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TO THE HONORABLE

WILLIAM ALDEN SMITH

a Senator of the United States from Michigan, whose public service was an expression of true American fidelities, and whose loyal friendship continues an inspiration and a joy

THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED.

OF PROF. W, H. HOBBS

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Foreword

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WE contemplate a journey upon the trail of a tradition. The "journey" is time-tabled within the pages of this swift-moving book. The "trail" is the epic history of the United States, leaping down the years from Washington and Hamilton, who set us apart from alien contagions, to the seasoned American maturities which won a World War and refused to lose the sequent peace. The "tradition" is intelligent, tenacious "Nationalism" in all its implications and autonomies, as distinguished from emotional "Internationalism in all its threats, dilutions and impracticabilities. The "journey" is a pilgrimage beneath an unblenched Flag. The "trail" leads from patriotFounders whose early prescience warned us against foreign entanglements down to latter-day electorates which have preferred, in the same spirit, to serve civilization by serving "America First." The "tradition" is our Independence-not our "isolation," which is a totally different thing— and our continuing privilege and purpose to captain our own souls. The "trail" has been blazed progressively by one courageous, steadfast Amer

ican after another-as thrilling a tale in sturdy achievement as ever made legend out of romance. The "tradition," disclosed in cameos of fact, is the cumulative testimony of American experience that we want friendly and co-operating intercourse with all the nations of the earth, but constricting alliances and leagues with none; that we distinguish between dishonorable, supine pacifism and honorable, independent peace; that we owe no greater obligation to the world than to our own posterity; and that, while no man can live unto himself alone, we consent-with Timothy of Holy Writ-in terms of nationality, that "if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel."

There are so many transcendent traditions in this American inheritance that an entire library might undertake their catalogue and still fail a finished task. We shall confine ourselves to this one of paramount vitality-the tradition of our independence in contact with the outside world. -an independence which kneels to no invasion of rights and prerogatives whether of citizen or State or Constitution-an independence which asks nought but justice of any neighbor, yet will compromise with nothing less—an independence which shares its puissance with all other Republics in this New World, but which declines to yield its own freedoms of decision and of action to any precarious partnerships, no matter how nobly

meditated, with other governments and other lands. Even within these limitations, the latitudes are wide. But to the best of an earnest and resolute endeavor, which at the outset humbly acknowledges its inadequacy for such cardinal address, we shall keep to the appointed trail. "Nationalism" is a complex into which a great diversity of duties enters. We consider only those factors which generically are challenged by so-called "Internationalism." We summon history, tradition and experience to confront the theory and formula recommended by "voices in the air." The literature of "Internationalism" continues at flood-tide. Ours is the case for the defense the "National" defense. "What avail the plough, or sail, or land or life, if Freedom fail." Ours is the trail of self-sufficient, selfreliant, self-determining America-by no means free of casualty, nor of intermittent improvidence, but always saved by traditional vigilance against the ultimate surrender.

Back in pre-Revolutionary times-when France was rendering indispensable assistance to the 'Colonies, struggling against imperial yoke-we find the thin beginnings of this trail. Under Washington and Hamilton-eschewing reciprocal French alliance, despite the intimate pressure of a seeming debt-we discover the tradition in its great initial precedent, when a Proclamation of Neutrality set us apart from the Old World's convulsions and insisted that America was en

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