happening daily; and no man knows into what kind of harbor the ship will at last be moored. Fortunate was it indeed for America that the issues of 1912 were really settled before the vital issues of 1916 had taken shape and dwarfed all other issues. The European war has changed the course of history. The world has gone mad. Men stand amazed, shocked, shuddering at the fierceness of this insatiate monster which threatens a breakdown of civilization and a return to the Dark Ages. They are Great men have risen among us. grappling heroically with the problems of the day just as did the great men in other crises of the world's history. But how happens it that America alone of the great nations of the earth is so happily situated? Her people are free to come and go, to think and speak and act. They enjoy unbounded and unprecedented prosperity. Their nation has come to be the richest on earth. Their foreign trade is expanding as never before, itself an epoch in their history. In the twinkling of an eye they have changed from a debtor nation to a creditor nation and have become the leading bankers of the world. In spite of the world's turmoil, they have had leisure in calmness and with deliberation to settle their internal affairs and to mitigate the evils which menace the processes of their own development. Notwithstanding these favors, new issues have arisen as a result of the great war that are now pressing heavily for solution. "America First" is a watchword with which to stir the patriotism of the people. "The melting-pot" is a symbol that tells of our composite character in a time of "civil war by proxy.' "Pan Americanism" speaks of a new continental policy. "Preparedness"-military preparedness, commercial preparedness, industrial preparedness, and educational preparedness suggest other problems that this war has brought to us for solution. Woodrow Wilson, the President, is guiding this nation across the gulf that separates the past from the future. He has established a marvelous leadership and has become one of the world's great figures within the brief span of four years. But how did he reach this fine eminence? He laid his hand upon monopoly, and it surrendered its power. He drove invisible government out of Washington and enthroned the people's representatives as sovereign in the Nation's capital. And when the old era died and the new appeared, a revitalized democracy faced the future. He called to Europe when the mad nations had slipped their cables and sanity returned. He stretched his hand to the Latin-American republics and they grasped it in an hour of peril and the two continents became friends. He stood by the prostrate form of Mexico, her silent friend, and waited patiently for the re-birth of constitutional government. He kept "America First" aflame in the hearts of patriots and partisans until hatred was consumed and America, "the melting-pot of nations," was prepared to meet the crises of this new era. Such is the story that runs through these chapters. |