Excerpt from American Problems: Essays and Addresses The essential problems of America are not commercial, political, military, or territorial; they are ethical, sociological, and educational, - and the solution depends upon agencies independent of government and politics. While evils are many, optimism is the only sane philosophy, and true optimism sees the worst but strives for the best and has faith in the final outcome. To teach a lesson of pessimism would be an untruth and a crime. While it is a duty to recognize evils, it is an equal duty to describe the vision of promise. The real Utopia is not the perfect State, but an unending struggle toward it. In these pages I believe I have not only pointed out the dangers of our country, but have shown the evidence of progress. The underlying character and the final judgment of the people are sound; we are coming to a consciousness of our ideals, and are learning to know the nature and mission of Americanism. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.