AMERICA MUST SHOW THE WORLD
Douglas, William O.
America Must Show The World By WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS (Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court) WE ARE LIVING in an era of fundamental change. One age is giving way to another. The...
...that you did not have to cringe before officers in uniform, that your children could go to school, free school, and learn to read and write and grow up to be somebody...
...He was not bound by inherited class distinctions...
...But it was the other stories they heard, the stories that had the word liberty in them, that also brought them across what was then the wide Atlantic...
...It is part of a continuing challenge to our whole way of life...
...It is perfectly true that our domestic problems are part of a larger picture...
...We cannot force other countries to act as we wish or to emulate our way of life...
...It is a challenge not only to our ability to produce guns and tanks and planes, and to use them in the field...
...In that connection let us not forget that in the last century we offered the common man something few other nations did—opportunity...
...If our standard of life and our respect for the individual and his freedom are still vital and inspiring, they will inevitably awaken similar desires in other lands...
...Force Can't Do The Job At the same time, we should not forget that every other nation knows more about its own troubles and problems than we do or ever can...
...To keep the American tradition alive, we must continue as the trail blazer of the world in the age now dawning...
...Even if we wanted to, we could not assume sole responsibility for solving international problems...
...After all, nothing succeeds like success...
...Each must work out its own destiny...
...We must show them that we are more than a great tutor...
...The men who have spoken for this country in every chapter of her growth have known it, too...
...The war is indeed a violent chapter in its history...
...The war is a challenge...
...No counter-propaganda can stand against that...
...For it is up to us to prove that our democracy can adapt itself to new circumstances, yet carry with it the values it has achieved in the past...
...They made themselves a place alongside the descendants of the older waves of immigrants...
...Something more will be required of us...
...America has endured, America has remained true to herself because she has changed many times...
...Because of these things they learned to live together with other people whose fathers their fathers had always fought in the Old World...
...But other peoples must feel that our attitude toward them is friendly...
...But the war is more than the immediate challenge of military might which we are meeting so triumphantly...
...Our moral stamina as well as our fighting strength is being tested...
...Military victory will not automatically provide a solution to those problems...
...But there is a great deal we can do...
...It was the news that you could say what you wanted, and think what you wanted in America...
...Our world problem, far from conflicting with our domestic job, should stimulate us to do it better...
...Above all, our word must be good...
...In the same spirit of reverence for our dynamic past, with the most profound determination to use the great American tradition as a living guide to the world about to be created, we must admit frankly that the world into which we were born has died...
...We will dishonor our past if we deny the challenge of today...
...Those are the ideals of liberty and freedom for the individual which we must never lose...
...We honor our past, and we propose to live by our traditions, not blindly, but selectively and intelligently...
...Nor did any nation dare dream of growing as free as we did...
...They did not reach Utopia...
...America has never worshipped any imaginary absolute of perfection...
...Our people won new liberties...
...Freedom Made Us Rich No nation has ever been as free as we have been free...
...We should let others have the same free choice which we reserve for ourselves...
...They learned how to speak their minds and make their needs and desires felt while accepting the equal right of people of different views to do the same...
...Some say the rest of the world is no concern of ours, that we ought to let it stew in its own juice while we devote ourselves to solving our own problems...
...The history, the traditions of people vary throughout the world...
...Liberties cannot be forced upon people...
...Our wealth and our power have been a direct outgrowth of our freedom...
...that you could worship your God or argue about Him as your conscience told you to...
...The world is going to need—and it wfll welcome— as much competition as the people of America have always insisted on at home...
...But within the wide framework of those new liberties we were able to produce the good things of life more abundantly than any other nation...
...It is the same chance our fathers had...
...it has always grown...
...We cannot expect our prestige throughout the world to rise above the level of aur own accomplishments at home...
...Now that our position in the world—our very existence as a nation—is being challenged, all Americans are considering what our policy toward the rest of the world should be when the war is won...
...They came, and they worked, and they fought as they are fighting now...
...We, the generations now living, have a great historic chance to preserve the ideals we inherited...
...Those are the ideals of freedom and liberty that have made us the inspiration of the world...
...They and their children became Americans...
...The men who created this country knew that empires and eras, like people, grow old, become feeble, and die...
...But if America continues to be a country worth following, she will be followed...
...The process of change was set in motion before the present war began...
...If that were all, we would not be talking and thinking about the future as we all are doing today...
...If we look at the influence on the world that this country has had in the past, we may get a clue to how we ought to behave in the future...
...Because they could do this, because it was the freest land in the world, America became the richest...
...The Old World Is Dead We cannot escape the test nor evade the issue by pretending that the familiar world of the past 60 or 70 years is more than a memory and a tradition...
...But this war—huge and disturbing as it is—is hardly the last chapter in the transition...
...We were brought up to live by its facts and ideals...
...They learned that civil liberties meant not only their right to say what they liked and the other fellow's --ight to say what he liked...
...All that we do to solve our problems at home is immediately radiated out to the rest of the world...
...that we can learn as well as teach...
...This war is a test—a test of our wisdom, and our strength, and our faith...
...In the era now ending we have been the inspiration of the world, the symbol of progress even to the most progressive countries...
...That is why we are tireless in our pursuit of the better...
...that you could become a citizen and vote for the people who governed you...
...Others feel that our problems are merely a part of international issues and that we must take on the responsibility of solving these international problems before we can expect to get anywhere with domestic issues...
...He could make money, win professional distinctions, acquire political power within the framework of a republic, or simply pursue his own idea of happiness as he wanted within the bounds of a reasonable penal code...
...Moreover, we must not disparage and underestimate other people's ability to help themselves...
...The immigrants from Europe who came to our shores had heard stories—incredible stories—of gold in the streets, and shoes for everyone...
...They learned that the true meaning of those liberties was the right of the other fellow to say what they did not like...
...What may be good for them may be anathema to us or vice versa...
...America has never stifled life...
...No matter how high our ideals or motives, we can hardly qualify as the managers of the affairs of other nations...
...Inspiration To The World That is the primary lesson we can learn from the earlier era of American development...
...But it is also up to us to discover new goals, to find the new truths which the new age we are moving into will need, if the Americans of the future are to be proud of their history and traditions...
...As a people we have understood that a gulf must always separate what men have from what men want...
...But we can kindle the imagination of the citizens of other continents with the idea that they would do well to achieve such liberties for themselves...
...No one ever will...
...If we want the security of friendship with like-minded neighbors> we will show the world that our democracy can outperform any other system...
Vol. 7 • October 1943 • No. 41
