raordinary distinction about
them, that they are connected with commonplace duty. The way to be
patriotic in America is not only to love America but to love the duty
that lies nearest to our hand and know that in performing it we are
serving our country. There are some gentlemen in Washington, for
example, at this very moment who are showing themselves very patriotic
in a way which does not attract wide attention but seems to belong to
mere everyday obligations. The Members of the House and Senate who stay
in hot Washington to maintain a quorum of the Houses and transact the
all-important business of the Nation are doing an act of patriotism. I
honor them for it, and I am glad to stay there and stick by them until
the work is done.

It is patriotic, also, to learn what the facts of our national life are
and to face them with candor. I have heard a great many facts stated
about the present business condition of this country, for example--a
great many allegations of fact, at any rate, but the allegations do not
tally with one another. And yet I know that truth always matches with
truth and when I find some insisting that everything is going wrong and
others insisting that everything is going right, and when I know from a
wide observation of the general circumstances of the country taken as a
whole that things are going extremely well, I wonder what those who are
crying out that things are wrong are trying to do. Are they trying to
serve the country, or are they trying to serve something smaller than
the country? Are they trying to put hope into the hearts of the men who
work and toil every day, or are they trying to plant discouragement and
despair in those hearts? And why do they cry that everything is wrong
and yet do nothing to set it right? If they love America and anything is
wrong amongst us, it is their business to put their hand with ours to
the task of setting it right. When the facts are known and acknowledged,
the duty of all patriotic men is to accept them in candor and to address
themselves hopefully and confidently to the common counsel which is
necessary to act upon them wisely and in universal concert.

I have had some experiences in the last fourteen months which have not
been entirely reassuring. It was universally admitted, for example, my
fellow-citizens, that the banking system of this country needed
reorganization. We set the best minds that we could find to the task of
discovering the best method o