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Show r Thanksgiving Reveries and Queries Thanksgiving Is the first of America's Ameri-ca's own holidays. As tlie curliest to be set apart Its observance runs through tlie whole history of the nation. na-tion. Like most other distinctive features fea-tures of our American order of life it sprang up out of tlie local soil. It was at first and for many years colonial. It became national only as Its observance ob-servance spread from town to town, from colony to colony, from state to state. While It has a historical interest all tts own, Thanksgiving Is identified K'lth no single event, no special occasion, occa-sion, no definite date in our 'history. It recalls no single act, as does "Independence "In-dependence day." It commemorates the name and service of no man, as do tli 5 birthdays of Washington and Lincoln. Lin-coln. It Is not shared with other peoples peo-ples as are Christmas and New Years. Day Identified With All. Tlie American Thanksgiving day is Identified with the soil we till, for ivhose harvest we give thanks. It is, therefore. Identified with the toil and the tollers w'nose tillage and productive produc-tive labor, Inventive skill, constructive and distributive enterprise feed, clothe, shelter and develop our own people and many of their kith and kin in the old fatherlands across the seas. "Thanksgiving" is another and greater Labor day. It recalls and calls forth all kinds of effort by all classes of people. peo-ple. It merges the common product of the common toil, for the national possession pos-session of which the President and governors of tlie whole people call i-.pon them to thank their Father-Creator Father-Creator and the good providence of tl.e Great Provider. In thus reminding remind-ing us that our harvests are tlie joint product of Mother Nature, the children chil-dren of men and Father Cod, Thanksgiving Thanks-giving Is first of all the American peo-1 peo-1 le's expression of grateful appreciation apprecia-tion for their "country" its land and waters, its fertility and beauty; for cur great out-of-doors nature, its re-fionse re-fionse to human effort, to man's discovery dis-covery and his working with natural law. Thanksgiving Is. therefore, nature's na-ture's harvest-'nome holiday. Celebrates Entire Year. And yet It celebrates the full round year. While held after harvest. Thanksgiving does not let us forizet the seed and sowing of the springtime, 'he plowing and weeding of the sum-i.ur sum-i.ur as vital to the all-inclusive process of reaping. Moreover, and above all. !r. this linking soil and skies, eartn and 'he heavens. It is tlie Day of Remembrance Remem-brance of the Father of us all, as the great giver not only but as the greatest worker, with whom we may work and ivho works with all for the common rood. "My father worketh hitherto and I work," said the greatest of the ;ons of God and the children of men. These reveries awaken queries, also. !raham Taylor declares, in the Chicago Chi-cago Pally News. They spring from the slncerest recognition nnd most appreciative ap-preciative asknowledgnient that the American people are and always have been, a composite race, and that adopt ed citizens from many lands have done very much to make America what It Is. Tne early history of the United States Interweaves fine, strong strands of English, Scotch, Celtic, French, Spanis'n and Jewish life, with not few or feeble negro traits, and toils, and some relics of Indian and old Mexican civilization. The human conquest and amazing development of this new continent con-tinent cannot be accounted for without crediting much to the toil and many other enrichments of tlie Latin, Slavic and southeastern European immigrants. immi-grants. Contributions to our culture in art and philosophy nnd to our cultivation culti-vation of the land nnd our commerce of the sea come from the older civilizations civili-zations of China, India and Japan. Founders of Country's Faith. Foundations of America's faith were laid by pilgrims and cavaliers, Catholics Catho-lics and Protestants, each in its own way, yet all to tne same great end. They are merely listed here as queries raised by our Thanksgiving reveries, their discussion being reserved re-served for timely opportunity. Their mere statement, however, makes bold the undoubting faith and hope that these, and all other problems of American Amer-ican life, can all and only be solved and settled by the spirit inspiring Katherine Lee Bates' great patriotic hymn that breathes the soul of our American Thanksgiving: O, beautiful for spacious skies. For amber waves of grain. For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain. America. America. God send His grace on thee. And crown thy good with brotherhood brother-hood From sea to shining sea. O, beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife. Who more than self their country lovd And mercy more than life. America. America. May God thy gold refine. 'Till all success be nobleness And every grain divine. Holiday of the Home. Thanksgiving is a day sacred to tlie home. More of it is spent at home than at church, in family reunions than In public assemblies, in serving the needy, tlie lonely, and the homeless home-less than In formal services of worship. wor-ship. Its sanctuary is the thoughtful, thankful heart more than the house of wors'nlp. Who that has lived in any of our oldest colonial states, especially in New England, enn ever forget, or fail to have a glow of heart at every remembrance of the real home Thanksgiving Thanks-giving day as observed on the soil from which It sprang? At the very mention of It, what visions reappear, of tlie long preceding preparations for It at the old family homestead ; of the letters flying forth and back between the old folks at home and the scattered scat-tered young folks in their new homes, or transient abodes; of foe railway station platforms and cars thronged by merry home-bound children-of-nn-older-growth. nnd children's children; of greetings at the threshold of the old farm house or village home, mingling the smiles and laughter of the living with tears or silent, sorrowing, undying undy-ing yearning for "the touch of a vanished van-ished hand and fne sound of a voice that is still"; of the bountifully laden, beautifully decorated family table, with America's fatted turkey as a "welcome home," instead of the "fatted calf" of ancient days. National Development. In the truest American homes the Thanksgiving family reunion Is all that Robert Burns sang of "The Cotter's Cot-ter's Saturday Night," and still more for being more joyous, though no less religious for all that. And there are Americans, not a few, who feel deep down in their hearts for their own country what the Scotch singer sang of liis: "From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs." Out of this population more wonderfully wonder-fully composite than constitutes the citizenship of any other nation, a very distinctive national development has evolved. It is recognized by ourselves and other peoples as distinctively our own. As such, and as a distinct contribution contri-bution to the world's possessions and to the heritage of mankind, it is heie and now being considered, without any comparison with tne characteristics o( other nations, as better or worse. This life-spirit of the American people peo-ple Is a fact, and a fact that raises these two queries at least: Is this American life or spirit distinct and valuable enough to be conserved, du-veloped du-veloped nnd perpetuated? If so, how can it maintain Its distinct identity nnd value, enriched by the accessions from abroad which are appreciated and welcomed, without being transformed, trans-formed, diluted. or deteriorated? These are not only fair questions, but are queries that are forcing themselves upon the more or less strained attention atten-tion of our people. j) frjfj) |