FACING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Our Country: Its power and peril by James King

FACING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Our Country: Its power and peril

The POWER of Our Country, generated by Anglo-Saxon civilization
and made effective through the American institutions of State,
Church, and School. '

The PERIL of Our Country, manifest in the claims of Politico-Ecclesiastical
Romanism to universal dominion, and in its relations
to political parties, politicians, platforms, legislation, schools,
charities, labor, and war.

The Republic FACES the twentieth century with the power to avert
the peril when both power and peril are recognized.


AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

The Republic, with the momentum secured in making more
than a century of glorious history, is about to move into the
twentieth century and work out its manifest destiny in
extending civil and religious liberty to the millions which
come under its benign rule.

Without attempting an elaborate discussion of any one of
the themes here considered, I have essayed to give a brief
survey of the sources of our civilization, of the institutions
which conserve and promote this civilization; of the peril
which menaces these institutions, and of the legal, organic,
and moral forces Avhich may be depended upon to protect
them.

I hope to contribute a mite in producing that disposition
of mind and poise of Judgment among citizens which are
indispensable to a people confronted with difficult problems
for solution, and who have great responsibilities to meet and
priceless liberties to perpetuate.

I desire to reach that honest citizen on the farm, in the
workshop, in the factory, and in the different departments of
industry in city and village, who does his own thinking and
voting, and who counts one in the class of citizens who give
character to American citizenship and vigor to American
patriotism.

I seek to inspire that kind of patriotic pride of country,
which is based upon an intelligent conception of the cost and
character of our institutions, and Avhich is jealously alert
against the insidious approaches of any foe that would either
compromise or undermine our constitutional liberties.
We are living in a seriously interesting and instructive
period of both national and international history. The men
who created the Republic faced their responsibilities
effectively and magnificently. We shall have both the
courage and ability to face our broader responsibilities if
we adhere to the principle that the safe method of procedure
is for a nation to act from high-minded and unselfish motives.

James King

New York, January, 1899.