| Show A QUESTION OF DUTY X A treat great at the close ot of a 91 lecture sold As s a land of 0 gas ess and furnaros fur turan es of steam mani avid and electricity as it a land which science practically applied lit bass maid bialo great eret in peace and mighty in war I 1 oste ask you whether this land of old and just renown has not it a right to expect from her insel lotions a culture more in accordance ich her present reeds fliers that supplied by declension mind and conjugation la in like manner malinor while our boys boy are standing sentries on land aad nd keeping their battle watches on the sea as we look back over tho the pest past of our own country and mark its wonderful un fold as we wa note that in ft a century we havo gathered moro more wealth av balth and material power than lifts has come to any other land through ough tho the accretions of a thousand acara as we note how tile the oppressed of the earth turn to our nag flag as turned in rove reverence rence tho the ancient fire worshiper to the rising sun the question corn cornea whether this land of young but just renown has not a light fight to expect from her citizens a broming grow ing sense of our responsibilities ties among tho the nations as eions of 0 the earth and a deepening deepen inc conviction of our duties toward the peoples of 0 this thlu world J just abt now lion a great war Is on between our country and a 0 barbarous power it if that country claims to lie bo enlightened lla its enlightenment lighten ment only extends to tile the giving of a keener edge to her savageries sava geries gerles we were to lo undertake the war because 0 of humanity por par three hundred years spain lias has been perpetrating her cruelties cruel ties upon her subject peoples and sought to kilt kill opposition at last to her rule hy by the deliberate wow blow assassination sassi nation by starvation of it a race of mon men women vastness and little children numbering three fourths of 0 a million souls we undertook to stop that the world Is looking on now and wondering it if we are going to prove great enough to go on to tho the completion of our duty tor for the contract that we entered into went beyond the mere breaking of 0 the military power of spain it Inc included haded the establishment of a just I 1 and enlightened government t to 0 be 1 built on tho the wreck ot of th three re e dundr hundred ed years of spanish misrule I 1 it t Is not a quest question lon ot of imperialism it ft Is not a it a iti question of extending boundaries it Is not a question of how the covetous outside world will estimate our work it li its a question of 0 duty and the carry ing ng into effect the principle 8 of 0 t that is 41 t eternal justice which will aill not bo be turned aside asid when this war v va as brader undertaken taken I 1 on our part wo we accepted at caust and we can abnot no evade it nom nowa without losing laging ng tile llie respect of nian mankind kind and all tile prestige which tire the men behind the guns on sea and land ate aie earn inc aff for us our or fathers in tire the long ego go drove bade back tile ilia frohn of the tha nii berness and subdued the in their th lr rath path by hing a reign of order of liberty under tile the law and by lighting blan al lamps nand placing them in the t birtir humble schoolhouses the oil lit in those lamps was like that in the ni widows clows cruse it never gave out rather it ft increased until it became a name flame to light tile the world the fathers were vexed willa no dreama of imperialism they worried not at all about what the world might think ot of their course they were intent only upon doing their duty duly as god save gave them to see sec their duty but from their work rork this imperial nation expanded until now in its career I 1 old nations nation by comparison all but one or two are at best second I 1 class we art are told now with wilh gravo grave Bolom solemnity ralty what tho the fathers advised it not rafe gate to reflect that all that advice was bounded by the horizon i fikh in their day compassed thelt their visions and that a safer plan would oil id I 1 be 9 to imitate what they did rather than to pay too rell ploua attention to what they advised turning to what they did lie e find and that they never shrank front from any duty even when it brought them into direct conflict with the mightiest power of 0 this earth As the ancient imperial 10 lomans loman in romes spared neither land arid nor eold cold nor son aon nor wife nor limb nor life in the brave days of bild go EO the fathers when bera the he trial came devoted their fortunes their sacred honor and their lives in consecration se to a noble duty can me e do better than to imitate what label the fathers did |
