Louis; but it has been implicit in all that I have said. I have sought
to interpret its spirit and meaning. The people of the United States do
not need to be assured now that that platform is a definite pledge, a
practical program. We have proved to them that our promises are made to
be kept.
We hold very definite ideals. We believe that the energy and initiative
of our people have been too narrowly coached and superintended; that
they should be set free, as we have set them free, to disperse
themselves throughout the nation; that they should not be concentrated
in the hands of a few powerful guides and guardians, as our opponents
have again and again, in effect if not in purpose, sought to concentrate
them. We believe, moreover,--who that looks about him now with
comprehending eye can fail to believe?--that the day of Little
Americanism, with its narrow horizons, when methods of "protection" and
industrial nursing were the chief study of our provincial statesmen, are
past and gone and that a day of enterprise has at last dawned for the
United States whose field is the wide world.
We hope to see the stimulus of that new day draw all America, the
republics of both continents, on to a new life and energy and initiative
in the great affairs of peace.
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