give a set, as it were, to your soul. This idea is well expressed
by Frank B. McAllister in the following stanzas
:
THE SET OF THE SAIL
One ship drives east and another drives west,
While the selfsame breezes blow
;
It's the set of the sails and not the gales,
That bids them where to go.
Like the winds of the seas are the ways of the fates,
As we voyage along through life
;
It's the set of the soul that decides the goal,
And not the storms or the strife.
How Can, You Qualify for One Hundred Per Cent Americanism?
It is not necessary to be twenty-one years of age in order to qualify
for one hundred per cent Americanism. If you were born in America,
you are an American citizen. You should be proud of that fact. Be-come
familiar with the best in American ideals, and govern your daily
action accordingly. Begin where you are.
—work hard, but intelligently. —cooperate fully and understandingly.
—be fair, in work and play. —build up good habits. —be loyal. —do all the things that should characterize the good American.
Your teacher can help you in your development in Americanism.
William McAudrew, one of our greatest living educators, thinks that
the school should be a true democracy. The old school was too fre-quently
an autocracy. Brand Whitlock says the school of his boyhood
was a jail. This is as unnecessary as it is undesirable. Teachers have
learned to apply the principles of American democracy to the school-room.
Pupils work better when they know the reasons for tasks, and
their value, and when the tasks are given pointed application to present-day
situations. Thus the pupil is made a cooperator with the teacher.
The modern schoolroom should develop the true spirit of Americanism.
