The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-07-04
PRESENT-DAY THOUGHTS.
BY G. Grosvenor Dave.


copyrighted by Dave & Tabor.)
When last week the suggestion was
made that we this week touch upon the
question Of the union Of the English
speakers in favor of peace it had es-
capped my attention that this letter
would be issued rear to Independence
Day.
1t is peculiarly fortunate that it
should as it will give deeper meaning
TO the backward glance that we must
take. The Englishspeaking world has
moved in 122 years and in no particular
more than this-that there is an alb
solute, unreserved confidence in the in
tegrity of the common people. In 1116
we were wearied of taxation without
representation, we chafed under num-
berless restrictions placed upon our de-
velopment, we We're bewldered by the
varied and conflicting characters of the
thirteen original colonies, and we were
outraged in spirit at having our lives
and our liberties held as light matter
by obstinate and short-sighted George
III. But we We're not one particle
worse off than the English masses
themselves. The voice of the people
there was about as loud as the voice
of a bat, and their progress as little
needed. Yet since that time, so regu-
lar. so similar, SO coherent has been the
development of human rights under the
genius of the English-speakers, that
one needs hardly to say, True of Eng
land" or True of America" but rather
True of both"
Each decade has seen more and fuller
at 70, civ TO no Strot o of of
previously despised. The opportunities
of education have been opened almost
unreservedly. The voice of the plain
man has been given broader place in
the councils of the nation. A tremen-
strated by molding diverse people with
diverse tongues into one feeling of ma
tional life. Enterprise-commerci
inventive. moral, mental-has been and
is constant wonder to those nations
that have not moved so quickly. And
above all, as l have already limited,
trust in the people is the basis of it.
These previous sentences refer to both
nations with equal truth.
What we gained, however, by long
and exhausting war, England has
gained largely by peaceful revolution.
<iISO WIIlc Jul SIISiIC VI SoN
has remained practically unchanged,
England seems almost to have drifted
ahead of us in the ease with which the
pulse of the people is felt. My meaning
is this: that as the English Cabinet re-
signs whenever it loses its majority in
the House of Commons, and as a gen.
eral election Immediately follows, the
feeling Of the people molds government
mere quickly than where government
is elected for an unrebukable four or
six years.
Now, if we will recognize that begin
ming years before and eliminating with
1850, France had lodgings for liberty
which unfortunately vented itself at
| once in license-we shall be able to un-
derstand somewhat the difference be-
| tween the progress of the English
| speaker and the progress of others. The
| storm that swept away the weak Louis
XVI. and the depressing mobiles, has
! never ceased to rumble since. The
Reign of Reason, the cometic career OF
Napoleon, the third Empire, the Com
mIne, Boulangerism and what not
| have followed one another in bewilder-
| ing succession. and unwise would the
man be who attempted to foretell thu
form of government in France twenty