nstead of individual effort we have been advancing
governmental {272} effort. Instead of natural competition we have been
substituting government regulation. Instead of advancing patriotism,
nationalism, Americanism, we have been letting all these give way to
internationalism. We have not been preparing ourselves as individuals
to assume individual responsibly, but in fact we have been giving up
that responsibility to government.

It is through the sense of the people quickened by such men as Wood
that we shall come back to sounder methods--not to where we were
before. That can never be. If it were so, the world would not be
moving forward. But we shall come back to the basic principle that
individual initiative, energy and the rewards that accrue therefrom
are and always must be the basis for collective initiative, energy and
the rewards thereof; that no collective organization such as a
government can remain virile and effective unless its component
parts--the individuals--remain virile and effective.

The appeal which Wood's life makes to us is toward this responsibility
of the individual _for_ his own work, his own affairs, his own family,
and {273} to his own country, and that has been found throughout
history to be the groundwork, the foundation upon which civilization
rests. Translated into current phrase this means that we must follow
such men as he, keep eternally at work to improve ourselves
individually, to make a good and honest living, to hand on the torch
of patriotism, of sanity and of ever-increasing knowledge by
furnishing to the world the new generations that shall carry on, and
to weld and stabilize the whole structure by building up Americanism
within our borders. In the vocabulary of General Wood this is
translated again into the words: "Prepare! Prepare! Prepare!"

Such has been the career of the New Englander from Cape Cod who has
worked in his own land, in the tropics, in many spheres, at many
problems until at the age of fifty-eight in sound mind and body he
stands firmly still in the prime of life ready for many years yet to
come of service and work for himself, his family and his fellow
countrymen.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Career of Leonard Wood, by Joseph Hamblen Sears

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAREER OF LEONARD WOOD ***

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