The record-union., 1898-06-12
PRESENT-DAY THOUGHTS.
copyrighted by Dave & Tabor.)
BY Memo"

copyrighted by Dave & Tabor)
Away from that which is known, on
ward to that which is unknown; away
from the thing that has been and is.
onward to the thing that is not but
will be; this is life? 1t is stagnation.
it is death to try to live any other way.
The necessity is on us to be ever NOV
ing forward out of the. bright light Of
that which is understood, into the par
tial darkness of the next open door
that conceals undreamed of happiness
or disaster Very naturally, there is a
feeling of apprehension and shuddering
and protests as Time, like a train, hur-
ries US across plains decked with flow
ers and then rushes with terrifying roar
past jagged and dangerous rocks and
mayhap suddenly suspends US over
chasms whose depths mean destruction
to those who fall therein. Yet what
is this but life? Viewed Alright it is q
Joy never to stand still; viewed wrong
ly it is a thing to fear; and feared
most by those who have gained least of
that which is best from the hurrying
events of life as they have whirled by.
Once again let us turn these individ-
uaI analogies, whose truth everyone
sees into national teachings whose
truths some of US are slow to see. Nat
urally one needs must in these stirring
times take as a text for thought the
present conflict. For truths sake and
because of the sacred honor that Is the
underlying current of our national life.
no matter how contrariwise surface
storms may be, we have contended that
there is quality of mercy and OF great
dignity in what we are doing. Yet who
among us is wise enough to see fully
in advance the new vistas of progress
or temptation to which the rush of
events is leading us. 1t is easy for the
superficial ones to talk of a nation as
though it were in a fixed and unchange
able state. like an Egyptian mummy
Wrapped in the pitch and cerements
and preservatives of antiquity. But
the nation that lives and moves and
has a being instinct with progress. IS
least of all like a mummy and those
who would Swathe it with rigid bands
may indeed distort it. but they cannot
repress it, There Is tendency TO al
ways bark back to our own remotest
pasi. with the credulous feeling that the
men of those days had been prophets
who foresaw, as in vision, all that
would happen to us and made ample
constitutional provision to meet IT, Yet
without detracting particle from the
value of their work we know that the
articles of confederation of 1tSl, had
to give place to the Constitution of I'M
and that. in turn, has been amended
fifteen times.
This evidence of change is no sign OF
indecision, but simply an evidence of
growth. Our ancestors could not pos
sibly have foreknown the great surging
western wave of population nor could
they know that the climate of the South
and the development of the cotton gin
and the labor conditions that went
with it would serve almost to tear apart
every strand of union, nor could they
have realized that the State jealousies
of the early years would have SO van
ished by now that we scarcely have
remnant of State distrust left. These
things are here set forth merely to ac-
centuate the fact that vitality means
change. and that change is simply re-
adjustment to new conditions as they
have appeared.
We already see as we advance in our
charitable warfare that the one simple
aim. to aid the Cubans, will be compli-
Gated by a number of new relations and
responsibilities. We are going to be
much in the condition of the country
lad who is suddenly transported from
the isolation of the farm to the crowd
ed walks of the city. He has TO keep
on the right side of the way or upset
himself and his fellows; he has to hold
his elbows in and learn an entirely new