people" far removed from cultural impulse; but whether the impetus is derived from above or below, it cannot exert its force unless the power of the people — as distinguished from a class is behind it. In America there has never been the centripetal force of the metropolis, and it no more exists today than it did three hundred years ago when the land was unbroken and the Indian roamed at will. Instead of the capital, like a great spider, sucking blood from the provinces, the colonial capitals infused their life-blood into the wilderness and created new provinces; it was their blood and their brawn that always widened the English influence and wrested from the wilderness a new foothold. We have seen that family migration from Massachusetts to Connecticut; the stream of emigration turned from New England to New York; the discontented and the adventurous going from Massachusetts to Rhode Island; the Carolinas recruited by Virginia. Later we shall see how New England fed the West, how the old West gave of her children to the farther West, how that human tide was carried up from the South to break on the plains of a newer West. We shall observe always a centrifugal motion, never a centripetal; we shall constantly notice the phenomenon of the capital or the centre of population sending out its sons to engage in new conquest, but we shall never have to study the octopus-like capital stretching out its tentacles and strangling the provinces. Toward the latter end of the nineteenth century populous centres stimulated the ambitions of men in smaller places, who saw in the city the chance to win the great prize; but this movement, which is world-wide, which has increased the area and population of London and Paris and New York, which follows logically as the character of a people changes from agricultural to industrial and manufactures take the place of husbandry, has left unchanged that unique system of decentralization which exists in America. We must examine still further into the effect on character which followed from this peculiar combination of circumstances. One effect is so evident that it is apparent even to the most superficial. As the result of a political and social system there exists among Americans greater local pride than is to be found among any other people. This pride of locality, which has been loosely termed patriotism, is another of those inheritances of colonial days. "There was little in common between the Puritan colonist and the Greek of antiquity, but they were alike in the intensity of their local patriotism and in their vivid sense of a citizenship, which, if not limited to a single town, was at least bounded by rigid conditions of space. Thus in the New England Confederation as in the Achaian League the newer and the wider claims never overrode the older allegiance. The New Englander remained a citizen of Massachusetts or Connecticut, as did the other of Sikyon or Megalopolis." Every American is first of all an American, but what the tribe was to the children of Israel, so the state is to the American, who has for the place of his birth or adoption an almost romantic affection - Mr. Bryce crystallizes this sentiment in the illuminating phrase, "the existence of a double government, a double allegiance, a double patriotism";" and Webster spoke of "local institutions for local purposes and general institutions for general purposes. 3 "State pride" is no mere figure of speech, but is a potent force, an incentive to ambition; the glory of the state thrills, even the meanest feels the shame when his state is disgraced. This interstate rivalry has done much to bring civilization to its high level in America. Let a state make a sociological experiment and that experiment be found to work well, the adjoining state is anxious not only to adopt it, but, if possible, to improve upon it. Each state is the laboratory for all the others. Experimentation is continually in progress. For instance, in the daily papers of June 11, 1909, may be found the following telegram from Seattle, Washington: The new state law providing that applicants for marriage licenses must undergo medical examinations, except where the woman is forty-five years old, went into effect yesterday. Ten couples appeared at the license 1 Doyle: English Colonies in America, vol. II, p. 235. clerk's office with physicians' certificates, and two couples, when informed of the new law, said they would go to British Columbia to marry. County officials say the law will result in many Americans marrying in Canada.1 In July, 1908, the National Democratic Convention to nominate candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency convened in Denver. It was the first time that a national political convention had been held in a city so far west, and the people of Colorado and Denver were proud of the selection of their state and city for the historical occasion, and that for a week the eyes of all the world would be centred upon them. To an Englishman whose love of county is merged in that of country, whose newspapers take patriotism for granted and are not overgiven to proclaiming it, the following editorial from one of the leading newspapers of Denver seems flamboyant, crude, vainglorious, and almost meaningless, but to those who understand the American pride in city and state it has deep significance: 1 Washington Evening Star, June 11, 1909. OUR DENVER OUR COLORADO SHOW IT TO VISITORS AND TELL THEM OF IT "Oh, just because the sun happens to go under a cloud for an hour you must n't say mean things about my Denver." That was the expression of a Denver woman on a street car yesterday afternoon, and it was quite good enough to be put in print. She was mildly rebuking a visiting friend, who had complained because the sun was resting for a few brief moments from its eternal labors. MY DENVER! There's a sort of civic pride and municipal patriotism which shines out of those two words like the sunlight of which they are speaking. It was HER DENVER she was defending. HER DENVER because she lived here in its magnificent climate, beneath its beautiful sapphire skies, and living here had grown to love the city as does every one who tarries for long. She could not tolerate even the mildest criticism when HER DENVER was the subject. And the best part of the whole thing is, she does not stand alone. There are thousands of her kind in the city and state. They are proud of their city, proud of their state, and rejoice that hosts of visitors are coming that they may display the glories of the country they love so well. |