Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1890-07-03
BY COL. ALEX. DUKE BAILIE.
BY JESSIE ETHEL.

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 jolli.ication, 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 rs becomes those who have reached
maturity and from whom the world right
fully expects and demands mans per-
Torrance and resulting good for hui
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 paralyzes 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-
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
i've millions. Its 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, cre-
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 n 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, indep endent 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 a civil war of
uneQualei magnitude caused the e1pendi-
ture and loss of eight billions of dollars,
and killed over six hundred thousand
and permanently disabled over a million
gallant men, and ret 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,
1IuuCe, anu Ucrul2uS cOmplneQ. Inc
teeming millions of Asia till the patient
soil and work the shuttle as their fathers
had done for ages; modern Europe has
felt the influence and received the benefit
of the incalculable multiplication of
force by inventive genius since the Ma
poleonic wars: and yet only go years
after the little bandof PILGRIMS landed
on Plymouth Rock our people. number
ing less than one-ffteenth of the inhab-
itsnts of the globe, do one-third of its
mining. one fourth of its manufacturing,
one-ffth of its agriculture, and own one
sixth of its wealth.
This realism of material prosperity.
surprising the widest creations of the
fomancers who have astonished and de-
lighted mankind, only serves to more
plainly point the dangers of the present
and menace for the future If the virtue,
intelligence and Independence of our
people are not equal to the wise reguls-
ton of its uses and the stern prevention
Of its abuses.