A PROGRAM OF ACTION

1. THE CREATIVE POWER OF IDEAS

"AN unacted thought is a sin," said Mazzini. The great Italian patriot regarded a thought as only half an act. The other half is the deed corresponding to it. Mazzini is right. In every field of endeavor the two indispensable factors are a clear conception of a worthy purpose and the invention of a method for its progressive realization. These constitute the two parts of one whole, like the two sides of a shield.

By riveting these two elements together in our thought, we will value each at its true worth and avoid the tendency towards extremes. A common blunder made by "practical" Americans is to overemphasize the value of deeds by underrating the value of ideals. "We don't know where we're going, but we're on the way," is a current phrase expressing this misleading and harmful tendency. Unless we know where we're going, there is little prospect of success in getting there. Without a worthy purpose, the greater the activity the more is the damage done; at the most, we will have motion but no progress, like a swinging door. A nation is to be judged not so much by what it does, as by what

it admires, what it aims at, what its ideals are. If its aim is worthwhile, its approximations to it will have value. If not, its achievements will be less than worthless, whatever they are.

As Citizenship Clubs undertake to plan a program of action, it is, therefore, essential for them to see clearly that a year spent in the study of America's ideals, as here suggested, is of primary importance. Indeed, it is the better half of their preparation for citizenship, because it creatively determines the quality of all their other activities. In their thought they should regard the process of clarifying their ideals as at least on the same level with an external deed. The process is itself a deed of the first order.

It is true that the weekly meeting of the club is a talk-meeting, that is, a parliament. But all great achievements began in talk. The men who have most profoundly affected human activity and the course of history, men like Confucius, Jesus and Lincoln, were all great talkers. Among many more of a like nature, there are three American speeches, which were themselves deeds as great as any battles, and greater. They were made by Samuel Adams in Faneuil Hall, Boston, by Patrick Henry to the General Convention of Virginia, and by Abraham Lincoln on the battle-field of Gettysburg. Their dynamic words were trumpet calls to high achievement and indispensable to it.

In his Gettysburg speech Lincoln's modesty led

him to make one big obvious mistake. He said that no words he uttered there would long be remembered, whereas the fact is that his words seem destined to outlive the memory of the battle. His memorable words are being cast in bronze and hung in innumerable schoolhouses throughout the country. Indeed, it is not improbable that the time may come when it will be necessary to subjoin a footnote to his speech in order to inform the people concerning the name of the battlefield on which it was uttered. The value of acquiring clear ideals through study and discussion is here stressed lest Citizenship Clubs be led astray or become discouraged by someone's remark that they spend so much time not in doing something but only in talking about it. They ought to be ready with a quick answer to such superficial criticism by saying that the profoundest need in America at the present time is for bold and clear thinking. To think clearly is hard work; try it and see.

It is hoped, however, that there will be no need for criticism or defense, because the question as to the relative importance of words and deeds, of the contemplative and active life, is not debatable. It ought not to be discussed at all. It is not a question of "either-or," but of "both-and." We must have both. If they are like the two sides of the same shield, it should be obvious that we can't have a shield with one side only.

"It takes a soul

To move a body; it takes a high-souled man
To move the masses even to a cleaner stye;
It takes the ideal to blow an inch inside
The dust of the actual."

The work undertaken by Citizenship Clubs to assist in preparing for themselves a book on organized national ideals is a task with challenge in it, a deed with the merit of real achievement in it. It is their first practical activity, but it is not enough. It is a means to an end. The function of ideals is to effect a change in things. An ideal is a picture of things as they ought to be. It, therefore, condemns things as they are. But it would not condemn them unless it believed them capable of improvement. We never condemn that in which we do not believe. If a man is not capable of something better, he could not be condemned for what he is. The characteristic of an ideal, therefore, is that it at once makes a point of contact with things as they are, and furnishes inspiration for their improvement. Its feet are on the ground and its head is in the air, which is where both head and feet should be.

To indicate how inter-related are ideals and actions, two activities are suggested at this point for Citizenship Clubs. It would be hard to determine whether to classify them under a study of ideals or a program of action. They belong to both. (a) The first refers to our Federal Constitution.