Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-10-10

American name than during the past
two years. Are the genius of Ameri-
can progress and the fibre of Ameri-
can purpose unequal to the achieve
nents of its heroism, and can it be said
| that the people who have wrought
these masterful triumphs at home and
abroad are too blind to perceive that
| the waiting opportunity which has
come with the high discharge of ma
tional duty lies along the true pathway
| of our commercial expansion?
But we do not and cannot think
| alone chiefly of material development
| Splendid as it has been in its colossal
proportions, the higher glory OF the
| republic is its moral position and its
embodiment of the principles of llber-
| ty To that standard it can never be
recreant. The flag floats to-day over
domain ten times as great as that
upon which its shining stars irst shed
| their joyous beams. Its beneficial rule
! has been extended from time to time
over vast new acquisitions, but it has
never broadened its sway without car
rying freedom, progress and enlighten-
ment to the fortunate peoples who were
brought under its protecting folds. 1t
! is the same flag to-day that it has al
ways been, but with added luster and
higher renown and far deeper re-
spect throughout the world. 1t has the
same import and the same virtue. 1t
signifies everywhere right, law, justice
and government within the limits
of national sovereignty.
What citizens of the republic shall so
! impugn the honor Ct his country and the
integrity of her institutions as to pro-
| claim before the world that her scep-
! ter extended over rude and remote peo-
pies means wrong and oppression and
spoliation? What American shall so
discredit his own blood as to declare
| that the American people will either
falter in their duty or fail in the capac-
| ity of their task? Our inspiring past
is the prophesy of our glorious future. .
At the conclusion of Secretary Cages
brief address, Rev. Frank w. Gunsaulus
offered prayer, the President and all
the members of his party uncovering
as DR.. Gunsaulus asked a blessing on
the ceremony.
Secretary Gage then introduced Post
master General Smith, who was greet
ed with much applause. In the course
of his address the postmaster general
said:
These monuments, whether in form
or pyramid, record the stage of art AID
mechanical knowledge enjoyed by the
people by whom they were builded.
The temple may now be a ruin. The
tribe or people who worshipped there
in may have disappeared from written
history. But their works, still preserv-
ed, remain as silent, yet eloquent, VIII
nesses of their ideals and their aspira-
tons. From the Orient, vaguely out
lined in the remote past, to the Occi-
dent, palpitating with the activities of
a present civilization, the way is mark
ed with the evidences that man is a
monument builder; that society, by an
| instinct always existing, seeks to i'm
mortalize itself by embodying its best
thoughts in some enduring form Each
age. each social organism has acted af-
ter its own ideals and in conformity to
| its own stage of advancement
1T is in accord with this inner law
written by the creator in the heart of
man that We are here to-day-to lay
the cornerstone of the temple builded
by the nation. Designed to serve the
present needs of civic State, it will
nevertheless witness TO the future the
best conceptions of a principle living
in this western land in the closing
years of the nineteenth century
The actual ceremonies of the laying
of the cornerstone then began. C. E.
Kremer, Secretary of the Federal Com
mittee, formally announced that the
stone was ready. and read the list of
articles placed within 1t. President
Mckinley was introduced by Secretary
Gage, and as the President stepped for
ward 10 receive the trowel from the
hands of Architect Henry Ives Cobb,
the crowds again burst forth into cheer
after cheer, the applause not ceasing
until after the President raised his
hand The President then stepped to
the side of the uplifted mass of Illinois
| limestone, and taking a trowel flal of
mortar from the board, he threw it on
| the base of the stone AS he did so
band stationed in the reviewing stand
played THE Star Spangled Banner, -
and, as the notes of the national an
them were heard, the crowd again
broke into cheers. The noise almost
drowned the music. President Nc
Kinley then pronounced the stone set,
and resumed his seat as the workmen
settled the stone in its place.
Senator William E. Mason was next
introduced. and made a brief address
on behalf of the city OF Chicago. The