Our most distinctive and persistent tradition is our self-reliant individualism. This is at once our strength and our weakness. It has hastened the industrial conquest of a continent, but it has wasted our natural resources, needlessly sacrificed human life, and it has been indifferent to the general welfare. So long as private profit is consistent with public ends, it is a source of strength, but the moment it becomes inconsistent it is a source of weakness. The flagrant evils of American life are largely due to applying to present-day conditions a philosophy suited to the frontier. We can not regulate the railways and the trusts, reform the tariff, or abolish the slums without encountering an overweening individualism. The disregard of speed ordinances by automobilists, the prostitution of public office to private ends, the corrupting influence of business on our political life, and the all too prevalent spirit of lawnessness are traceable to this characteristic. We have been optimistic to a fault. We have cherished the delusion that our manifest evils if left alone will eradicate themselves. We have assumed that we are in a special sense the chosen people of God. No matter which way we turn, the "psychological twist" which originated in pioneer days interferes with our becoming a socialized democracy.
VI
The opponents of the demand for a larger measure of popular government forget the growing intelligence of the people. Schools and colleges, books, newspapers and magazines, modern transportation and communication, business intercourse, the trade union, political discussion, the numerous clubs and Chautauqua circles, and the growing density of population which brings mind more frequently in contact with mind, are so many agencies for promoting the general enlightenment. Rural free delivery, the telephone, the interurban trolley, and the influence of the city are widening the mental horizon of the farmer.
More fundamental is the influence of the scientific spirit to which Darwin's works gave such a decided impetus. Laboratory methods of research are pushing forward the frontier of knowledge. Many of our universities and technical schools are devoting themselves to pure science as well as to vocational training. Electrical machinery, the aeroplane, the automobile and wireless telegraphy arouse the scientific curiosity of the young. They also engender respect for the profession of the engineer who delves into the mysteries of nature. Besides, the ideals of democracy are permeating all classes of society.
- ↑ A. Maurice Low, "The American People, A Study in National Psychology, The Harvesting of a Nation," Vol. 2, p. 300.
