Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1899-06-30


greatest u m 7,
making government the eng inc rather than
the lash and terror of the people, was
nourished in those dim Teutonic forests
where our ancestors hurled defiance at the
Roman legions, and died for the preserva-
'tion Of their ancient privileges. In its fee.
BILE childhood it needed isolation for its de-
velopment, and was transplanted by the
hand thai guides history to that mist-girdfed
island, where institutional government had
an unbroken growth until the rights of the
people at last came into conflict with an
. alien bngly authority, and upon the field of
Runnymede the vindication of the claim of
the common man to life, liberty and the pur
suit of happiness was maintained by sturdy
blows and doughty deeds.
In this crucial year of our nations his
tory, year that marks the departure from
the policy that for a century has guided our
Lawmakers and statesmen, our thoughts re-
cur more and more to the history of liberty,
and we draw lessons from the progress of
. free government in the civilization of the
world. Our banner has been planted upon
the PARKWAY islands of the Pacific and upon
the beautiful tropic lands of the southern
seas, as a message to the world that the
rights of man shall triumph over the wrongs
of tyranny, and that Gberty's circle is not
complete until the world is girdled
Those who stand in the way of civilization
must go down before the forces of progress
This is the dictum Of the ages, and cruel
though IL may sound to those whose view of
history is blinded by the white light of our
own day. the survival of the fttest is ma
lures law.
In reviewing Americas share in the
worlds civilization, the coolest heart must
be thrilled with the glory of her deeds and
the grandeur of the position achieved by
adherence to exalted ideals. While carving
L Il L H..
the American coIonists laid deep and broad
the foundations Of nation whose princi-
pies of individual right are almost identical
with those of our Teutonic ancestors, and
may thus justly claim to be the fruit Of
Anglo Saxon ideas.
It was this spirit of individualism that
brought forth the soldiers and Statesmen of
the war of independence. The democracy
that srrove for the recognition Of the riga.
of the common man at Runny1nede found
worthy successors 10 men who fought at
Bunker Hill to preserve liberty. Transplant
ed to American soil, the seed of freedom
ssent out hopes that took root in the world 8
consciousness, and European constitution
alism. as we'll as American liberty, was the
kuition.
In its infancy, democracy was content to
maintain the integrity of the territory of the
western continent, and to assert that Eu-
ropean monarchy should be denied the
privilege of aggression thereon. In its
mannood this same democracy recognizes lts
duty and responsibility in the moral upGft
OF manksnd and the dissemination of that
Christian civilization. in which its own
strength rests.
The brain of democracy evolved the
myriad devices that have enfranchised labor
by procuring for it leisure for self-cultiva-
ton. 1t brought forth the telegraph and
the applications of steam, and has made all
men brothers by thus bringing them into
close communion. 1t has swept the cob
webs of tradition from church and state, and
has made itself the recognized power in
commerce and science. Ia little more than
hundred years it has become the leader Of