Show I I Very Rev Dr Thomas J Conaty rector I rec-tor of the Catholic university at Washington Wash-ington lectured in Baltimore the other I day on The Ideal American Among other things the doctor said We who have been reared in an atmosphere of personal liberty in this Godfavored I land of ours are liable to lose sight at times of the great dignity of our citizenship I citi-zenship Every nation has its national na-tional idea With the Hebrews it was faith with the Romans government I with Greece art The American national na-tional idea is liberty in the individual i I man The nrst cannon boom of the revolution rev-olution proclaimed to the world that anew a-new nation had been established not on wealth or class but on manhood There have been republics before us and there have been glorious efforts for human liberty but our republic was the first to build upon honest manhood This is our character and our purpose and this demands a responsibility which is not located in senate or legislature leg-islature but in the individual upon whom representative government is built The basis of our security is the honest public opinion of enlightened citizenship How faithfully generously the people have executed this trust Who then is the ideal American Ameri-can A man of faith and dutv defending de-fending liberty for himself and others neither tyrant nor slave but a citizen of the best republic under the sun a man who trusts others as he would be trusted a man who protects the conscience con-science of the individual as he values his own who questions no mans loyalty loy-alty but by the sacrifices he makes for liberty who regards neither race nor creed nor color but only the nobility of individual manhood which makes all races all creeds and all colors one common com-mon brotherhood who judges mens actions and not their motives and finds in no servant of God an enemv to the state That last paragraph will receive re-ceive the indorsement of all who love America and her institutions There is always a danger that one citizen will deem his rights greater than anothers when respect for that others right is the true test of liberty |