Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1890-07-11
THE FOURTH OF JULY.
Plain Truths for Patriots.
BY COL. ALEX. DUKE BAIn1E.

IE # HHl Iiii #B Han hire h o d and
HF# #I Mi within the second
WHV N#A Ucentury Of o u r
NH NJ ~ Cons tituti Onal
N<~>D Government, we
W " can best show our
reverence for the benefits and glOrles of
the past by sinking for once all spread
eagleism," and seriously considering,
with the sOlemnity becoming men who
would do their full duty as citizens OF the
United States, those perils which con-
mont our future prosperity and grandeur,
rise toward the lead of all nations OF the
earth.
It may have been fitting that noise and
general Publication, abandonment to
"brag" were the prominent features of
the Fourth of July of the bOyhOOd of our
nation, but we have reached our manhood
days now and must put away the rattles
and romps of children, and consider and
act as becomes those who have reached
maturity and from whom the world right
fully expects and demands mans per-
Torrance and resulting good for hu-
manity.
There are clouds overhead and convul-
slons threatening under our feet, and
while we reverently return thanks to AL
mighty God for the past, we should care
FULLY survey and consider the dangers
that exist on the ground we must march
over IN the future.
1t is not we'll to look backward; the
marvellous past of the years since noise
and universal jubilee celebrated our first
Independence Day, if we contemplate
this alone, parRlyzes the imagination, and
as We gaze upon the vast Accommodations
OF the century gone, awe and pride dazzle
our eyes and we are unable to look for
ward to the pitfalls open in our pathway.
II we neglect to look forward with the
keen eyes of men, and to properly esti-
mate and provide to avert the destructive
influences undermining our national ex-
istence, for the results which must inev-
ltably follow we viii alone be to blame,
and our punishment will be correspond
-ingly severe.
Since the Fourth of July became recog-
-n1Zed as the natal day Of our nation, our
population has grown from four to sixty
hve millions. It's center moving west
ward one thousand miles since 1890, is
eloquent With the founding of cities and
the birth of States. New settlements,
clearing the forests and subduing the
prairies, and adding four millions to the
few thousand farms which were the
support of the early Republic, Gre
ate one of the great granarles OF the
world, and open eXhaustless reservoirs of
national wealth. The Industries which
the first act Of our first administration
sought to encourage now give remuner-
ative employment to more people than
inhabited the Republic when first estab-
Ished. The grand total of their annual
output of seven thousand millions of dol
lars II value places the United States
first among the manufacturing countries
of the earth. One-half the total mileage
of all the railroads and one-Quarter of all
the telegraph lines of the world within
our borders testify to the volume, variety
and value of an internal commerce which
makes these States, if need be, and if
wisely used, independent and self-sup-
porting. The hundred ears of develop
ment under favorable and unfavorable
political conditions have brought the sum
of our national wealth to a figure which
q has passed the results of a thousand
years Tor the mOtherland herself other
wise the richest of all modern empires.
During this generation a civil war of
unequGled magnitude caused the expendi-
ture and loss of eight billions of dollars,
and killed over six hundred thousand
and permanently disabled over q million
gallant men, and yet the impetuOus prog
Tess Of the North and the marvellous de-
velOpment of the new and free South
have ObliteTated the evidences of destruc-
ton, and in all save political questions
made the war a memory only, have slim
ulated prOducio until our annual sur
plus nearly equals that of England
France, and Germany combined. The
teeming millions OF Asia till the patient
soil and work the shuttle as their fathers
had done for ages; modern Europe hal
felt the influence aud received the benef
of the incalculable multiplication o
force by inventive genius since the Ma
polsonic wars; and yet only 270 year
after the little bandOf pilgrims LANDED
on Plymouth Rock our people. number
inc less than One-ffteenth Of the inhab
itants of the globe. do one-third Of it
mining one fourth of its manufacturing
one-ffth of its agriculture, and own one
sixth of its wealth.
This realism of material prosperity
surpassing the widest creations OF tn
Fomancers who have astOnished and de
LIGHTED mankind, only serves to NOR
plainly point the dangers of the preseI
and menace for the future if the virtue
intelligence and independence of on
people are not equal to the wise regull
ton of its uses and the stern preventiO
Of its abuses.