of the integral units of the United States of America, which must be numbered among the really great nations of all history. Michigan gives to and receives from every state within the Union. She takes her color and quality from the whole nation. Strategically located in the very heart of America, within easy access of many of the chief centers of population, proud of possessing the fourth city of the nation, conscious of her industrial power, she may be regarded as typically American. To appraise her is in reality to interpret America.

The vital facts are compelling because they tell us that here may be seen millions of people engaged in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and commerce. They work and they attempt to play. They are prosperous, possessing now about six billion dollars' worth of property. They desire to use rightly and wisely their leisure time. They are associated, perhaps unconsciously, and without any serious realization of its implications, in the task of community building. They have assumed the responsibilities of American citizenship. They have developed here a political, social, industrial, and educational order. Mighty problems have presented themselves for solution. The city of Detroit alone is spending this year thirty-one million dollars for her public schools. As we look at Michigan, we are thrilled by this heroic community, undaunted by its problems, and inspired by a great vision of its future.

America as a whole has made great contributions to this Middle West. If our Pilgrim forefathers were marked by independence, initiative, and moral insight, these characteristics have been especially necessary in the development of these great western empires. Along with the nation, the West must face problems and utilize opportunities which are apparent to every observer of American

life.

Our country today is suffering from a lack of national unity. This statement does not need to be supported by statistical data, graphic charts, or long arguments. We are a polyglot people. We have been gathered from all of the nations of the earth. These peoples have come with varying traditions, differing religious beliefs, and with strange expectations. They have been confronted with stern realities rather than thrilling national hopes. They have experienced chilling disappointments and suffered from bitter disillusionments. And yet out of this heterogeneous mass we are making America. The war revealed in sharp outline our dangers. Sometimes a flash comes out of the dark pit of our social and economic world. But through it all, the war made us see the possibilities of a new order and illuminated our rough path with the enduring light which emanates from the eternal truths upon which Democracy rests.

The striking fact about America is. that more than any other nation she has been released from the past. Here is at once her strength and her weakness. Forward-looking movements in Europe are inevitably counterbalanced by the traditions of the past. In America, liberty easily becomes license, and freedom tends toward anarchy. At any rate, the plasticity of our entire social order is apparent. Our detachment from the past has manifested itself in a curious disregard even for the laws enacted by ourselves and in a strange disrespect for the courts of our own making. With all of our worship of the individual, human life has been held a cheap thing. Arnold Bennett alludes to "that sublime, romantic contempt for law and for human life, which, to the European, is the most disconcerting factor in the social evolution. of your states." Our escape from ancient tyrannies and limitations has tended to soften our lives and to rob them of their