We  have  also  had  enough  and  to  spare  of  pessimistic  views
of  American  character  and  life.  We  get  it  sometimes  from
Americans.  Not  long  ago  I  heard  of  a  refined  and  highly
educated  woman,  living  in  one  of  our  great  Atlantic  cities,
who  declared  her  belief  that  the  American  people  is  doomed
to  degeneration  because  the  saving  grace  of  the  nation  went
out  of  it  when  the  Loyalists  of  the  Revolution  emigrated  to
Nova  Scotia  and  the  Bahamas.  -  Criticism  ot  this  sort,  espe-
cially when  it  came  from  foreigners,  and  more  especially
when  it  came  from  Englishmen,  used  to  hurt  us  forty  years
ago.  To-day  it  amuses  us,  but  does  not  affect  our  judgment
or  disturb  our  equanimity.
Thoughtful  criticism  of  American  life  and  character  we
can  listen  to  and  profit  by,  especially  when  it  is  kindly  as
well  as  thoughtful.     We  need  all  the  more  to  listen  to  it  and


200  THE    NATIONAL   CONFERENCE    OF

lay  it  to  heart  when  we  realize  the  position  of  supreme  influ-
ence for  good  or  for  evil,  which  the  American  people
is  destined  to  hold  among  the  civilized  nations  of  the
twentieth  century.
Not  long  ago  I  had  occasion  to  make  a  slight  study  of  the
conditions  of  race  and  environment  which  will  fix  the  char-
acter of  the  twentieth-century  American.  Let  me  refer  to
two  of  them.
First,  we  shall  be  a  new  nation,  made  up  by  combining  the
characteristics  of  several  of  the  strong  races  of  North-western
Europe,  substantially  the  same  races  which  more  than  a
thousand  years  ago  combined  to  form  the  English  nation.
