The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1894-04-13

tAAH ENk<(tA AS1<A ~ e4AN - 4AAtst AsesA- -
man reaches down to us with an ever
| increasing and freshening flavor; no
| soldier died at Marathon but did q
stroke thas has nerved every soldier
since to higher and nobler sense
Of duty.
| Let us not be unmindful of the fact
that as little acts of kindnesses add
something to the sum total of human
happiness; so duty, conscientiously
and fearlessly performed, intbe lowest,
as well as in the highest sphere Of life,
is as a lighted torch to the human
race.
OF all men, we should be the most
just and tolerant. 1t should be our
constant aim to protect the weak from
the strong. Between the oppressed
and the oppressor we should stand
with the force of stonewall.
Mindful of the fact that the 'spen is
mightier than the sword,n and that
peace hath her victories even more
renowned than war; that heroism is
confined to no age nor profession; that
upon the ever recurring stage Of every
| day life we can each be an actor and a
heroic actor if we but have the moral
courage of our convictions.
Our civil and Indian war
have shown that any common
spirit may summon courage f
play the soldier well-use quickly
fits him for it. But it requires man
to speak out his thoughts as he thinks
them. Every editor knows this.
Moral courage is now and always has
been the browning beauty Of man
hood. He who possesses it can rise
above hate and revenge; he can be
calm amid excitement; just amid law
lessness, and pure amid corruption.
The worlds philosophers are greater
than the worlds soldiers. Charles
Sumner said to stand 0lonen showed
more courage than to fight a battle.
The world, with ignorant and intol-
Grant judgment, may condemn; the
hearts of friends may grow cold, but
the inward conscientiousness Of duty
done is sweeter than the applause OF
/ the multitudean more lasting. Moral
courage is force always needed in
society and in our profession is needed
| perhaps more than in all others. The
/ possession or the lack of this element
i of character marks the dividing line
between the noble and ignoble portion
of mankind.
No one in our profession can be
needless of the fact that great social
revolution is now going on throughout
the world. 1t is revolution that APP
peals to the calm judgment of man.
/ kind. 1t is a revolution in which the
pen must usurp the function of the
sword in which ballots must do the
work of bullets.
The picture this revolution reveals
to us is aggregated capital on the one
hand, and blind, struggling poverty on
the other.
| It has been our good fortune to live
in the fairest and freest portion of the
world. The sun in hiscircuit through
the heavens shines not upon land
more capable of supplying man with
every desire his natural wants may
crave, or his artificial tastes require.
We have boundless resources yet
undeveloped. We have thrifty and
ingenious people. Patriotic fathers
have given us government the most
| perfect among the nations of the
earth. In theory, at least, every male
adult under our flag is a sovereign, and
yet in this exceptionally favored land,
since our last meeting we have had
| thrust upon us a condition of things
that deserves to arrest our most
thoughtful attention. / give picture
of these conditions as recently given
by Kansas farmer, Mr.. J. F. Will
| let's. He says:
With millions of acres of rich, fertile lands un
tanned by the hand of the agriculturalist, We
1
low beings in this land are without home on
Gods footstool. And while industry in agricul
ture and application to business have filled lhs
bursting graneries with food and provision tina
yainly seek a market at cost of production from
4ooo, 900 to 100000 of our people are trafnpinp
the highways of city and country begging fol
work and starving for bread. One-.llird Vi til
wealth bearing all the burdens of taxation
riculture owning less than one-ffth of the wealth
and paying So per cent of the taxes, struggle
unaided and alone, against great corporation.
aud powerful combinations of capital guardee
and protected by the strong arm of government
with farm values shrunken more than one-hai
in quarter of century; with more tenant farm
ers than any government on earth, and the mum
Der increasing with frightfll rapidly; with NOR,
evictions of pleading mothers and pale, starving
babies than in any monarch-cursed nation undel
the sun; with crowded penitentiaries and over
: flowing asyluins; with the mingled prayers anS
bitter walls of sorrow ascending to heaven from
every city and village the entire country over
Mr.. Willets seems to think that the
whole force of church and state, pull
pit, press and courts, are arrayeG
against the industrial classes, and ask:
if the picture is not enough to make
the goddess of justice abdicate bel
throne and the goddess of liberty vel
her face in very shame.
Gentlemen of the State Press o.
Florida: We should spur our latent
and languishing energies, nerve oul
arms and consecrate our minds and
hearts to the work of changing this
unnatural picture to more happy
and pleasing one.
Once to every man and nation comes the mo
ment to decide.
In the strife of truth with falsehood for the goot
and evil side.
Some great cause Gods new Messiah, offering
each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand, andthe sheer
upon the right.
And the choice goes by forever, 'twixt the dark
ness and the light.