ABSTRACT
The American nation has achieved in high degree both unity and strength. The many States, separately founded and each claiming sovereignty, have combined and have brought into their great federation, one after another, a number of new States. American politics and legislation have been increasingly disappointing. In the early days of the Republic, political life seemed full of high promise. It was led by great patriots, great statesmen and orators, and it achieved great successes. The American people undoubtedly show some of the evil effects of luxurious living—a softening of fibre, a too exclusive and increasing concern with trivial pursuits and pleasures, with bridge and golf and cosmetics and cigarettes, with silk stockings and jazz and petting, with costly but trashy movies, with trivial stories and banal shows of many kinds.
