Introducing the American Spirit Part 16

I am also sure that we shall work out the problem which confronts us in the relationship between capital and labor, and that we shall create here an industrial democracy. The dissatisfaction with the present system is growing daily, even among the so-called privileged cla.s.ses, and many a man, well favored by circ.u.mstances, is crying out with Walt Whitman, "By G.o.d! I will not have anything which others cannot have on the same terms."

What I most dread is, that we shall be increasingly unable to be democratic in our spirit, in our relation to those who are in any marked way differentiated from us racially. Our caste system is daily growing in strength, the social taboos are increasing in number, the spirit is barred from moving freely among all cla.s.ses and races, and thus is bound to perish.

The social boycott practiced against the Jews, and which is even more thorough here than it is in Russia, may be followed by an economic boycott, and what has but recently happened in Georgia makes such occurrences on a larger scale not impossible. The att.i.tude of the American people both South and North towards the Negro is not growing better, and it will take more than all the brave optimism of Booker T.

Washington to convince me that this is not true.

It is anything but the American Spirit which greets the j.a.panese and Chinese at the Pacific Coast, and the decadence of that spirit is daily creating for itself new victims for its prejudices and hates.

It seems to be a growing conviction that in order to foster our racial integrity and self-respect we need to have contempt for other people and make of them a sort of mental cuspidore.

I know the difficulty involved in this problem. I believe it is the most serious challenge which the American Spirit has to meet, and here and here alone I confess my doubt as to its ability to meet it.

This is no time, though, to turn doubt into despair, nor is it the time for the calling of conventions and the organization of societies. It is a time, however, for the strengthening of our faith in one another, for renewed allegiance to humanity no matter how it is encased, for a patriotism based upon something bigger than ident.i.ty of race. It is a time for mutual forbearance, for the divine gift to see ourselves as others see us; for a supreme loyalty to our country, and a determination stronger than death to make this country capable of winning the loyalty of all its citizens.

It is a time to glory in being an American and to become desperately sure we have something in which to glory. Now as never before should there be serious self-examination to see whether we have not sinned against the Spirit.

This is the time to accept the Challenge of the American Spirit and prove that we are loyal enough to follow its guidance.