July 5.
The present jargon of political fantasy confusedly deprives words of concrete meaning and clouds meaning in vapid verbiage. Simple, rugged, firm-syllabled, jaunty and clear-cut, that Independence which the people of the United States of America commemorate on July 4 places the world in their debt. It expresses a national ideal with com~ plete clarity." It guarantees freedom in-democracy. It pledges a nation's resolve to uphold the immutable principles of liberty and the institu tions dependent: on them." In the perplexing uncertainties of the state of mankind te-day it is comforting to know that these safeguards, exist, As, during the week-end, Aierican citizens the: world over celebrate the: birth of their nation in the adoption by -the "Continental Congress", otherwise the fifty-four "Representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled", their friends will derive moral sustenance from the thought that democracy is once again being consecrated to the purposes of national progress and Gevelopmént. The conviction is. na./... less strong because at thow#oaleit the United States 2? merica can-avoid, zie" problems. which, stiusidl"in'the East or in the West, fare sorely exercising the wit of statesmanship and disturbing the equanimity of international contacts. The acute political' controversies which a free and independent people would be the last to evade will, no doubt, recede temporarily into the background as Americans salute the memory of July 4, President Franklin Roosevelt, for the occasion, is not the adventurous pioneer of a new social system, not the Don Quixote tilting at the windmills of ancient custom, not the reckless. inciter of class hatred. He is the chief representotive of the American people; admirer and critic join in this celebration to acclaim him accord= ingly.
Recognizing as they do that the internal difficulties and disappoint ments with which the American Government has to grapple, although primarily the concern of the American people, have a definite relation international affairs, the friends of the United States of' America are Aisposed to be of good heart as they sympathetically view the courage and. resolution with which that country faces. its problems, The bleakness of the period of acute depression has yielded to a more cheerful prospect, even if paradoxically the portents of unrest and dissension become more distressinu~ ly apparent. Underlying this be= wildering surface of uneasiness is fan Inherent soundness of heart, which betokens an indomitable spirit endowed with the capacity as well as the will to succeed. Young though the American nation be, its traditions have already established the conviction that it is never so formidable as when it is confronted by dire threats to its solidarity. Therefore it is not surprising amid the heavy preoccupations of a strenuous domestic controversy, to find President Roosevelt's Administration ready to confer with other nations on the general situation of a distraught world with the definite purpose of ascertaining whether, by
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.