Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1890-07-31
THE FOURTH OF JULY
Plain Truths for Patriots.
BY COL. ALEX. DUKE BAILIE.
By JESSIE ETHEL.

wWw DJcentury OF our
N Government, we
N can best show our
reverence for the benefits and glories 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-
front our future prosperity and grandeur,
rise toward the lead of all nations OF the
earth.
1t may have been fitting that noise and
general jollifcation, abandonment to
"brag" were the prominent features or
the Fourth of July of the boyhood OF our
nation, but we have reached our manhood
days now and must put away the ratties
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-
eormance and resulting good for hui
manity.
There are clouds overhead and convul-
sions 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.
It 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, paralyzes the Imagination, and
as we gaze upon the vast accumulations
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.
IL 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 iney-
itably follow we will alone be to blame,
and our punishment will be correspond
ingly severe.
Since the Fourth of July became recog-
nized as the natal day OF our nation, our
population has grown from four to sixty
five 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 granaries 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-
alive employment to more people than
inhabited the Republic when first estab-
lished. The grand total of their annual
output of seven thousand millions of dol
lars in 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 years of develop
ment under favorable and unfavorable
political conditions have brought the sum
Of our national wealth to figure which
has passed the results of thousand
years for the motherland herself. other
wise the richest Of all modern empires.
During this generation civil war OF
unequaled magnitude caused the expendi-
ture and loss of eight billions Of dollars
and permanently disabled over a million
gallant men, and yet the impetuous prog.
ress of the North and the marvellous de-
velopment of the new and free South
have obliterated the evidences of destruc,
tion, and, in all save political questions
made the war memory only, have slim
ulated production 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 and received the benefit
of the incalculable multiplication Of
force by inventive genius since the Ma
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