of the Nation_, you are a traitor
to the Republic if, in spite of your convictions, you stand by your
party and against your country.

But to break with your party on minor issues is foolish. A certain
class is coming to regard leaving one's party as a smart thing. But it
is not a smart thing. Quitting your party does not necessarily mean
independence. It may mean that, and then again it may mean stupidity;
and still again it may only mean a "sore head," as the political
phrase has it.

In a country as old as ours there finally comes to be in politics a
fundamental division. There is the constructive and progressive on the
one side, and the destructive and reactionary on the other side. These
are merely the centripetal and centrifugal forces of nature at work in
human society. Usually it is found that one of these parties is
naturally the Governing Party, and the other one is naturally the
Party of Opposition.

Not only your judgment but your instincts will tell you, young man, to
which one of these forces you belong. Each has its uses. You can well
serve your country in either organization. It is merely a question as
to whether you are in character and temperament a builder, a doer of
things, or a critic of things done and the doing of them. Each is
necessary.

I have no quarrel with your partizan creed, no matter what it is. That
is your business. But whatever you are, be National. Be broad. Do not
be deceived by catchwords. Remember that this is a Nation in the
making. When the first railroad was built across the boundaries of
states it modified old-time interpretations of our Constitution.

Telegraph and telephone wires, steam and electric railways, all the
means of instantaneous communication which this wizard-like age of
ours is weaving from ocean to ocean, are consolidating the American
people into a single family.

Natural conditions and the ordinary progress of industry and invention
are making old methods inadequate and unjust. So keep abreast of the
growing Nation in your political thinking. Solve all American
problems from the view-point of the Nation, and not from the
view-point of state or section. Consider the American people _as_ a
People, and not as a lot of separate and hostile communities. Be
National. Be an American. Know but one flag.

Whatever party you belong to, and whatever your views on public
questions, you will never make a profound mistake as long as you keep
your civic ideals hig