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Show How America Answers Her Critics j By RAYMOND PITCAIKN ! National Chuirmun j I Sentinels oj the Republic j We have been hearing a lot of crltl-' crltl-' cism lately concerning our American I methods and principles, j For a while the detractors were con-I con-I tent to sneer at our art, our literature, our simple recreations and pleasures. More recently, however, they have broadened their scope. Today their hardest attacks are directed often from within at our democratic form of government, with its effective guaranties guar-anties of freedom and opportunity for all. They favor, instead, certain European Euro-pean patterns which vest, all power in a highly centralized government rather than in the people. Such criticism has not gone unheeded. unheed-ed. It Is bearing greater fruit than many of us realize. Its arguments resound re-sound from the stump. Its influence appears in much of our recent legislation. legis-lation. How can we combat it? One method is to apply the acid test of realism. Why not turn to such critics and ask: "Under what other form of government govern-ment have a free people developed the wilderness into a nation as great, as wealthy, as productive as our United States? "Under what other form of government govern-ment have citizens attained as high a standard of income, of living, and of general well-being as has been enjoyed by successive generations of Americans? "What other government has offered to its poorest boys such opportunities to rise to the height of their capacity as are illustrated by the careers of Lincoln Lin-coln and Edison? "What other government has accorded accord-ed to all its citizens to the least as well as to the greatest the political power guaranteed under our American Constitution?" And finally: "How many of these advantages are ' offered to the average man by the modern mod-ern European forms of government with all their planned economy, their regimentation and their strong central authorities dictating to every citizen how he shall labor, how he shall live, how he shall think?" When and only when the critics can answer these questions to our satisfaction satis-faction should we take their proposals seriously. When and only when they can prove that the men who work and earn are better off in other lands than in our own, should we consider scrapping our constitutional guaranties for their un-American theories and projects. Our heritage of freedom and opportunity oppor-tunity is far too precious to swap for a mess of foreign pottage. |
