Show I Our Traditions I T l A A T TITLED sophisticated traveler tra fro from I. I Europe recently made a tour of this He enjo enjoyed ed his trip he lie said butas but n as as not very favorably impressed by much of I the country outside of New York The trouble with the Middle West Vest Far West Vest and south this gentleman is is that there ps JS is no romantic background of tradition and history t to th give color to dull scenes and poetry poe 0 o local histories St Having said this he headed back for Europe Eu- Eu rope rope where th the traditions an and romantic tories stories about each village and town lawn go back 1 a. a thousand years From his own point of view vie view he probably had America sized up fairly accurately But what he failed to realize what many of us fail tp realize was vas was that American civilization i is and always has been lon on Oil an entirely ly different tack from fron Traditions and folk tales like those of Europe Europe Eu- Eu rope Tope he will never find here of course j but traditions and folk tales of our own kind there are without number The Tle stories of the pioneer are arc no less romantic and inspiring than the tales of Europe's kings Skim through the history of any section of olf of this f I country and see if it is not fascinating as aI a I novel Louisiana 1 Think of the early earh- French adventurers who came down the Mississippi to the gulf and foresaw a great empire Think of the pirates like Lafitte who defied defied- even the federal government of Andrew Jackson who held New Orleans against the British lit of the trading ships of all nations that came camer r to make it a city eity more cosmopolitan than p l New York more picturesque than Cairo Illinois 1 Think of the thelong long lanky pioneers pio pio- who drifted north from Kentucky or west from New York building log cabins I hunger and toil and andi pam pain pain to f tO win vin the 7 black prairies from the red man and the ther r wild beast Think of the growth o of Chicago Cl r a frontier fort to fo fourth city ity in itt the h orld and all in a century's time Think of an Illinoisan to the marrow of his ones j of Grant who went from a country store to lead the earths earth's mightiest mightiest- army If 1 Utah 1 Long trains of covered wagons lot dot khe le horizon with eager men and patient women pressing forward to establish a prosperous pros pros- ferous empire beside an inland sea turning I ia it desolate wilderness into a fertile farm land Jand i California 1 Tales of desperados and vigilantes antes i golden goMen mountains and daredevil citi- citi I pens ells miners and gamblers gamblers' and lumbermen thronging the state and writing in a few t L brief rief decades an epic of pioneer life that Europe cannot match in any two centuries centuri s. s t f Oklahoma 1 The home of red men until a cant ant thirty-five thirty years ago opened overnight and add filled in a month and now sending oil l to all all- the world and building rich substantial on l land where the tIle wolves wolves' howled within t the he memory of living man t Such are our traditions our folk tales They are arc pioneer traditions every one stories lof hr f men who dared much and built for the future even though they Uey did dil l not always I see just what the he fire figure might v be Mid lAud they will continue to be our traditions 1 America merica came of age in iii 1917 The task the I pioneers began is not ended for they dreamed 9 America as the greatest nation i in the 5 orld no less and less and we without knowing it 4 t Pare are re doing our part to bring that dream nearer L. L L flo to reality For the history of the world for 0 Some ome centuries will be determined not by 7 but by America Leadership has hasl l me ome and a great day is to dawn And it will be buU on the traditions and romance of America merica L. L |