al question of
the day.

It is one of the most striking characteristics of the present United
States that this instinct of political unity should have endured,
triumphing over every temporary motive of division. The inhabitants of
the United States belong to a single political type. There is scarcely
a news-stand in any country of Continental Europe where one may not
purchase a newspaper openly or secretly opposed to the government,--not
merely attacking an unpopular administration or minister or ruler,--but
desiring and plotting the overthrow of the entire political system of
the country. It is very difficult to find such a newspaper anywhere in
the United States. I myself have never seen one. The opening sentence
of President Butler's admirable little book, _The American as He Is_,
originally delivered as lectures before the University of Copenhagen,
runs as follows:

"The most impressive fact in American life is the substantial
unity of view in regard to the fundamental questions of
government and of conduct among a population so large,
distributed over an area so wide, recruited from sources so
many and so diverse, living under conditions so widely
different."

But the American type of mind is evident in many other fields than that
of politics. The stimulating book from which I have just quoted,
attempts in its closing paragraph, after touching upon the more salient
features of our national activity, to define the typical American in
these words:--

"The typical American is he who, whether rich or poor,
whether dwelling in the North, South, East, or West, whether
scholar, professional man, merchant, manufacturer, farmer, or
skilled worker for wages, lives the life of a good citizen
and good neighbor; who believes loyally and with all his
heart in his country's institutions, and in the underlying
principles on which these institutions are built; who directs
both his private and his public life by sound principles; who
cherishes high ideals; and who aims to train his children for
a useful life and for their country's service."

This modest and sensible statement indicates the existence of a
national point of view. We have developed in the course of time, as a
result of certain racial inheritances and historic experiences, a
national "temper" or "ethos"; a more or less settled way of considering
intellectual, moral, and social problems; in short, a