Will America achieve these things? I believe the next few years will indicate whether America shall endure as a great nation or become a colony of states and sectional interests. The responsibility rests squarely upon the shoulders of each and every one of us. We cannot delegate it to Congress or legislatures, to benevolence or charity, to managers or superintendents, to the “man who has time” or to the agitator. The call is to national service for every one of us, and the only answer should be, where can we serve best and how soon shall we begin? CHAPTER II AMERICANISM What is Americanism? On the day this was written there appeared in the daily press a “pledge” now being circulated among young men, especially in our colleges and universities: “I being over 18 years of age hereby pledge myself against enlistment as a volunteer for any military or naval service in international warfare, _offensive or defensive_, and against giving my approval to such enlistment on the part of others.” Compare with this pledge that solemn oath taken many years ago by the wise elders of a new republic: “... in support of these truths we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” Which strikes the keynote to the future of America? “We cannot in this country hope for the compelling devotion which has animated Germany, still less for the supreme moral and intellectual force which is the staying power of France,” says Miss Repplier in a recent statement. What then _can_ we hope for? Granted our geographical difficulties, granted our youth, our size, and the consequent imperfect control of our material resources, granted the complexity of our problem caused by the rapid immigration of the past years, granted that we are still a body of states--does this mean that we cannot acquire the spirit of France and the efficiency of Germany? I believe Miss Repplier’s attitude (a typical native American one) shows an entirely mistaken conception of the situation. No nation ever had a more vigorous birth than ours. This country was founded upon a body of conviction, clarified by a white heat of passion, but representing the judgment of deliberate men and great statesmen, men who saw into the future, and built the ship of state by that vision.