The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1898-06-02
Baltimore Manufacturers Record

Baltimore Manufacturers Record.
The Manufacturers Record dep
recated war. Too deeply do we
realize its miseries, the trail of
blasted homes, of death and sickness
and broken hearts that follow its
course than to have regarded with
other than horror the efforts of dem
agogues and sensational journals to
make honorable peace impossible;
but, now that war is upon us we must
accept it, press it vigorously and
with all power of the whole nation,
and, though individuals must suffer
its sorrows, these will be overruled
to the good of the country as
whole. 1t is a strange mystery of
life and death, of existence of an
individual or of a nation, that these
things should be so, and yet we
know that they are.
Willingly or unwillingly, for good
or for evil, but we hope for good
our own and the worlds cOun-
try has entered new period in it's
history. We have laid aside old
things and suddenly stepped into the
worlds arena, no longer country
unto itself, but country of infinite
wealth, infinite possibilities. hesitat-
ing for a moment in accepting the
new responsibilities placed upon us
by Divine Providence, and yet ready
to meet the emergency. AS in the
life of an individual there sometimes
comes great crisis, when he would
fain shirk new responsibilities and
new duties, but which destiny forces
upon him, and which, il he has true
manhood in him, develop and
strengthen his character and fix his
future, so our country faces new
duties and new responsibilities from
which it would gladly be relieved, if
it could be done with honor. But
the Providence that has led us
through the past, that has saved us
from internal destruction and for
many years from external troubles
until we have attained our present
commanning position, has, we be-
lieve, destined the United States to
be the dominating power in the
world, and this war is but the means
| to the end.
Civilization advances on the wreck
and ruin of the past; life develops
| through death itself, and the history
of the world, secular and religious,
teaches that ofttimes war, with all
its horrors. all it's destruction of
vancement. From the Revolutionary
| War to 1865 our own history en-
phasizes this. This war means a
broader and deeper patriotism; it
means the death of the clamor of
masses against classes, the end of
sectional strife, vast expansion and
broadening of every phase of ma
tional life and the development of
higher individual character. As a
man broadens with new responsible
| ties, so does nation, if it has in
herent strength, and so our entry
into the worlds affairs widens our
| horizon, enables us to see that we
| have now new duties to perform and
| nerves us for the work of civilization
| that is before us.
| What this change means in trade
expansion at home and abroad can
scarcely be comprehended now.
First, it means a great navy and a
| great mercantile marine, taxing for
! years to come the utmost capacity of
every shipyard-two things alone
which are of incalculable value to our
business interests; the construction,
with the utmost speed, of the Mica
raguan canal under American con-
troll, and to the South this canal will
annually add greater wealth than its
entire cost; the development of Cuba.
and by good sanitary measures the
practical elimination of the danger
to the South from that country of
yellow fever: the establishment of
coaling stations in the Pacific and
the control of large part Of the
trade of the Eastern world.
Truly we are living in a wonderful
time, when it may almost be said
that Dewey fired a shot that made it
possible to see the fultillment of
Scripture in that "a nation be born
in day" This nation has had a
new birth. and it enters upon its
new life with a glorious future-a
future of great responsibility, OF
tremendous progress, OF peace and
prosperity among our own people,
an end of the cry that the rich have
no patriotism, a united people and s
united country, taking our place as
the foremost nation of the world il
the advancement of civilization ant
in the extension of trade.