OCR Text |
Show AMERICA'S GREAT PROGRESS Trappers Blazed the Trail Others Followed Follow-ed Civilization Slow Indians Clash Every Man a Landlord Miner- I al Discoveries Railroads Govern ment's Assistance Unquestioned Now a Problem Coal Oil Profitable Prog-, ress in Manufactures Growth of Department De-partment Stores Luck Government Change in National Life Get-Rich vs. Square Deal Eternal Vigilance Wiil j Solve the Problem of Life. (Written for the Intermountain Catholic.) Perhaps in no other part of the world have the j natural resources been so abundant' or been grasped ( and made to answer so readily " the needs of hu manity as in our own America. When the Pilgrim Pil-grim Fathers landed on the gloomy New England shores to establish the colonies, no one, even in . : their wildest imaginings, could have realized what a splendid nation should grow up in three or four f centuries. The country was new and unexplored. ;l In a few years some adventurous trappers and . j hunters blazed the trail' across the mountain ranges into the great central valleys. When they , returned to the settlements along the coast and , f old others of the vastness of the wilderness beyond .' tne hills, some were induced to venture into the i unknown lands and establish homes. The progress j of civilization was slow, interrupted as it was by the war for independence and almost continuous ,j clashes with the Indians, but it was on a sound j basis, for the soil was productive, and the woods ad streams furnished an abundance of wild game, and a living was assured if the pioneers could ,r: - -..withstand th-; rigors- of .the winter nd, Wn.m-- 1 . Nations. ot.tha--nativeg.-'-w That- partof Wmtay east of the Mississippi river was settled primarily, almost entirely in the solid fashion. It was a healthy growth, for the opportunities were as near- ! lv equal as it is possible for them to be. Each man' cleared a piece of land and called it his own, and j there was no one to dispute his title. ' I . In the course of time coal and other minerals were discovered and the lands pre-empted, and finally fi-nally title was secured from the government. Railroads Rail-roads were built, with the aid of the people and the government through money donations and land grants, though the private character of the roads' ownership was never questioned. It was thought at the time the railroads were building, and it is still looked upon with favor by some, that in order to establish some things of benefit to the people it is necessary to encourage private enterprise by a subsidy sub-sidy from the government. Whether the subsidy is a just and equitable proposition of benefit to the common people or class legislation of benefit to the promoters and owners of the subsidized enterprise, enter-prise, is out of the question. The fact remains that the development of the country following the building of the railroads has been so great that the roads at present are paying annual dividends on irapitalizations much in excess of the actual money investment. The development of the coal, oil and other mineral resources, too, has paid the owners very well. It may have been far-sighted business instinct which prompted men to take up these various enterprises, en-terprises, and in the building of a solid foundation unon which to rest the national government. No doubt the burdens were heavy without attempting I" any regulation of the ownership and development of more or less public property, Buch as mineral lands and oil fields. In the manufacturing world, from the cross- J roads blacksmith and village tinker, who but a few years ago found as much as they could do in their respective neighborhoods, there has grown up a . class known as captains of industry, and big manu- i fnct'iring plants now make machinery and tools of I all imds which were nor, dreamed of by the men 1 who supplied the limited needs of the people in I earlier daysl The changes in the business world 1 are.no less striking. Department stores and im mense mercantile establishments now supply everything every-thing which the people inagine they need, and which formerly could nht have been obtained in a thousand smaller stores. All these things are as a result of the progress f civilization and development of the country. Coincident with them, those fortunate ones gifted with foresight or endowed with the ouality we call luck, who grasped the opportunities which presented present-ed themselves, have grown very wealthy, while the patient plodders have remained financially stationary sta-tionary or at least have not grown proportionately in this world's goods. , . No one would return to the hardships of the pioneers in wresting a livelihood from an unsettled country unless he believed that in so doing he could secure, after eoajuering the wilderness, some of the luxnries now denied him.' 'Besides, there is no other America on the face of the, earth. God seems to have reserved the western hemisohere as the point where humanity is to make its last stand, where human government is to reach its fullest perfection, or fail. Tho government is not a great inanimate thing down at Washington, at which we may rail indiscriminately. Rather is it the reflection re-flection of the ideals of the people of the nation. During the past half century the people have brought the resources of the country to a high state of development and incidentally in the de-I de-I velopmcnt some hare amassed fortunes too great I; ' ,J . .1) . , to be of any use to their possesors. The ideal has been to get the money. Now a change has come over the spirit of our national life. To fet the money is still loked upoii as an important duty of every man struggling to provide a competence for himself and family, but the golden rule in its modern interpretation as the "sauare deal" has entered somewhat into the activi-ries activi-ries of the people, with results which are even now felt by the humblest!! and yet do not interfert with the legitimate business of the nation. However, the day is not at hand when there will be no more poverty among us. The poor will be with us always, al-ways, as the gospel expresses it, but opportunities are opening , where natural ability and ambition majr exert itself to the betterment of the condition of the individual. ' - Let us not . rest easy with, the good already, accomplished, ac-complished, but remember always that "eternai vigilance vig-ilance is the price of liberty." The destiny of mankind man-kind is in unknown hands, and we believe the destiny des-tiny of human government is now being worked out in America, ''the land of the free and the home of the brave." - |