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doubt of herself, a distrust of the future, to sweep her
out of her settled optimistic complacency, and arouse
her to the necessity for personal effort.
Self-reliance is a comrade of optimism. Self-conceit is its foe, and leads it to destruction and failure.
Precisely the same laws apply to the country, to
the race, which apply to the individual. It is not the
satisfied, profoundly optimistic citizen who says: "My
country is all right; she can do no wrong; her faults
are the faults of youth; let her alone and she will outgrow them." It is not that kind of citizen who is the
true patriot.
The man who loves his country most is he who
strives hardest to keep her garments from trailing in
the mud, which left its ineradicable stains on the
robes of older nations; he is the man who sees and
warns her of impending dangers, even at the risk of
being called a pessimist and a sensationalist.
To look on the bright side of the oil, beef, coal,
railroad and political trusts is possible, if one takes the
larger view; the view which belongs to the eyes of
prophecy and sees beyond these calamities to their
abolishment --- the view which beholds the flagrant
evil working out its own destruction, and giving place
to a newer order and a cleaner system.
That is real optimism, and the only optimism possible and consistent with present conditions and self respecting patriotism.
The conservative tool of capital, or the slave of old
traditions, who assures us that "everything is all right,
and that the country is in better condition than ever
in its history," is not the patriot --- not the optimist who
helps uphold her honor.
The true patriot is he who makes the pathway
