Out of Stock
Overview
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II TRUE AMERICANISM PATRIOTISM was once defined as the last refuge of a scoundrel; and somebody has recently remarked that when Dr. Johnson gave this definition he was ignorant of the infinite possibilities contained in the word reform. Of course both gibes were quite justifiable, in so far as they were aimed at people who use noble names to cloak base purposes. Equally of course the man shows little wisdom and a low sense of duty who fails to see that love of country is one of the elemental virtues, even though scoundrels play upon it for their own selfish ends; and, inasmuch as abuses continually grow up in civic life as in all other kinds of life, the statesman is indeed a weakling who hesitates to reform these abuses because the word reform is often on the lips of men who are silly or dishonest. What is true of patriotism and reform is true also of Americanism. There are plenty of scoundrels always ready to try to belittle reform movements or to bolster up existing iniquities in the name of Americanism; but this does not alter the fact that the man who can do most in this country is and mustbe the man whose Americanism is most sincere and intense. Outrageous though it is to use a noble idea as the cloak for evil, it is still worse to assail the noble idea itself because it can thus be used. The men who do iniquity in the name of patriotism, of reform, of Americanism, are merely one small division of the class that has always existed and will always exist, ?the class of hypocrites and demagogues, the class that is always prompt to steal the watchwords of righteousness and use them in the interests of evil-doing. The Forum, April, 1894. The stoutest and truest Americans are the very men who have the least sympathy with the people who invoke the spirit of Ame..
| ISBN-13 | 9780217657655 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217657656 |
| Weight | 0.61 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.42 In |
| List Price | $19.99 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 182 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
View All Offers
Sort by:
Price
