We are drifting on every hand. The stupendous national problems which beset our country internally can not be counted off on the fingers of both hands. The exploitation of our farmers is leaving our countryside, the cradle of our national character and well-being, depleted of population. The Great War is over, but high prices largely remain. We have not even approached a solution of the problem of both safeguarding and properly controlling the nation's greater industries. Labor strikes take on the nature of social revolutions. The advocacy of Bolshevism arouses mighty crowds to wild enthusiasm. The children of the rich and poor alike grow up without proper normal training, not to speak of spiritual vision. With millions of people lacking houses to live in, we find ourselves with millions of people unemployed. The problem of the Negro is no nearer permanent solution than it was forty years ago. I might go on adding to this list indefinitely. Throughout the length and breadth of the land our political life draws ever weaker character and poorer mind to political leadership. Strength, purposefulness and astuteness, when united together, are used mostly to win riches. The weaker brethren are more and more being drawn into the public service, into the pulpit and into the profession of teaching. If we really wanted, as in the past, our first-class men to preach to us, to teach us, and to direct our government, we could easily enough secure their services. A century ago our national problems were exceedingly simple. Their full meaning and purport could be quickly explained and grasped. To-day our economic and social problems are infinitely complex. Keeping the trains running between New York and San Francisco in the year 1921 is a vastly different piece of business than keeping the stage coaches running between New York and Boston in 1787. But the average of intelligence and character in both our state legislatures and in Congress is far lower than it was in 1787. If any be disposed to deny this, let him make a comparison between the debates of the Federal Convention of 1787 and the debates of our Federal Congress or the average state legislature of to-day. Our political mind, in so far as we have any, is still living on the contributions of our national past. The last quarter of the century, especially, has registered failure with reference to almost every internal national problem presented by our time.