The pattern has been a success so nearly perfect in the
sequence of ideals, practice, and results, that any challenge to it is
called un-American.
And yet, this pattern is a very partial and inadequate way of
representing the world. The habit of thinking about progress as
"development" has meant that many aspects of the environment were
simply neglected. With the stereotype of "progress" before their eyes,
Americans have in the mass seen little that did not accord with that
progress. They saw the expansion of cities, but not the accretion of
slums; they cheered the census statistics, but refused to consider
overcrowding; they pointed with pride to their growth, but would not
see the drift from the land, or the unassimilated immigration. They
expanded industry furiously at reckless cost to their natural
resources; they built up gigantic corporations without arranging for
industrial relations. They grew to be one of the most powerful nations
on earth without preparing their institutions or their minds for the
ending of their isolation. They stumbled into the World War morally
and physically unready, and they stumbled out again, much
disillusioned, but hardly more experienced.
In the World War the good and the evil influence of the American
stereotype was plainly visible. The idea that the war could be won by
recruiting unlimited armies, raising unlimited credits, building an
unlimited number of ships, producing unlimited munitions, and
concentrating without limit on these alone, fitted the traditional
stereotype, and resulted in something like a physical miracle.
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