OCR Text |
Show HJ . i ! I ' T Great JVation. Hi U, I " HI : f (Published By Request.) fl 5 ! , I Below is the substance of the remarks made fl ill A I liy Judge Goodwin at the Commercial Club ban- B 'W If I QUQt, Monday evening: B $t y 1 The term, "a great nation," is a little am- B llj biguous. There are several great nations in the Bij h ' t i world, without mentioning Carrie Nation, B i j In our early histories we read about the Five B p; t ' Nations, the Senecas, the Cayugas, the Oneidas, B m i, i the Onondagos and the Iroquois, making up B pi j I ; the great Iroquois confederation, until in about B ; ,4 1GS5 the remnant of the Tuscaroras came in, mak- I !i ' i ' n the Six Nations, and they were all great na- B ' I' tions. They made a brave stand for native land B J j i against the pale faces, and in silence against ovor- BL'i whelming conditions died fighting. Bf : ' j ' We have heard of the Cherokee Nation and it Bit V is not Impossible to suppose that some gentle- Bfi !j ' nien present, like the Hon. Fisher Harris and th'e ml , !' ,1 i lion. John Critchlow, on their way west, tarried 1 1 1 there for a season, until certain extradition papers t j ) , II I ' were returned endorsed "not found." ft" 1 . We have recently heard of the Nation of Kf ,il ( Panama. I believe the derivation of the word m : 1 1 ' . nation is one that is goddess-born. If that is true, from what I saw in Panama I do not believe that the goddess down there was ever quite sure who her first husband was. Some great Nations have passed away, like ancient Rome, that in her almightiness held the world in subjection for centuries. But if the sentiment was meant to apply to our own great nation, then there is something in it, sure enough. This morning the school children on the coast of Maine sang their morning song. As the echoes rolled westward the children of New Hampshire took up the stately refrain, and so, in turn, through state' after state, "keeping company with the hours," the song rang out in "continuous melody" mel-ody" until the echoes were finally lost on the air above the waves that break against the Golden Gate. Three thousand miles of children all in the same tongue, all singing the same song, ought to be enough to cause the sentinel angel whose station is in the sun, to report that surely there is one great Nation on the earth. But if that sentinel watched closely he saw some other rather impressive spectacles. He saw over all the mighty space between the seas the chariot wheels of commerce rolling, he heard ' the hum of factories, the clang and clamor of steel and quartz mills, the respirations of hoisting engines; en-gines; he saw the harvests of mid continent being be-ing rushed toward both oceans to supply the textiles tex-tiles for the mills of the old world, and the food for the old world's hungry millions, and he had a chance to report that this great nation seems to be feeding and clothing a naked and hungry world. He may have reported, too, that he saw everywhere every-where on our soil temples that had been upreared to Industry, to Learning, to Justice, to Mercy, and to more Religions than were ever heard of in Heaven. He might have noted, too, that he saw ships sailing from our ports to other far distant shores of this great Nation, to lands up within the Arctic circle, to other lands down under the Southern Cross, to where the Pioneer and the Prospector were blazing new trails, to where the soldiers of the Republic were planting the flag in lands that are under the shadow of immemorial barbarism. More, on the loveliest island that ever basked amid sun-kissed seas he might have heard the people peo-ple in glorious acclaim thanking God that in their extremity this great nation came with invincible soldiers sol-diers and with such sailors as the world had never before seen, broke the fetters that bound them, H lifted them to their feet; fed them, clothed them; B cleansed their island home of the filth of cen- fl turies; built them school houses; established or- B der; reared a throne to Peace on their soil and B then, having made them free and having kindled fl in their souls a little self-respect and in their fl hearts a great hope, repaired to their invincible fl ships and sailed away. fl And he may have added that since enlighten- fl ment was given to man, and history began to fl record the world's events, no other such enchant- fl ing spectacle had ever been presented for the con- fl templation of the nations. fl Such is a bird's-eye view of our country, look- fl ing down upon it from the stars. fl But an honest report would not declare our fl country faultless, for while it is free, while our fl people have a right to think as they please, speak fl as they please and to do any legitimate thing, it fl is as in the forest where the lark is free to sing fl and the fawn to play, at the same time the cougar fl is free to leap upon the deer and the hawk to fl swoop down upon the lark. fl There be hawks and cougars among men, even fl as there are larks and deer. . There are hovels be- fl side castles in our land; the noise of revelry fl often drowns the prayers of want; the electric light of the palace makes more gloomy the light-less light-less hearth of the hut; the rich do'not pay their fair proportion of the taxes, and while the laborer la-borer Is worthy of his hire, he does not always secure It. As the laws are administered discriminations are made in favor of the rich, which is a crime; there Is a shoddy obsequiousness to mere wealth which ought "to make the man in the moon hold his nose as he passes over our country." But these and other defects are but spots on the sun of splendor which lights our Republic, for the hearts of the people are still pure and true, and strong in Their love of country, and if the free institutions which have enabled us in one short century to emerge from almost nothing until we stand a World Power, the majesty of which, by comparison, causes the magnificence of all former nations to pale; it is clear that down deep our country is all right, an'd whatever is wrong must be corrected, and each American must be a unit to give his best thoughts and best work to bring around the corrections. For his inspiration in-spiration he must remember that he is one of the custodians of the trust which the fathers handed down; that the trust, unsullied, must be transmitted trans-mitted with accrued interest added and paid with all the old glory; that the standard of our country must be kept "full-high advanced;" that at the same time its folds must be kept clean; that the light in our nation's window must remain re-main a beacon, ever increasing in brightness, so that, watching it, the world's oppressed may not lose hope; that progress must be the rule, until the increasing solemn glow of the stars on our flag shall fill the world with light. |