twenty years at hull house

so long ago that Americans who settled were those who had adventured into a new country, where they were pioneers in the

midst of difficult surroundings. The word still implies migrating

from one condition of life to another totally unlike it, and against

this implication the resident of an American settlement takes

alarm.

We do not like to acknowledge that Americans are divided

into two nations, as her Prime Minister once admitted of England. We are not willing, openly and professedly, to assume that

American citizens are broken up into classes, even if we make

that assumption the preface to a plea that the superior class has

duties to the inferior. Our democracy is still our most precious

possession, and we do well to resent any inroads upon it, even

though they may be made in the name of philanthropy.

Is it not Abraham Lincoln who has cleared the title to our democracy? He made plain, once for all, that democratic government, associated as it is with all the mistakes and shortcomings of the common

people, still remains the most valuable contribution America has made

to the moral life of the world.