rels to the men who sacrifice
their triumphs in the rivalry of business in order to give their service
to the cause of a liberty-loving nation, their wealth and their genius
to the success of her ideals. That craving for distinction which once
drew men to pile up wealth and exhibit power over the industrial
processes of the nation, is now finding a new outlet in the craving for
distinction that comes from service to the Union, in satisfaction in the
use of great talent for the good of the republic.

And all over the nation, in voluntary organizations for aid to the
government, is being shown the pioneer principle of association that was
expressed in the "house raising." It is shown in the Red Cross, the Y.
M. C. A., the Knights of Columbus, the councils and boards of science,
commerce, labor, agriculture; and in all the countless other types, from
the association of women in their kitchen who carry out the
recommendations of the Food Director and revive the plain living of the
pioneer, to the Boy Scouts who are laying the foundations for a
self-disciplined and virile generation worthy to follow the trail of the
backwoodsmen. It is an inspiring prophecy of the revival of the old
pioneer conception of the obligations and opportunities of
neighborliness, broadening to a national and even to an international
scope. The promise of what that wise and lamented philosopher, Josiah
Royce called, "the beloved community." In the spirit of the pioneer's
"house raising" lies the salvation of the Republic.

This then is the heritage of pioneer experience,--a passionate belief
that a democracy was possible which should leave the individual a part
to play in free society and not make him a cog in a machine operated
from above; which trusted in the common man, in his tolerance, his
ability to adjust differences with good humor, and to work out an
American type from the contributions of all nations--a type for which
he would fight against those who challenged it in arms, and for which in
time of war he would make sacrifices, even the temporary sacrifice of
individual freedom and his life, lest that freedom be lost forever.

FOOTNOTES:

[335:1] An address delivered at the dedication of the building of the
State Historical Society of Minnesota, May 11, 1918. Printed by
permission of the Society.

[343:1] See De Tocqueville's interesting appreciation of this American
phenomenon.

INDEX

Absentee proprietors, 55, 297

Ac