The all-round man of the innocent Middle Period has become the exception.

The earlier homogeneity of American society has been impaired, and no authoritative and edifying, but conscious, social ideal has as yet taken its place.
The specialized organization of American industry, politics, and labor, and the increasingly severe special discipline imposed upon the individual, are not to be considered as evils.

On the contrary, they are indications of greater practical efficiency, and they contain a promise of individual moral and intellectual emancipation.

But they have their serious and perilous aspects, because no sufficient provision has been made for them in the national democratic tradition.

What it means is that the American nation is being confronted by a problem which the earlier national democracy expected to avoid--the social problem.