Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1900-07-04
TWELVE PAGES.
WEDNESDAY. JULY 4, 1900.
WHAT THE FOURTH SHOULD BE

The Fourth of July should not by any
means be merely n day of reminis-
cence. though II is surely meet that
once year Americans should recall
the heroism of the founders of the Re-
public and should give expression TO
the pride and qualification every true
American must feel In the stupendous
results that have followed so small II
beginning. But should the observance
of independence Day go no further
than, that, it would fall far short of
what, the signers of the Declaration
would have desired.
The Fourth should be a day when.
stiling the fury of faction and the
passion OF party in his bosom, each
citizen. remembering only that =, is
an American, possessed of glorious
heritage which he holds in trust for
others, should give himself to a calm
scrutiny of the course his country has
followed for the year past. and should
compare that course with the aims
and ideals Of the founders whose splen-
did vindication is apparent in an in
comparably virile nation of 5000. 900
freemen. And certainly not less i'm
portant is it that the citizen should
examine his own conduct as citizen.
squaring 1t with his obligations to his
country and his fellow citizens. Thus,
the Fourth would be. as it should be,
not merely an occasion of indulging n
pardonable pride In the achievements
of others, but an assurance that the
future shall be worthy of and in keep
ing with what is best in our past
Surely this year. more than ever be-
fore, there is need that every man who
owes allegiance to the flag. should in
dulge in little retrospection and in
tro-spection. All is not precisely so
we'll as 1t might be, either within the
nation or In matters without. in which
It's interests are engaged. There are
dangers abroad. and at home dangers
still more grave. 1t does not matter
as to how these things came to be-
The citizen may take them as they
are and study them only as an Ameri-
can. 1t will be better so.
1t does not seem that the most acute
menace to the country springs from
conditions abroad. On the contrary
the forces that threaten disruption
and destruction are plainly at work
before the face of the citizen as he
goes about his daily business. The
real danger lies in that divergence of
classes. first manifest in Il loss of sym
patty as between man and man, and
now gone TO the length of open CON
tempt on the one side and bitter ha-
tired on the other. The man in shop
and field and mine charges that the
man OF millions, or Of thousands. is
unwilling TO stand equal with him be-
fore the law. but strives to grind his
face and to rob him of his rights and
his opportunities. The man OF mil
lions in return calls his humber fell
low citizen an anarchist and seeks to
increase the soldiery against day OF
possible reckoning as between the two.
There are many to foment discord and
few to abate 1t.
To-day ii would be we'll for the man
whom fortune has favored TO look
calmly at few things that he per-
fcctly we'll understands. and ask him
self whether it is worth while to win
unfair advantage at the expense or the
hatred of his fellow citizens: whether
brutal clannishnr IS sprung from sup
posed community of interest is better
than the more democratic spirit that
comedies and conciliates. There is
folly, blind and furious. and 1t is not
on the part OF the man who has much
to gain and little to lose: In the main he
asks simple justice-and only too often
does not get It, 1t is indeed strange
: that they. who deny 1t to him. should