Community Civics and Rural Life

by Arthur William Dunn

CHAPTER VII

OUR NATIONAL COMMUNITY

IMPERFECTIONS OF OUR NATIONAL COMMUNITY

It is important to get in the habit of thinking of our nation as a community, just as we think of our school or town or rural neighborhood as one. This is not always easy to do because of its huge size and complicated character. It would be wrong, too, to get the idea that it is a perfect community—none of our communities is perfect. Conflicts of interest are often more apparent than community of interest. Teamwork among the different parts and groups that make up our nation is often very poor. Although our government is a wonderfully good one, it is still only an imperfect means of cooperation. Our nation is far from being a complete democracy, for there are many people in it who do not have the full enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and large numbers of our "self-governing" people really have little or no part in government.

LOYALTY TO IDEALS

It need not give us an unpatriotic feeling to acknowledge the imperfections of our nation or of our government; for communities GROW, not only in size, but also in ability to perform their proper work, just as individuals do. We call a person conceited who thinks that he is perfect, especially if he boasts of it. But his conceit is itself an imperfection and a hindrance to growth. So the patriotic citizen is not one who is unable to see defects in his community, or who refuses to acknowledge them, but one who has high CIVIC IDEALS and is loyal to them, who understands in what respects these ideals have not been reached, and who, as a member of the community, contributes everything he can to keep it growing in THE RIGHT DIRECTION.

"The problem of government is, after all, the problem of human growth. … The one constant and inconstant quantity with which man must deal is man—changing, inert, impulsive, limited, sympathetic, selfish, aspiring man. His institutions, whether social or political, must come out of his wants and out of his capacities. Luther Burbank has not yet made grapes to grow on thorns or figs on thistles. Neither has any system of government made all men wise…"—FRANKLIN K. LANE.

Is it possible for a community to be 100 percent perfect? Why?

What people in your community take no part in government?

May people who cannot vote have any influence upon government?
Explain.

Has a good citizen a right to criticize his government? What is the difference between helpful and harmful criticism?

What is an "ideal"? a "civic ideal"?

WELDING OF THE NATION BY WAR

It is easier now than usual to think of our nation as a community, because the war with Germany served to arouse our "national spirit," and showed very clearly the importance in our national life of those elements which characterize all community life— common purpose, interdependence, and organized, cooperation (see Chapters I-III). The creation of a National Army did much to bring this about.

When the benefits which come to the nation through the creation of the National Army are catalogued, the fact that it has welded the country into a homogeneous society, [Footnote: "Homogeneous society"—a society or community all of whose parts and members have like purposes and interests.] seeking the same national ends and animated by the same national ideals, will overtop all other advantages. The organization of the selected Army fuses the thousand separate elements making up the United States into one steel-hard mass. Men of the North, South, East, and West meet and mingle, and on the anvil of war become citizens worthy of the liberty won by the first American armies. [Footnote: Major Granville R. Fortesque, in National Geographic Magazine, Dec., 1917]. How this welding of the parts of the nation together was brought about by the war is suggested by the words of an old Confederate soldier who wrote to a friend in the North:

"During the war between the states I was a rebel, and continued one in heart until this great war. But now I am a devoted follower of Uncle Sam and endorse him in every respect."

DIVERSE ELEMENTS IN OUR NATION

The fact that our nation contained in its population large numbers of people from practically every country of Europe caused no little anxiety when we entered the European war. Our population embraces a hundred different races and nationalities. Of these, ten million are negroes and three hundred thirty-six thousand are Indians. Thirty-three million are of foreign parentage, and of these, thirteen million are foreign-born. Five million do not speak English, and there are one thousand five hundred news papers in the United States printed in foreign languages. Five and one- half million above the age of ten years, including both foreign and native, cannot read or write in any language. New York City has a larger Hebrew population than any other city in the world, contains more Italians than Rome, and its German population is the fourth largest among the cities of the world. Pittsburgh has more Serbs than the capital of Serbia. It is said that there were more Greeks subject to draft in the American army than there were in the entire army of Greece. Would all these people be loyal to our nation, or would they divide it against itself?

LOYALTY OF DIVERSE ELEMENTS

The war, in fact, showed us that there were some among us who had never really become "members" of our nation and who were dangerous to our peace and safety. It also showed us the danger that comes from the presence of so many illiterates, or of those who cannot use the English language; for such people, even though loyal in spirit to the United States, cannot understand instructions either in the army or in industry, and otherwise prevent effective cooperation. And yet the most striking thing that the war showed us in regard to this mixed population is that the great mass of it, regardless of color or place of birth, is really American in spirit and loyal to our flag and the ideas which it represents.

NATIONAL SAFETY DEPENDS ON HARMONY

Another weakness within our nation that the war emphasized is the lack of harmony between wage earners and their employers. There were many sharp conflicts between them. Strikes occurred, or were threatened, in factories, shipyards, mines, and railroads, that blocked the wheels of industry at a time when the nation needed to strain every nerve to provide the materials of war. This lack of harmony between workmen and employers, which in war threatened our national safety, has existed for many years and has always been an obstacle to national progress. But the common purpose of winning the war caused employers and wage earners, in most cases, to adjust their differences. In nearly every case, one side or the other, or both sides, yielded certain points and agreed not to dispute over others, at least for the period of the war. The national government did much to bring this about by the creation of labor adjustment boards to hear complaints from either side and to settle disputes. If our national community life is to develop in a wholesome way, complete cooperation between workmen and employers must be secured and made permanent on the basis of interests that are common to both.

THE EFFECT OF A COMMON PURPOSE

Such facts as these show how easy it is, in a huge, complex community like our nation, for conflicts to arise among different sections and groups of the population; and how difficult it is always to see the common interests that exist. But they also show how such conflicts tend to disappear when a situation arises which forces us to think of the common interests instead of the differences. All else was forgotten in the common purpose to "win the war." No sacrifice was too great on the part of any individual in order that this national purpose might be served. Everywhere throughout the country, in cities and in remote rural districts, service flags in the windows testified that the homes of the land were offering members that the nation and its ideals might live. Men, women, and even children contributed their work and their savings and denied themselves customary comforts to help win the war. THE ENTIRE NATION WAS WORKING TOGETHER FOR A COMMON PURPOSE.

OUR NATIONAL PURPOSE

We have said that this common purpose was to "win the war." But there were purposes that lie much deeper than this, without which it would not have been worth while to enter the war at all. As we saw in Chapter I, our nation is founded on a belief in the right of every one to life and physical well-being; to be secure in one's rightful possessions; to freedom of thought—education, free speech, a free press; to freedom of religion; to happiness in pleasant surroundings and a wholesome social life; and, above all, to a voice in the government which exists to protect these rights. It was to secure a larger freedom to enjoy these rights, "for ourselves first and for all others in their time," that our nation was solidly united against the enemy that threatened it from without. But it was with this same purpose that the War of Independence was fought, that our Constitution was adopted, that slavery was abolished, that millions of people from foreign lands have come to our shores. It is this common purpose that makes the great mass of foreigners in our country Americans, ready to fight for America, if necessary even against the land of their birth. It is this for which the American flag stands at all times, whether in peace or in war.

What proof can you give of a "national spirit" in your locality during the war?

What evidence can you give to show that this national spirit is or is not as strong since the war closed?

What was the "National Army"? the "National Guard"? Which of these organizations was most likely to develop a "national spirit"? Why? What good reasons can you give for the action of the government in consolidating the Regular Army, the National Army, and the National Guard into a "United States Army"?

What arguments can you give in favor of requiring all instruction in the public schools to be given in the English language?

What arguments can you give in favor of teaching lessons in citizenship in foreign-language newspapers?

What foreign nationalities are represented in your locality?

Make a blackboard table showing the nationality of the parents and grandparents of each member of your class.

Give illustrations to show that "winning the war" was the controlling purpose in your community during the war.

In what way has the war made YOU think about the right-to-life and the need for physical well-being? about security in property? about freedom of thought? about the desirability of an education? about the right of people to pleasant surroundings? about self- government?

Show how the Spanish-American war was fought for the same purpose as that mentioned in the paragraph above.

Write a brief theme on "What the Flag Means to Me."

NATIONAL INTERDEPENDENCE

The attempt to work together in the war made it very apparent how dependent the nation is upon all its parts, and how dependent each part is upon all the others. It was often said that "the farmers would win the war." At other times it was said to be ships, or fuel, or airplanes, or railroad transportation, or trained scientists and technical workers. The truth is, of course, that all these things and many more were absolutely necessary, and that no one of them would have been of much value without all the others.

It is true that the winning of the war depended upon the farmers, because they are the producers of the food and of the raw materials for textiles without which the nation and every group and person in it would have been helpless. But the farmer could not supply food to the nation without machinery for its production, and without city markets and railroads and ships for its distribution. Machinery could not be made, nor ships and locomotives built, without steel. For the manufacture of steel there must be iron and fuel and tungsten and other materials. And for all these things there must be inventors and skilled mechanics, and to produce these there must be schools. And so we could go on indefinitely to show how the war made us feel our interdependence. What we need to understand, however, is that THIS INTERDEPENDENCE IS CHARACTERISTIC OF OUR NATIONAL LIFE AT ALL TIMES; the war only made us feel it more keenly.

NATION-BUILDING IN WAR TIME

During the war, strange as it may seem, while we were devoting our national energies to the work of destruction incident to war, we as a nation made astonishing progress in many ways other than in the art of war—in what we might call nation-building.

In some ways we made progress in a year or two that under ordinary circumstances might have required a generation. A striking illustration of this is in the development of a great fleet of merchant ships at a rate that would have been impossible before the war. Beginning with almost nothing when the war began, we had, in less than two years, a merchant fleet larger than that of any other nation, and that in spite of the constant destruction of ships by the enemy. The chairman of the shipping board of the United States government says that this is because the necessities of the war made the whole nation see how much it depends upon ships, and caused not only ship-builders, but also engineers and manufacturers and businessmen and the Navy department of the government, and many others, to concentrate upon this problem, with the result that we discovered methods of shipbuilding, and of loading and unloading and operating ships when they were built, that will probably enable us to maintain permanently a merchant marine, the lack of which we have deplored for many years.

In a similar way we discovered and brought into use valuable natural resources of whose existence we had largely been ignorant and for which we had been dependent upon other nations. We made astonishing progress in scientific knowledge, and especially in the application of this knowledge to invention and to industrial enterprises. We developed a new interest in agriculture, and learned the food values of many products that had formerly been neglected. We were led to attack seriously the great problem of suitable housing for workmen, and had an important lesson in the relation between wholesome home-life and industrial efficiency (see Chapter X, pp. 112-113). Foundations were laid for the adjustment of the unfortunate differences that have long existed between workmen and their employers. The war suggested changes in our educational methods, some of which will doubtless become effective, to the great improvement of our public schools, colleges, and technical schools.

We shall study some of these things more fully in later chapters. They are mentioned now to illustrate how OUR NATIONAL PROGRESS WAS STIMULATED WHEN THE WAR FORCED US TO SEE THE RELATION OF ALL THESE THINGS TO ONE ANOTHER AND TO THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF OUR NATIONAL PURPOSE. On the other hand, failure to recognize this national interdependence means slow progress as a national community. When the war began, our nation was said to be "unprepared." Insofar as this was true—and it was true in many particulars—it was because in the times of peace before the war we had not thought enough about the dependence of our national strength and safety upon all these factors in our national life WORKING TOGETHER. And so, in the times of peace AFTER THE WAR, if the purposes for which our nation fought are to be fulfilled, we must continue to profit by this lesson which the war has taught us.

Recall your discussion of national interdependence in connection with your study of Chapter II.

Report on some of the important scientific and commercial developments resulting from the war; as, for example:

The development of the commercial use of the airplane.

The development of new food supplies.

The production of fertilizer from the nitrogen of the air.

The development of new industries in the United States.

Changes in methods of farming.

What are some changes in education that are likely to result from the war?

Show how the strike of coal miners in 1919 affected the life of the nation.

THE "SUPREME TEST" OF THE NATION

The "working together" of all these interdependent parts is the
important thing. "The supreme test of the nation has come," said
President Wilson. "We must all speak, act, and serve together."
[Footnote: Message to the American People, April 15, 1919].

1

It is not an army that we must shape and train for war … it is a Nation. To this end our people must draw close in one compact front against a common foe. But this cannot be if each man pursues a private purpose. The Nation needs all men, but it needs each man, not in the field that will most pleasure him, but in the endeavor that will best serve the common good. … The whole Nation must be a team, in which each man must play the part for which he is best fitted. [Footnote: Conscription Proclamation, May 18, 1917.]

THE NATION AS A TEAM

We had some suggestion on page 72 of how such national team work became a fact. "Do your bit!" was the watch-word. It was splendid to see how personal interests gave way before the desire to serve the nation. It is a thrilling story how the racial elements in our population forgot their differences of race and language and remembered only that they were American; how employers and employees laid aside their differences; how farmers and businessmen, manufacturers and mechanics, miners and woodsmen, inventors and teachers, women in the home and children in the schools, doctors and nurses, and every other class and group subordinated their personal interests to the one national purpose of winning the war in order that "the world might become a decent place in which to live."

As soon as the United States entered the war, Washington, the nation's capital, became filled with people from all parts of the country who wanted to help in some way. Some were called there by the government; others came to volunteer their services and to offer ideas that they thought useful. Many came as representatives of organizations—business and industrial organizations, scientific associations, civic societies. New committees and associations were formed, until the number of voluntary citizen organizations eager to do "war work" became almost too numerous to remember. They were all an indication of the desire of the people to do their part in the national enterprise.

CONFUSION WITHOUT ORGANIZATION

But there followed a period of confusion. All these organizations and the people whom they represented wanted to help, but they did not always know just what to do nor how to do it. Each organization had its own ideas which it often magnified above all others. Different organizations wanted to accomplish the same purpose, but wanted to do it in different ways. Often they duplicated one another's efforts. A war could not be won under such conditions. But out of all this confusion there finally developed order, and this was because the various organizations of people realized that if they were to accomplish anything they must work in cooperation with the national government, whose business it was, after all, to organize the nation for united action. In fact, it was for this reason that they came to Washington. Many of them sought to influence the government to adopt this or that plan, and sometimes succeeded; but it was the government that finally decided what plans were to be adopted, and all of the effort of the numerous organizations and of individuals must be brought into harmony with these.

NATIONAL TEAM WORK THROUGH GOVERNMENT

The period of the war afforded many striking examples of national cooperation secured by the government. It may have seemed sometimes that our government interfered with personal freedom to an unreasonable extent, as when it limited the amount of coal we could buy, fixed the prices of many articles, determined the wages that should be paid for labor, took over the management of the railroads and of the telegraph and telephone lines, and did many other things that it never had done in times of peace. We expected government to exercise powers in war time that it would not be permitted to exercise in times of peace. But it can be shown that even during the war, the government, with all its unusual powers, did not "ride roughshod" over the people, but sought to "make them partners in an enterprise which after all was their own." The nation was fighting for its life and for the very principles upon which it was founded, and it was necessary that cooperation should be complete and effective. This was what the government sought, and it exercised its powers by inviting and obtaining national cooperation to a remarkable extent.

THE SELECTIVE DRAFT AS AN ILLUSTRATION OF TEAM WORK

Our national army was created by a "selective" draft, or conscription. Conscription had formerly been looked upon with disfavor as a form of forced military service. A volunteer army was thought to be more in harmony with a democratic form of government. But the draft is now seen to be far more democratic than a volunteer army because it treats all able-bodied men alike, instead of leaving the fighting to those who are most courageous and most patriotic, while those who are inclined to shirk may easily do so. Moreover, the SELECTIVE draft means the selection of men to serve in the capacity for which they are best fitted. In Great Britain, under a volunteer system, and in France, under a system of compulsory military service for all men, thousands of brave men went to the trenches in the early days of the war who, because of their training, should have been kept at home to perform the vast amount of skilled labor and scientific work which this war demanded. War industry, without which there could be no fighting, was thus greatly hampered.

By our selective draft, on the other hand, while every man was expected to do his share, each was selected as far as possible to do the thing which he could do best and therefore which would best serve the country. It also sought to prevent those who had families dependent upon them from going to war until they were absolutely needed. Thus the selective draft is an example of government organizing our national manpower for more effective teamwork and with less hardship than if it had been left to voluntary action.

TEAM WORK THROUGH THE FOOD ADMINISTRATION

The United States Food Administration was created by the President to carry out the provisions of a law passed by Congress", to provide further for the national security and defense by encouraging the production, conserving the supply, and controlling the distribution of food products and fuel." The President placed at its head a man in whom the people of the country had great confidence, because of his experience and success in organizing and managing the Belgian relief work, Mr. Herbert Hoover. He gathered around him men familiar with the problems relating to the food supply of the nation, and then proceeded to enlighten the country in regard to the nature of these problems and to seek for the cooperation of the people in solving them.

As soon as he was appointed, the food administrator issued a statement containing the following facts:

Whereas we exported before the war but 80,000,000 bushels of wheat per annum, this year we must find for all our allies 225,000,000 bushels, and this in the face of a short crop. … France and Italy formerly produced their own sugar, while England and Ireland imported largely from Germany. Owing to the inability of the first-named to produce more than one third of their needs, and the necessity for the others to import from other markets, they must all come to the West Indies for their very large supplies, and therefore deplete our resources.

If we can reduce our consumption of wheat flour by 1 pound, our meat by 7 ounces, our sugar by 7 ounces, our fat by 7 ounces PER PERSON PER WEEK, these quantities, multiplied by 100,000,000 (the population of the United States) will immeasurably aid and encourage our allies, help our own growing armies, and so effectively serve the great and noble cause of humanity in which our nation has embarked.

DEMOCRACY A PARTNERSHIP

This illustrates how the Food Administration sought cooperation. It "made partners" of the people, explained to them the situation, and asked them to help as individuals. It showed the nation what it must do if it were to be successful in its undertaking. It is true that the President had large powers to enforce observance of the rules outlined by the Food Administration, but it was only in the exceptional case of the individual consumer and producer who refused to cooperate for the common good that it became necessary to use the power. The method of democracy is to point out clearly how the desired result may be obtained and to depend upon the people to govern themselves accordingly.

After a year of the war a member of the Food Administration is quoted as saying, [Footnote: In an article on "Your Wheatless Days," by W. A. Wolff, in Collier's Weekly, Aug. 17, 1918.] "There's never been anything like it in history. … We asked the American people to do voluntarily more than any other people has ever been asked to do under compulsion. And the American people made good!"

What was true in the unusual time of war is true to even a greater extent in the ordinary time of peace. We have little to fear from our national government as long as we and those to whom we entrust its management, always keep in mind its real purpose, which is to show us how to work together effectively as a nation and to help us do it.

EVERY MAN COUNTS

All through this study we are going to observe how in the ordinary affairs of life our national government serves us in this respect. One thing that we need especially to learn is that we have a great national purpose ALL THE TIME, in peace as well as in war. In fact, PEACE IS A PART OF THAT PURPOSE. We went to war because without it there could be no assurance of a lasting peace. While we fought to defend our national purpose and our national ideals against a powerful foe from without, this purpose and these ideals cannot be fully achieved by the war alone. They can be finally achieved only by ourselves as we develop, day by day, our national community life. To do this we must always keep in mind our great national purpose, we must realize our dependence upon one another in achieving this purpose, and we must make our national team work as perfect as it can be made. Above all, we must realize that, in peace as in war, EVERY MAN COUNTS in our national community life. As President Wilson said:

"THE NATION NEEDS ALL MEN, BUT IT NEEDS EACH MAN. …" "THE WHOLE NATION MUST BE A TEAM, IN WHICH EACH MAN SHALL PLAY THE PART FOR WHICH HE IS BEST FITTED."

Read and discuss President Wilson's "Message to the American
People," of April 15, 1917.

What organizations existed in your community to secure teamwork for war purposes?

Show how boys' and girls' clubs, or the School Garden Army, made cooperation possible on a national scale. Is this true in peace times as well as in war time?

Is there greater or less need of national teamwork today than during the war? Explain your answer.

What evidences are there that the teamwork of our nation has not been as good since the war as during the war? Why is this?

Show how universal military training might increase the national spirit What arguments can you give against it?

Should or should not the food administration of wartime be continued in peace time? Why?

What does it mean to you to be an American?

READINGS

In Long's American Patriotic Prose:

Van Dyke, "The Blending of Races," p. 4.

De Crevecoeur, "The American," p. 38.

Webster, "Imaginary Speech of John Adams," p. 77.

Brooks, "The Fourth of July in Westminster Abbey," p. 89.

Van Dyke, "The Americanism of Washington," pp. 135-137.

Jay, "Unity as a Protection against Foreign Force and Influence," p. 139.

Webster, "Liberty and Union Inseparable," p. 158.

Lincoln, "Gettysburg Speech," p. 181.

Lincoln, "Second Inaugural Address," p. 183.

Whitman, "Two Brothers, One North, One South," p. 201.

Wilson, "Spirit of America," p. 266.

Roosevelt, "True Americanism," p. 270.

Wilson, "Conscription Proclamation," p. 283.

Hughes, "What the Flag Means," p. 288.

Eliot, "Five American Contributions to Civilization," p. 310.

Lane, "Makers of the Flag," p. 314.

McCall, "America the Melting Pot," p. 320.

Wilson, "To Newly-Made Citizens," p. 322.

Gibbons, "The Republic Will Endure," p. 340.

Eliot, "What Americans Believe In," p. 361.

Abbott, "Patriotism," p. 362.

In Foerster and Pierson's American Ideals:

Wilson, "Conscription Proclamation," p. 175.

Wilson, "Americanism and the Foreign-Born," p. 178.

Alderman, "Can Democracy be Organized?" p. 158.