The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1898-12-01
TASKS FOR AMERICANS,
HOW SHALL THEY BE PER-
FORMED?
!. Present Day Thoughts.
BY q. GrosSen6r Dave:
Present Day Thoughts.
Written for The Commonwealth,
BY q. Gros3en6r Dave:

Written for The Commonwealth
Our New Sway.-Have you ever me
youth who was able to thorough
} round out his whole course of prepar
. tion before being thrust into duty
He is a rare creature. There comes I
p1ost of us forcing out into wider wor
while some loose ends hang aroun
what we are still doing. Nature seem
to have little patience with those VIII
are destined to do something more thai
the present task, and she often brushe
aside the preparation and announce
that the new duty will be It's own teach
or, and a more practical teacher thai
endless preliminary work would be
1t is somewhat like learning to swim
five minutes in actual water Is NOR
than five hours of swinging the hand
and of frog-legging theoretically.
| ~
None can dare say that our hundred
and twenty-five years Of life as nation
haye enabled us to meet all our prob
lens aud get our work-table cleared anc
clean for the reception of a wider task
We haye not yet SO much as settled In
equity our duty to the red man; we
have nowhere learned What we meant
by claiming for-llfe, liberty and the
pursuit OF happiness-we grant still lib
erty tor hands to remain idle that would
like to work, liberty for life to be llv-
Ing death of gradual starvation, liberty
for vice to flourish while virtue goes
empty away we haye:: not yet assimi1at-
ed the diverse elements that have fed
our national life, and we have here,
there and yonder tester spots of oppo-
sition to our government and its ideals !;
we have not yet taught the men that
we freed to be worthy of all that their
freedom meant nor have we yet come
to understand how the two races-both
equally entitled to residence here-can
dwell sioe by side in accord we have
not yet risen in our might to rebuke
selfish legislation or still more selfish
and unpatriotlc bosses.
A moments review shows us there
fore much of preparation and cleansing
that ought to have been done before
we went forth into the outer world to
impress upon it some of Our ideals and
methods. It is pardonable regret when
we look back upon the things undone
it is likewise no weakness for us to take
a very serious view of the responsible
ties that the sudden acquisition of col
onial possessions will involve.
-.
It will rest upon us to maintain in
sight of the world order among those
who have hitherto been strangers to
US. No favoring eyes; saye of those
who speak our tongue, will rest upon
us. No condoning difficulties will be
taken as an excuse for mlsmanagement.
The success or failure of American CIV
ilization and the ideals it stands for,
will be estimated by success or failure
in impresslng that civilization and
those ideals upon millions that have
lived in the utter blackness of darkness,
where no liberty was. At the very out
set we shall govern the ballot that has
hitherto been the palladium Of our lib
critics and the medium for voicing our
will. We shall have under our pro-
lection as weak but actual portion OF
ourselves millions of sayages and senll-
savages who are absolutely ignorant OF
what human aspiration and human
mean. Within the limits OF
our domain will swarm by myrlads
those who can scarcely tell their right
hands from their left and whose minds
are sunk in the lethargy of idolatry Or
tIs confusion of superstition.
They will be helpless to compete with
our nineteenth century intelligence
and vet the weakest among them will
be entitled to safe guard from oppression
and wrong injustice social, commerce
al aud political.
Further than all this-as though it
were not enough to make us shrink In
to hu1nillty-our relations with all the
of the world will become
sensitive. We are no long
er to be regarded as an American pow
er but world power; and that will
cause international jealousies and sus-
plcions over our every act; for fear that
we disturb the adjustments OF the in
ternal balances.
~.
Over against all the fearful and ex-
acting task that lies before us, what