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Show 1776 Then and Now 1926 , . .' Since the Declaration of Independence was signed in 177G, the United States has grown from three million to one hundred and ten million; from thirteen colonies to forty-eight forty-eight states; from ox-cart to airplane; from post boy to radio; from wages of one shilling a day to eight,-ten ond fourteen dollars ; from handknit underwear to B. V. D. s and flimsy pink things which are in some way related to animal life; from hoop skirts to exhibition garters, from arrests for kissing on Sunday to divorces for not kissmg on week days. ... In those days the wicked were descended from the devil, now they are descended from monkeys. Laws were enforced at the whipping post ; now they are not enforced at all. The Virginia colonel then drank mint juleps on the front porch; now he drinks them in the cellar. At that time politics were in the control of the property-holders ; now they are controlled by the office-holders and their relatives. Then men were fined for staying home from church on Sunday; now they get their sermons by radio while reading the Sunday paper and smoking their after-breakfast cigar. Yes, times have changed since that-historic fourth day of July, 177G, when fifty-six men representing the thirteen colonies met in Philadelphia and decided to adopt a Declaration Declara-tion of Independence which has been drafted by one of their number, Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia. On that day, however, only one person signed the declaration, declar-ation, John Hancock, the president of the assembly. But four days later, July 8, we had our first independence celebration, accompanied bv the ringing of bells, beating of drums, and the firing of guns noise, boisterous merriment, things with which we now are familiar after 150 years' practice. By the second of August all of the assemblymen but one had signed that immortal document. Not until November did the last one, Mathew Thornton, of New Hampshire, sign it. That declaration was the gathering of centuries. It was sent to the heart of the world from Calvary. It was seen welling above the surface in the straggles of the early church; manifesting itself in all the struggles of English history, and at last finding its outlet through the pen of Thomas Jefferson. Down through the years since Lexington the shades of these heroes beckon. Footprints of blood in the snows of Valley Forge and the great Washington praying for the success of his heroic tatter-demallion army; John Paul Jones who didn't know when he was licked; Nathan Hale, regretting regret-ting that he had only one life to give; and Patrick Henry, demanding freedom or death. These heroes are dead. They died for liberty they died for us. They sleep in the land they made free under the flag they rendered stainless. In these perilous times, with an insidious propaganda to belittle their history and a growing plea for an international interna-tional unity to restore this nation to the "mother country," we almost hear them call to us, -'For what was our sacrifice?" Through the long years of peace the spark of patriotism has burned low. It needs to be livened into a breath of flame that all may see and understand that this nation is still united ''one "arid inseparable" that the Spirit of '76 still lives. Shall we not declare with Lincoln that "these dead shall not have died in vain," that the liberty and independence inde-pendence they struggled to win shall be preserved? That Is the real meaning and purpose of Independence Day the Fourth of July which we celebrated yesterday. mi miimiiii nil iimiii iii in ii i ii i nun m mum mwm n r |