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 NATIONAL UNITY 
 
 BY ^).' 
 
 George E; Ide 
 
 PBBSIDBNT OF THB HOME LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY 
 
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 An Address Delivered 
 
 AT THB 
 
 NINTH ANNUAL CONVENTION 
 
 OP 
 
 THE HOME LIFE AGENCY ASSOCIATION 
 
 New York, January 16 and 17, 1917 
 
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 ^he miite House. 
 
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 NATIONAL UNITY. 
 
 At the annual meetings of your Association, it has been 
 my privilege for many years to address you, and you have been 
 kind enough to request me to continue that practice. It has 
 not been my habit to speak upon technical life insurance sub- 
 jects because those naturally take up the greater part of your 
 time in your other sessions, but it has seemed fitting to me 
 at each of these annual gatherings, where we have represen- 
 tation from all parts of the country, to discuss some question 
 of broad and general interest bearing upon our attitude and 
 conduct in our relations with our fellow-men. 
 
 Possibly no body of men comes in closer touch with the 
 American people than the Life Insurance representatives in 
 the field, and that contact reaches out to men of every locality 
 and of every station in life. What can be then of greater 
 importance than that these representatives should thoroughly 
 understand the underlying principles of our national life and 
 appreciate what is needed to promote the nation's best wel- 
 fare? These principles may be elementary and even self-evi- 
 dent, but how often do we forget the importance of simple 
 truths in the maze of sophistry which is spread out to ensnare 
 us by wily vendors of false panaceas for the cure of all na- 
 tional ills. 
 
The heat of the recent campaign is past. The nation has 
 recorded its decision. Therefore, we may now as loyal citizens 
 dispassionately discuss, in terms of perfect frankness, present 
 national tendencies and problems, without running any risk 
 of being misunderstood or misinterpreted. 
 
 Every man of serious mind and every student of the 
 world's progress must realize that there are disquieting ele- 
 ments in the present situation and that to guide our nation in 
 attaining and retaining its proper position in the world, we 
 need now as never before far-sighted wisdom and clear judg- 
 ment. 
 
 Our country is a federation of sovereign States working 
 together for the good of the whole body politic, united for 
 mutual aid in the furtherance of the common good; a federa- 
 tion formed to overcome the centrifugal and disintegrating 
 forces of self-interest and to promote unity and co-ordination. 
 The bonds which hold us together at times seem to tighten and 
 again to relax but harmony is the basis of our national system. 
 
 "Classes are unknown in the land." That is our boast, but 
 the fact is that, in the growth of national unity one of the 
 worst obstacles is the existence of classes, or groups, if that 
 word is preferred, and the disputes between them. The very 
 rich and very poor, the educated and uneducated, the employers 
 and employed, these are some of the classes which exist and 
 always will exist. These distinctions are necessary in our 
 complex life, but the aim of American democracy is that 
 there shall be nothing in our system which makes it impossible 
 
for any individual to move freely from one class to another. 
 We aim to prevent, as far as possible, individual retrogression 
 and to place personal advancement within the reach of every- 
 one on a basis of individual merit and accomplishment. In 
 this sense "classes" rigidly and permanently established do not 
 exist. Every day we hear of men who, by reason of individual 
 worth, have risen in the social scale and we also hear of others 
 who have fallen to a lower estate. The American idea is that 
 this movement of the individual from one class to another shall 
 be absolutely unrestricted. That is what is meant by "free- 
 dom" and "equality." Any statute of the State and any reg- 
 ulation of any "class organization" which hampers the in- 
 dividual in the exercise of thrift, industry and persistency 
 or compels him to curtail his hours of labor or lose his personal 
 freedom to work, may be good for the class as a whole, but is 
 un-American and acts as a brake upon individual freedom. 
 It is equally improper, in the absence of a voluntary contract 
 arrangement, to compel the individual to work against his 
 will. 
 
 This general subject has been so prominently before us of 
 late that a rehearsal of recent events is not necessary, but if 
 we analyze carefully these conflicts between the various 
 "classes" wa find that the fundamental cause of difference is 
 that the interest of the "class" is placed ahead of everything 
 else, and individual freedom and the common welfare are sub- 
 ordinated. If, in these conflicts, the old-fashioned ideas of our 
 forefathers (the ideas of individual freedom, of mutual con- 
 cession and of united effort for the nation's welfare) could be 
 
substituted for the modern tendency toward placing the 
 "class" above the 77ian and the "class" above the nation, great 
 progress would be made out of our difficulties. Organizations 
 we should not discourage, but every class leader should recog- 
 nize that the body that he represents is, and must be, sub- 
 ordinate to the greatest of all organizations, the "nation." We 
 must have union and harmony between these groups. This can 
 only be obtained if paramount to all class interests we keep 
 ever before us the true American ideal, the achievement of the 
 greatest good for all. 
 
 Another factor inimical to national unity is the clash of 
 local interests. In a country covering such vast territory, the 
 interests of its various sections are naturally diverse. Rivalry 
 and competition betwesn these sections are unavoidable, but 
 when local pride and local selfish interest overshadow national 
 pride and national interest then Am.erican unity is in peril. A 
 most striking example of this feeling is provided in the con- 
 tinued agitation of the question of compulsory local invest- 
 ment of Life Insurance funds. In the discussion of this ques- 
 tion with a very high officer of one of our States when the state- 
 ment was made that Railroad Investments benefit all sections 
 of the country, he frankly stated to me that his commonwealth 
 did not care anything about the development of the railroads; 
 that his State was not dependent upon Interstate transporta- 
 tion facilities ; and that what it wanted and would insist upon 
 were local investments in real estate loans, city, town and state 
 bonds, or other securities which were absolutely and unequivo- 
 cally local in 'their character. This is an example of local 
 
spirit raised to its highest degree. Then again, our method 
 of electing representatives at Washington from the various 
 sections of the country and the provision that those represen- 
 tatives shall be residents of the section in which they are 
 elected creates in our Federal Legislative bodies a condition 
 which makes it extremely difficult to secure from those bodies 
 legislation on broad national lines. A Congressman, to be re- 
 elected, must satisfy his local constituents, and much of our un- 
 wise legislation is a natural sequence of this method of choice. 
 
 Then again, it is difficult for the different sections of the 
 country to understand each other. The view of the farmer of 
 the West and the banker of the East, of the manufacturer of 
 New England and of the importer of New York is in each case 
 naturally based primarily upon his own salfish requirements, 
 especially when the question of taxation or some other matter 
 affecting his local interest comes up for consideration at Wash- 
 ington, and the unscrupulous politician has naturally done all 
 he can to encourage a sentiment of sectional rivalry and jeal- 
 ousy. The East has only a superficial knowledge of the ideas 
 of the West and South, and these latter localities, except in the 
 most general way, are not informed as to the methods and 
 ideas which prevail in the financial centres of the East. In the 
 consideration of any broad national policy, we see these sec- 
 tions arrayed, each against the other, on strictly geographical 
 lines. If a tax is to be imposed, each tries to throw the bur- 
 den upon the other. If a national improvement is to be made, 
 each demands that his section shall have the lion's share. If 
 the question of our national attitude in foreign relations is be- 
 
fore Congress, enthusiasm cannot be aroused unless local ad- 
 vantages can be shown. We have but to study the debates and 
 votes on the tariff, on national preparedness, on national im- 
 provements, on the income tax, on the Mexican question, on 
 foreign relations, on railroad regulation, to see that the above 
 exhibition of self-interest is so universal that it hardly nesds 
 to be stated. Is it to be wondered that we often fesl that in 
 consequence our national unity is in danger? 
 
 It is a very simple matter to state conditions which we know 
 exist; it is a very difficult matter to offer a proper solution. 
 The contest between the various classes and the rivalry be- 
 tween the various sections to which we have referred is exactly 
 similar to the old dispute between the members of the body, 
 described by St. Paul. The head, the foot, the hand, the eye 
 and the ear entered into the same struggle under motives of 
 self-interest which we see existing between the different States 
 and between the different groups of our society, and the situa- 
 tion cannot be more tersely summed up than in the statement 
 in the Epistle that "whether one member suffer, all the mem- 
 bers suffer with it, or one member ba honored, all the members 
 rejoice with it." There can be no segregation even in thought 
 of the various States and of the various groups without a ser- 
 ious loss to the whole body, and there must be closer mutual 
 acquaintance and knowledge and a finer spirit of concession 
 between these warring factors, if we are to maintain the deli- 
 cate equilibrium of our national federation. Possibly one great 
 difficulty in bringing about such a basis of coalition is that, 
 under our national government, the ordinary citizen is not 
 
made to feel in the slightest degree that he owes anything to 
 his country. He does not know that he contributes in any 
 way to the federal expense ; he is relieved as far as possible of 
 all of the burdens of direct taxation ; he is called upon for little 
 service of a civil character and no military service. In short, 
 he finds himself the happy recipient of the nation's favors and 
 protection without giving any proper return. In consequence 
 of this, as is apt to be the case, he has no enthusiasm over the 
 dispenser of such bounties ; he feels no sense of obligation and 
 little sense of patriotic loyalty. When a crisis arises, it has 
 always been found, up to the present time, that the American 
 nation is full of loyalty and full of patriotism. The sentiment 
 is there but cannot express itsslf properly and effectively be- 
 cause it has no instruments with which to work. Often this 
 or that remedy is suggested to correct the evils of which we 
 are speaking, but thes3 remedies most frequently apply only to 
 some specific trouble. We must look to the basic principles if 
 we wish to carry out the real promise of our forefathers. In 
 an address recently delivered in this city by a speaker from 
 Chicago, the subject was tersely presented in the following lan- 
 guage : "No great nation can be a mere collection of persons 
 born or living within certain geographical limits. A great na- 
 tion must be a social unit, moved consciously or unconsciously 
 by common motives and by an instinctive loyalty to common 
 ideals. Nationality is a spiritual and psychic rather than a 
 physical fact." We associate the words spirituality and soul 
 with purely religious discussions, but it is no exaggeration, 
 nor is it an impractical suggestion, to state that the only basis 
 of true national unity must be a unified national soul. An ex- 
 
ample beyond parallel has been recently offered in the Euro- 
 pean War, where we have found a nation, often misunderstood 
 by Anglo-Saxons, pre-eminent in its intellectuality, mercurial 
 in its temperament, solidified under the present pressure to a 
 nation with a single soul. Nothing else can explain the cour- 
 age, the persistency, the cheerfulness and the patience of the 
 French nation under suffering. It is something of this sort 
 which the American nation must cultivate and which the Amer- 
 ican nation must possess if we are to have real national unity. 
 Materialism runs rife in a young and prosperous nation and 
 our isolation from the present conflict has increased that ten- 
 dency. It is well for us, in our serious moments, to keep ever 
 before us the higher philosophy, the higher ideal, for "what 
 shall it profit a man," or a nation, "if he gain the whole world 
 and lose his own soul?" 
 
 President 
 January, 1917. 
 
4 
 

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