The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1899-06-21

PRoF PATTERsoN's SPEECH.
Gentlemen OF the Commonwealth of
Kentucky:-I am glad to welcome you
within the walls of this chapel today,
there is no more appropriate place for
your meeting; on these grounds your
sons are taught engi neering in all its
bra ches. and engineering is indispensa-
BILE in road making. Here are taught
the sciences which are r. lative to agri-
culture and which make intelligent pro-
ducers, here are performed those expert.
ments which enable the farmer to utilize
what nature has given him in the heri-
tage of the soil, to economic his means,
to replenish the waste, to operate intelli-
gently the natural RESOURCES which en-
able him TO adjust means to ends; here
is this college, owing its existence to
National aid and State generosity, your
own college, unpolitical and undenomi-
national, welcome you today.
The roads Of people are an index OF
its civilization. They measure both its
natural and its intellectual advance.
The greatest road builders whom the old
world knew, were the Romans. The
Appian wav, the Flamian way and others
radiating from the Eternal city, meas
ured the conQuests OF Rome, and made
her mistress of the italian Peninsula,
aud when the Roman troops passed the
Adriatic and the Mediterranean Roman
Roads followed the march of Roman
armies and held for, centuries Greece,
Persia, Asia Minor, Egypt, Carthage,
Gaul, Spain and South Germany In allie
glance to the city on the Tiber. After
the lapse OF 20 centuries, the highways
built by Rome are still used and attest
her greatness and her power.
On the other side Of the Atlantic, our
kinsmen ON the British Isles, have been
great road builders. More than a CEN
fury ago, Tilford and Macadam laid the
foundations OF the road system which
has brought every village, town and city
in Great Britain, into close relationship
with the heart of the nation. But in
this hemisphere, we bid tair TO BurpasH
the Mother country. The mightieI
daughter will eclipse all that the Mother
OF constitutionalism and of nations has
accomplished. AS in production, 80 in
the arteries and veins which distribute
production and bring back equivalent
returns. The United States OF America,
are destined at no distant date to surpass
all other nations. Already she is pres
sing close on the heels OF Great Britain,
ere long she will be neck to neck with
her, soon she will be first with all COM
petitors distant second. The products
OF the loom, the forge and the mines, the
harvests OF the soil and the harvests OF
the seas must find exit and entrance
through the channels which we make or
the thoroughfare which we subdue to
our uses. Ocean liners on the deep and
roads and railways on the land, convey
the surplus OF our industries to other
shores and bring back their richly laden
Cargoes in return.
In all this the farmer is more than all
others interested while the population OF
cities is comparatively transient the pop
ulation OF the country is permanent, the
former constitute the explosive element,
the latter the conservative element, the
stead wing power in the life of the nation,
and on their intelligence depend the lie
OF the Republic. They are the conserv-
ators of the traditions aud the principles
on which civil aud religious liberty are
grounded On the facilities which they
create for commerce, for the exchange OF
the surplus OF which they may dispose,
for other forms OF wealth, depend their
relative influence in the body polite and
their material comfort and prosperity.
You must build your good roads to &C
complish this, but warn you that this
means large expenditure Of money, II
means large outlay Of capital, and capt.
tai means the result OF labor, the self.de-
NAL and economy OF the consumers.
But this is in conformity with the geneI-
al law. All that is worth anything in
character, in morals, in religion, in learn.
ing, in science, in art and in arms costs
us sell.denial and abstinence, and ii
volume and degree are the measures
thereof, but the results when achieved
make a richer, a fuller and a nobler life
II l may without irreverence borrow
an illustration from Holy Writ, would
remind you that when Isaiah saw In
in prophetic vision, and foretold the adj
vent of the Savior Of men, he described
the preparation for the advent by me
laphOr based on the subject OF your con
sideration today, Prepare 70 the way o.
the Lord, make his paths straight, every
valley shall be exalted, and every noun
tain and hill shall DO made low. The
crooked shall hs made straight, and the
rough places plain" What does this dc
but borrowing the material Imagery
which the triumph Of the engineer &c.
complishes, and making use thereof, tC
enforce spiritual truth and illustrats
spiritual conditions. Gentlemen OF the
commonwealth. welcome you here 10
day.
Mr. HARRIsoE's ADDRRss.
The road question 10 nota new one In
this STATE. Kentucky was one Of thu
/ a,ef skafaa IN taxa a candid akand In favol