Address to the National American Council in Washington, D.C.

It is not only a pleasure, but a great reassurance to greet this body of earnest and intelligent men and women who have come together, so to speak, as coordinators for a great group of organizations devoted to the common purpose of bettering American citizenship. It is one of the best signs of our times that there exists a widespread realization of the need for organized and determined effort to recall the people to the high ideals which inspired our republican institutions.

It is a common observation nowadays, sometimes, I think, altogether too easily and lightly made, that democracy is on trial. I think we have need to make some distinction at this point. The unqualified and not infrequently pessimistic declaration that democracy is on trial is calculated to suggest that perhaps there is need to search for an alternative to those democratic republican institutions which we have erected in this country, and which have spread in the last century and a half to a great part of the world. I have some misgivings about whether democracy is on trial, but I am very sure that in these times it is experiencing a great many trials. Further, we will be quite safe in admitting that many of the institutions which have been set up in the hope that through them the best aims of democracy might be realized are on trial. We will make no mistake if we confess that the attitude and conduct of many people who profess devotion to democratic institutions are on trial. But all this may be admitted without implying that any important part of society is seeking an alternative to democracy. There is much questioning of ways and means and institutions, but as to the fundamentals it certainly can be said that never was our country more firmly committed to the broad ideals and purposes of democracy, and never before were so many other countries and peoples seeking to establish like commitments.

Human society has never faced a more complex or difficult situation, and it is therefore of first importance that all Americans be brought to understand the underlying purposes of this commonwealth, and to fix firmly in their hearts the determination to maintain institutions capable of progressive evolution and development, along the lines of our fundamental principles. To this end, the need is to educate all of us to understand what our fundamentals are, what they mean, and whether, in the process of their evolution, we desire to hold them everlastingly secure. In some ways Americans are a very conservative people; in others, quite the reverse. Having been compelled for generations more or less to improvise institutions fitted to their needs, they have largely lost the fear of experimentation. Some of them are quite willing to experiment without first stopping to think out clearly the procedure on which they would enter. Conflicts among differing groups and opposing programs have commonly prevented disastrous results; but there is danger in placing too much reliance on this kind of protection. It is liable to deadlock the whole mechanism of progress. That would be as great a disaster as to give ourselves over to an era of ill-assorted, unthought-out social and economic experiments.

Somewhere between these two undesirable courses, our country has need to chart a route of sane, constructive, genuine progress which may command the sincere support of the overwhelming majority. Thus, and only thus, we shall assure continuing institutional evolution, without revolution; steady advancement, without avulsion. It seems fair to say that two conditions must be met if our quorum of democratic institutions are to continue improving and adapting themselves to the requirements of an increasingly complex social order. Every governmental unit must be as nearly as possible a miniature of the ideal state which all hope to realize, capable of standing on its own bottom and managing affairs as best serves the public welfare. But, since such a collection of independent, self-governing communities does not form a nation, there must be also some potent bonds of sympathy, interest and common purpose binding these communities into a great united commonwealth.

Our national experience during the war afforded illustration of how a great common purpose, intense and universal, would weld the nation into a true unity. The inspiration to forget personal interests for the sake of the common cause; to sacrifice individual ambition, to work without stint and without question, to give up, if necessary, even life itself—these enabled us to achieve a consciousness of solidarity and of power that this nation had not known before it grandly demonstrated what magnificent results a great people can accomplish if they have a great common object which all sincerely wish to attain. That great release of national energy was inspired by war. It showed how far this people will go in service- and sacrifice for the common good. As a people, we have not changed with the return of peace; but undeniably We have lost much of the unity, the solidarity, the eagerness for simple service, that marked our war-time attitude. Plainly it is because we have been somewhat confused by the complexity of our time and situation. No one great dominating and appealing cause has been visualized before us, to command our loyalty and devotion. We have not discovered any single, all-absorbing enterprise capable of commanding the services of the whole united community. We need to find such a commanding and dominating national interest, and I believe it would be found if we could contrive means to set before all the people the full meaning and implication of that simple statement about the aims and purposes of our Government which is contained in the preamble of the Constitution. In that preamble the fathers of the republic set forth the objective of this great democracy; "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty, to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

There is the complete statement of our nation's aspiration, and a noble aspiration it is. There is the chart for our course. There is the inspiration to every effort to make one and all of us better citizens. Following this statement of a general purpose the Constitution sets up a mechanism, and the laws enacted by nation and states have added to that mechanism from time to time. We should not, in contemplating the details and perhaps imperfections of the machinery, allow ourselves to forget the great underlying plan and purpose, the supreme object of it all. There is need to cultivate in every citizen a sense of responsibility, of personal concern for the operation of this mechanism in a fashion harmonious with the purposes of its founders. The nation at its best will not be better than the aggregate of all its citizenship, the national ideal stated in the preamble will be attained by us as a nation in no greater degree than we shall attain it as an aggregate of individuals. To the extent that the individual strives to realize the object in his life and conduct, communities composed of these individuals may accomplish it, but no further. The preamble, then, defines the objectives and aims of training for citizenship.

No doubt the working implications of this thesis will be developed in your discussions. But one brief suggestion may be offered. Consider one phase in the preamble: "To establish justice." In our mechanism of government, we have set up an elaborate organization to insure this: the federal and state judicial systems. But the courts cannot insure equal justice to all the community if some individuals shall strive for special privileges for themselves, or seek to establish subtle forms of injustice not specifically prohibited by the letter of law. The task of the courts will be difficult, slow, sometimes impossible, unless citizens subject to their jurisdiction are sincerely desirous to do justice and to see it done in the affairs of day-by-day life.

Thus the immediate and continuing opportunity for every citizen to contribute toward the accomplishment of this particular objective by the nation as a whole lies in so guiding one's personal affairs that they shall fall into coincidence with this injunction "to establish justice." If we sincerely wish to leave a better and greater nation to the next generation, to bequeath institutions better adapted to accomplish the great aim of social organization, we shall accomplish these things by adhering in our daily conduct to the rule of seeking and doing justice. To this end, the federal Government has important contributions to make. Many of its agencies, such as the Bureau of Education, the Federal Board for Vocational Education, the Departments of Agriculture, Labor, War and Navy, indeed every department, are actively engaged in efforts for the better training of citizens. The Federal Council of Citizenship Training has been set up with the purpose of helping to so coordinate these various functions that they may be more effective. It has been studying the situation, charting the work of federal agencies, laying out the possible lines of communication with the states and the people, preparing to keep up with them in every enterprise for the betterment of citizenship.

Along the same lines the state and municipal governments have important duties. They directly control the educational establishments of the country. Beyond them, every citizen has a personal responsibility in this business of training better citizens. The citizen is an example to all with whom he comes in contact, a parent with direct responsibility for his children. Without his fullest cooperation, the utmost efforts of federal, state and local governments can at most be of small avail. So we may well unite in inviting all citizens of all of the many organizations which look to encourage better citizenship to unite in this fine cooperation of effort.

With the preamble of the Constitution as a definition of our objective we will find that we have a common aim and purpose, quite as attractive as any that have been set up before us and under the urgencies of war. Here is a sound platform on which to build democratic institutions. Toward the realization of such aspirations as these we may confidently place our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. The result of individual and collective effort to make this democratic program a moving force in our lives and conduct will extend beyond our own borders. The nation which knows the truth and which, amid the turmoil of this age, has discovered how "to insure domestic tranquility" can point the way to world peace; not by force of arms, but by living the precepts of representative democracy's true platform in all its dealings with mankind.