Show THE OGDEN STANDARD EXAMINER — SUNDAY MORNING FEBRUARY 18 1934 fill Btfo ?i r: By Henry W Lawrence ' professor cf UUtory Connecticut Cotlcg hv President Roosevelt i the government of tht States boldly Jonvard t high speed alonfe some unfamiliar roads to destiny many anxious citizens arc wondering whether he is not departing from the wisdom of the founders of the great American Republic in following sudi a policy of experi-mentalThe newer historians bring reassurance on this point They put the case somewhat as follows: To be sure President Washington never "stepped on the gas" when a national emergency demanded speedy action but that was only because there was then no gas What he did do was for him to step on to ply whip and spur to the means of transportation available in his time and to drive WHILE - wMfy S"'m kAj' § ' "rr m M- - J i wn n forward at eighteenth-centur-y top-spe- ed new deal" for America and the world thus setting a precedent for the new policies at home and abroad which President Roosevelt is so rapidly unfolding before our astonished eyes It may be fair ly said that George Washington was "doing a similar thing a century and a half ago but the patriotic Not the scholars are showing to us now that the leaders of the American Revolution cannot really be counted as arguments in favor of the policies of conservatism today They were on the contrary the boldest of experimenters and to regard them as anything else is to malign their admirers motives and mislead their present-da- y The influence of Washington for instance has often been perverted by anniversary oratory and history bocks Books written early in the nineteenth century when conditions had changed very little since Washington's day praised not only the spirit of his reforms but also the reforms themselves Gradually writers arid orators got into the habit of regarding the reforms as the main thing and seemed to lose sight of the spirit behind them the spirit that is of progress even of revqlution the spirit of George Washington 1 He started New interpretations of American history show the first president pointing the way for Roosevelt a ' - v I I I II I lib' : III J ' iW 1 U "de-bunker- s" old-fashion- of misuse of his name and a misapplication the lesson of his life to count him steadily on the conservative- - side of current political controversies 4 Washington is widely regarded at r of political conservaa tism The weight of his great name is often thrown into the scales of controversy against proposals for any radical modification of "existing institutions Probably a great majority of the citizens of the United States would deny with indignant amazement the assertion that the career of George Washington resembles in several fundamental respects those of such modern radicals as the Indian Nationalist Gandhi and the Russian Bolshevik Lenin Yet these three world figures have at least this much in common: each of them defied the lawfully constituted authority which ruled his native land and at the imminent risk of war and bloodshed sought to overthrow tht established government and to replace it by one which most intelligent person throughout the contemporary world con-- " demned ' In winning independence for the new American Republic Washington was anything but a conservative He was of course a revolutionary quite as truly as Lenin and Gandhi were revolutionaries He was however a revolutionary of the eighteenth century and therefore his ideas differ greatly from those of revolutionaries of the twentieth century It is this difference which deceives many into believing that he was a conservative It it HpODAY One of the easiest and most common perversions of the Washington influence is that based advice to eighteenth century on his America to steer clear of foreign entanglements and seek safety in a policy of diplomatic iso' lation How often and how solemnly are his warn-ing words quoted and n how many different the weight of his influence brought to ways bear against any steps toward international cooperation on the part of i twentieth century United States 1 Yet Washington was giving advice concerning world conditions of the eighteenth century with which he was competently familiar and not concerning the unforeseeable conditions of the twentieth century' oft-quot- ed I ed " -- ' steadfast-supporte- 17: oioiiiioiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin npHERE u no reason to believe that he the foreign policy of his counwished to for all time ov that he would have future try given similar advice amid the conditions of toIndeed if we may imagine the dlsem- day bodied spirit of our great first president still watchful and solicitous for the welfare of the republic he founded it is easy to believe him sorrowful for the stupidity or indignant at the which prompts so S many of his insincerity countrymen today to follow blindly the advice which was so helpful in 1 797 and may be so harmful in 1934 For after all Washington was not essenHe was rather a co-tially an isolationist tionist when there was opportunity for opera on anything like a basis of equality The historical evidence for this is abundant and striking There were plenty of isolationists in Washington! day but he was not one of them Others feared to enter into a league of sovereign states and risk the curtailment of separate independence but he actively sup- -' ported such courageous For instanc when Washington and other supporters of a league were proposing to bring order out of chaor by adopting the present Constitution of the United States it was Patrick Henry famed and patriotic ©a of Virginia fix : on " who roared in dismay thati "This government subjects everything to the northern majority We thus put unbounded power over our property into hands not having a common interest with us Sir this is a picture so horrid so wretched so dreadful that I need no longer dwell upon it" Against this nightmare of Patrick Henry it was Washington wKo directed soothing words and calm reasoning in the following persuasive letter seeking to enlist Henry's support for the new league and Constitution: and progressive action in leading Virginia: to enter the League of American Nations under the Covenant of 1787 r" t4"V7"OUR own judgment" will at once AT home no less than abroad Washington's V policies showed a competent liberalism an Washington wrote "the good attitude of hospitality toward changes even and the exceptionable parts of it and your exdifficulties of the fundamental ones if they gave promise of genwhich have ever perience arisen when attempts have been made to 'reconeral betterment or offered the prospect of relief in dire emergency cile such a variety of interests and local prejudices as pervade the several states will render Prooably President Roosevelt's proposed I wish the Constitu- modifications of our capitalistic system rare no explanation unnecessary tion which is offered had been more perfect ?'' more boldly experimental than were some of the but I sincerely believe it is the best tha could reforms put through by his illustrious predeces x time this be obtained at sor our first president Witness the following "From a variety pf concurring accounts it changes which he championed in the fields of both economics and politics ' appears to me that the political concerns of this Largely-- : the economic and political world country are in a manner suspended by a thread and that the convention has been looked up to Washington lived in was patterned after the by the reflecting part of the community with systems of an earlier period: systems which a solicitude which is hardly to be conceived were on the eve of fundamental modification or and if nothing had been agreed upon by that i f replacement and The economic system of his age region body anarchy would have ensued the seeds commodities in of sown by was localism the production being deeply every soil" market Here we see the in sale a household for nearby Washington industry When the time was energetically at work yet'signs were multiplying that this system was soon to change and that commodities would ripe for his beloved homeland the sovereign state of Virginia to enter upon entangling almore and more be produced by machinery and liances with the foreign states of Pennsylvania factory labor for sale in markets increasingly Massachusetts and the other ten he boldly led widespread and remote her forward out of a traditional isolation and The political system of his day was impe- into that close which had become rialism the ruling of colonies by a mother essential to the welfare and security of all country for the interest and welfare primarily To be sure Washington did in the eightof that mother country yet many signs were eenth century advise that the infant United evident which foretold a changed future States of America avoid active participation in wherein colonies would assert their right and the quarrels adult and relatively gigan-- " determination to be ruled primarily each for its tic nations of Europe -- To assume from this ' J own welfare however that he would advise a similar isola-- So far from being hostile to these numerous ' tion for the adult and gigantic United States signs of change and readjustment Washington of the twentieth century is to disregard altod showed an hospitality toward gether the established fact of hi them The pogresa of industrial and commer dis-cove- -- ion of-th- e open-minde- iCepjTira 2ti4 br rvrtfv7lc " cial capitalism he facilitated by friendly tariff and financial measures The exchange of colonial for national status he prompted with unflagging zeal even at the price of armed violence and rebellion His face was steadfastly set toward a better economic and political future and he dared to experiment with new and uncertain systems namely industrial capitalism and republicania-tionalis- m when the old systems seemed no longer adequate to meet the heeds and desires of changing world It would be no fantastic presumption on the part of President Roosevelt to claim a close kinsmanship between his program and that of The latter ' support President Washington of industrial capitalism and republican nationalism !in the eighteenth century carries no assur- ance that he would approve the continuance of these systems unchanged" if they seemed no longer adequate amid twentieth century conditions ' What his example teaches is rather that a wises conservatism includes a watchful readi- ness to modify or even to replace outmoded institutions ' i T precisely this moment in bur history when the battle rages so fiercely ' between the forces of construction and confusion it is highly important that the mighty influence of George Washington be rescued from those who are trying to exploit it wholly in the interest of reaction and a return to nineteenth century normalcy Patriotic celebrations in honor of national A heroes American and other too often take on the character 6f exhortations either to stand pat where we now are or else to go back to the "good old days" even though these very heroes we are lauding were active chiefly in leading on to better days ahead It is a perverse and dangerous misuse ot the memory of our pioneer statesmen to count them as upholders of the status tuo George Washington led armed revolt against the status quo and his leading was forward tof ward the new not backward toward the old Surely he was of that number who courageously turned their backs upon the false securities of the past and ventured hopefully forth into the creative uncertainties of the future Americans of today The forward-lookin- g have an indefeasible right Id claim him as their spiritual ancestor and to invoke his blessing on their constructive efforts to rescue our common country and our common world by moving courageously forward - MasrazlnaJk "illllllllillllllllOlllillllllllllllllllii- - -- 1 'tillil!lillllllll!lliflllllllllllilillll!IIUlllllllllii t li n 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