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from South to North, from farm to factory, have put a strain upon human economic relations that the Fathers did not experience. Theoretically people may be free in their lives, but so bound by economic chains that once again they are slaves; and it has been learned that men can be bound and tied not only by Attilas and Hitlers, but by gangsters and racketeers. The same unhappy state is reached when factory owners and labor leaders have no sense of public responsibility. How to control our economic life and still be free is the most difficult problem in the development of democracy.

There used to be a rough measure of ECONOMIC EQUALITY among the first settlers; and despite the fact that visits to the homes of Washington, Jefferson, and Adams reveal not poverty but luxury, and it is known that New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston were centers of considerable wealth, nevertheless in the main the people still had that simplicity and frugality that the eighteenth century believed necessary to the perpetuation of democracy. But the nineteenth century brought enormous industrial expansion, and with it great wealth to individuals. It was a time of wide opportunity. A continent was being developed and exploited. Huge fortunes were made. Extremes of wealth and poverty created problems that the new democracy had to face.

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW is almost completely a problem of law, and hence was sufficiently commented

upon in the preceding chapter. The chief violations of this right have come from human passions and prejudices working toward individual reprisals such as lynch law and "Western justice" and denial of civil liberties to minority groups, now happily almost vanished.

One of the most encouraging social developments, partly legal and partly social, is the development of the ideal of EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY. Pessimists have pointed out the variations in educational facilities from state to state and from section to section within a state; they have noted the private schools and independent universities; and they have concluded that only the rich have a chance. But the American social system has fostered the idea of the career open to talent; "onward and upward" is the motto of many a high school class; and every American likes to think, with Napoleon's soldiers, that he carries the baton of a marshal in his knapsack.

The educational system, which consisted of a few schools and colleges in 1776, began to take form at the turn of the century. From 1825 it moved rapidly ahead and soon elementary schools were so increased that they became available to practically all American children. The states also began to provide opportunities for college and university education, and then toward the end of the nineteenth century secondary education began to be open to all at public expense. No other nation ever adopted so ambitious an educational pro

gram. No other nation ever gave its children such a

chance.

The history of American education is a history of progressively greater equality of opportunity. By free tuition, free textbooks, and scholarships, our schools try to compensate for inequalities in wealth. They compensate for differences in the distance from school by transportation and payment of carfare. To equalize differences in health they provide dental and medical inspection and care. They provide special opportunities for the blind, deaf, crippled, and handicapped. Special classes for bright and dull, and a wide variety of courses give special attention to different interests, talents, and objectives. In no country are business or professional careers so open to one who has talent and the will to work as they are in the United States. In no country have the leaders been chosen so widely from among all the people.

Of course the schools have a long way to go. Some states still give a meager educational opportunity to their children; teachers are poorly paid, school terms are short, and buildings inadequate. Some of the poorest states pay the highest school taxes in proportion to their wealth-and still have poor schools.

If one is an optimist, he can wax eloquent about this country of ours as the land of free speech, religious liberty, free government, private enterprise, equality before the law, equal voice in government, and equal opportunity. If he is a pessimist, he will drip gloom.

He will point to the hole and not the doughnut; and Adolf and Benito will agree with him.

Americans should be very proud of their progress to date. Of course we should not rest content. We have far to go. But we can take pride in the tradition that brought us where we are today, and in the plan of government and social life that the Fathers gave us. We are now the best paid, the best clothed, the best sheltered, the most healthy people in the world. We enjoy a great degree of liberty and equality. We must order our conduct and guide our life so that we can continue to enjoy these privileges, and hand down undamaged to our children the form of government and life, invented for this purpose, which our Fathers gave to us.

C. OUR ENEMIES AND A BILL OF DUTIES

XVII

ENEMIES WITHOUT AND WITHIN

"It will be for you to protect democracy. . . . It must be defended from without, and equally it may have to be defended from within."

-STANLEY BALDWIN

When you are accustomed to a city or a country, everything gives you the illusion of permanence. The Capitol at Washington looks like a substantial building, the White House stands steady, and the average American does not have the slightest worry that democracy might fall and we might have a king or emperor or mikado or fuehrer telling us what to do. Nevertheless the Fathers were worried as to whether we could make a go of it. It is said that Benjamin Franklin, when asked what kind of government had been worked out, replied, "A republic-if we can keep it." During the sessions of the Constitutional Convention, James Madison carried in his pocket a little booklet of thirty-nine pages, which he had written out by hand, titled "Of Ancient and Modern Confederacies." Here he had listed all the facts that he could

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