man is to help in bringing the Kingdom
of God on earth. The greatest human power for good, the most efficient
earthly tool for the future uplifting of the nations, is without
question the United States; and the presence or absence of a vital
public spirit in the young men of the United States will determine the
quality of that great tool and the work that it can do. This is the
final object of the best citizenship. Public spirit is the means by
which every man can help toward this great end. Public spirit is
patriotism in action; it is the application of Christianity to the
commonwealth; it is effective loyalty to our country, to the brotherhood
of man, and to the future. It is the use of a man by himself for the
general good.

Public spirit is the one great antidote for all the ills of the Nation,
and greatly the Nation needs it now. In a day when the vast increase in
wealth tends to reduce all things, moral, intellectual and material, to
the measure of the dollar; in a day when we have with us always the man
who is working for his own pocket all the time; when the monopolist of
land, of opportunity, of power or privilege in any form, is ever in the
public eye--it is good to remember that the real leaders are the men who
value the right to give themselves more highly than any gain whatsoever.

It is given to few men to serve their country as greatly as President
Roosevelt has done, yet vastly smaller services are still tremendously
worth while. I question whether there has ever been a time and place
(except in violent crises) when the demand for public spirit was greater
than now and the results of it more assured. Public spirit is never
needed more than in times of prosperity, and it is never more effective.
It is the boat which is floating easily and rapidly with the stream that
is most in danger of striking the rocks.

The reasons why public opinion may be so effective in the United States
are not far to seek. The extreme sensitiveness of our form of government
to political control is one of the commonplaces that has real meaning.
We seldom realize that ours is actually what it pretends to be--a
representative government--and our legislatures are extraordinarily
sensitive to what the people, the politically effective people, really
want. The Senators and Representatives in Congress do actually and
accurately represent the men who send them there, and they respond like
lightning to a clear order from the controllin