October, 1922
THE WESTERN AMERICAN
¿where the American language is taught, reading and
■writing.
I America demands a higher standard in citizenship,
It is entitled to it. No one but illiterate aliens, hold
ing citizenship rights, granted them, at an earlier
period of time when Americans were criminally indif
ferent, are likely to register a protest against such
a statute, except, possibly, those group leaders and
politicians who have been in the habit of turning
political “tricks,” through their power over the voters
who do not read the American language and whose
understanding of our language is limited to but a
few words.
A PROPHECY NOT YET FULFILLED
W ISUALIZING a day when the world could boast
* a more advanced civilization that would settle
international disputes, not by the sword, but by
peaceful arrangements, Victor Hugo made this
prophecy at the peace congress of 1849:
I A day will come when you, France—you, Russia—you,
Italy—you, England—you, Germany—all of you, nations of
the continent—shall, without losing your distinctive quali
ties and your glorious individuality, blend in a higher unity
and form a European fraternity, even as Normandy, Brit-
tany, Burgundy, Lorraine, Alsace, all« the French provinces
have blended into France.
I A day will come when war shall seem as absurd and im
possible between Paris and London, between St. Petersburg
and Berlin, as between Rouen and Amiens, between Boston
and Philadelphia. A day will come when bullets and bombs
shall be replaced by ballots, by the universal suffrage of the
people, by the sacred arbitrament of a great sovereign sen
ate, which shall be to Europe what the parliament is to Eng
land, what the diet is to Germany, what the legislative as
sembly is to France.
I A day will come when a cannon ball shall be exhibited in
the museums as an instrument of torture is now, and men
shall marvel that such things could be. A day will come when
shall be seen these two immense groups, the United States of
America and the United States of Europe.
I The fulfillment of this dream, the coming of that
glorious day, as Hugo so beautifully has fancied it,
may be in the offing, but somehow Europe doesn’t
.seem overly anxious to make Victor Hugo’s dream
come true, which would be tantamount to patterning
our scheme.
15
men, fashion and gallantry, it was an agreeable
world to the upper crust but a cruel and crusty one
for the hungry, helpless, down-trodden, broken-spir
ited mass, seething and suffering below.
Since then democracy has made wonderful strides
forward, but reforms have been granted, not because
they were acknowledged to be right but because they
have been wrung from the unwilling hand of privi
lege. We understand more about human rights to
day than the world ever knew before, yet injustice
is still with us in such strength in certain positions
that even now few have the courage to raise their
voices in protest. We consider with impatience the
rate of progress, for it seems the world should rise
and sweep away these relies of the dark ages, and
yet when we stop to consider we see that democracy
has moved with amazing swiftness during the per
iod mentioned. At the same rate of progress what
mind can conceive the reforms that the next century
will usher in?
NON PROGRESSIVENESS IN POLITICS
'T'RUTH remains constant but conditions are ever
* changing. It is one of the peculiarities of states
men and politicians that they are seldom able to
grasp this fact and keep pace with the progress of
events. It is to be deplored that among venerable
legislators in point of service we find a pronounced
proneness to hold to the issues of yesterday; to con
sider problems of state in the light of the past decade
and to talk of things which are as dead as the first
Rameses as though they were living questions of the
hour, all unmindful of the fact that they have failed
to keep pace with the movements of Old Father Time,
and that they present a figure at once pathetic and
ridiculous. They continue to cling to precedent and
drag forth the past as a guide to present action af
fecting the future, forgetting that Progress is the
law of life in politics as in other things.
THE ENOBLING INFLUENCE OF MUSIC
TWO YEARS ago, fifty thousand singing child-
A ren formed a human wheel on the spacious lawns
of the White House at Washington, where they had
gathered to serenade the president of our country.
The spokes represented open aisles, while the spaces
between consisted of a solid mass of children. The
PROGRESS OF DEMOCRACY
president greeted the children from the hub of the
I OOKING BACKWARD a century and a half, a wheel.
As the voices welled forth from the throats of the
fr* period so brief that it may be bridged by old
people recalling the stories of other people they knew participants in this huge chorus of young America,
when they were young, we are impressed by the tre the people of the city of Washington were aroused
and the idea of a Singing America was born.
mendous change that has taken place.
Realizing the force and the influence of music, sug
I The patrician was then at the height of his glory
and good fortune in the old world as well as in the gestions were pouring forth to make music, educa
new. Society recognized his superiority, and he, tional music, a definite part of our program of na
himself, freely admitted it. He inherited estates, tional advancement.
Ere the echos of that mighty chorus, that great
and used his power and rank for ignoble purposes
festal throng of a coming American generation, had
without shame.
I With the lower classes wretchedness reigned. So died away in the corridors of America’s executive
deplorable was their condition that eminent writers mansion, President Harding sent out his appeal to
insisted that a war which killed off, say, 50,000, of every city in America to set aside one week each
the poor was a blessing in disguise to those who. sur year for “a musical bath,” during which time not
vived. Such a thing as improving the condition of only the musicians of each city but the masses,
the common people was regarded as the vagary of which generally represent a “listening group,”
dreamers. The simple purpose of the poor in life should give their heart and soul to music.
Many cities responded at once and for two years
was to be born, work for their betters, and die off
When and how it pleased his lordship. With all its have followed the President’s suggestion.
Last year more than two hundred cities observed
brilliance of romance, gold lace, brave men, fair wo