enrich the meaning with which these were already fraught. The heart of man of the Western races expresses his responsive glow in them. As a nation, we have our Lincoln and Washington birthdays, our Memorial day and Fourth of July to appeal to the best in us. But in this Pacific Northwest there are traditions peculiar and environment that is unique.
These antecedents and these resources entrusted to us involve rare advantages and responsibilities. A Pacific Northwest folk festival would serve as a conscious, collective and joyful espousal of them. It is only as a community "gets onto itself" by "getting onto" what is significant in its past that it is able "to get onto its job."
This Western land has been the scene of great improvements that have left their impress upon the character of its people and have given them their cue and inspiration and even here and now as great or greater movements are in progress.
The folk festival in illuminating the past, in doing over before our eyes the things that inspire, would give us our bearings and the spirit with which to meet the issues of the present and future. Each dweller within our borders, having experienced such a festival occasion, would return to his little round of duty enlightened and sustained, with a clearer vision of the growing whole of which he is an integral factor. This consciousness would be as an inner well-spring of peace, contentment and joy, giving strength and purpose.
Our history thus utilized would become vital, revealing our essential self as a community. The complex social process in which now we are dazed and confused would become visualized. We could each and all then find our ways and take the courses that lead to the up-building of the community.
In a crude way the following illustrates some of the material from which the Northwest may draw for its folk festival:
First—Did not this realm for centuries lie in the shadow of the unknown, as venturesome European mariners were moving all around it, peering wistfully for the water passage to the Orient?
