The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-10-05

Petersburg and Moscow in solemn re-
QUEEN for the dead The Hohenzollern
knelt at his altar in Berlin, and the
House of Hapsburg paid it's solemn
tribute. The flags of Belgium and of
Holland and France were lowered and
messages of grief came from their
princes and ministers. In Westminster
and st. Paul our kinsmen across~the
eastern sea did honor to our illustrious
dead as to their own. The streets of
London and of England were draped
with ours. The republics of South
America, at whose exposition he had
been stricken down, mourned with us.
In the history of the world there has
been no more universal and far reach
ing expression of public grief and pro-
found respect. And for whom? Not
for king or emperor or czar. Not for
the scion of a long line of hereditary
princes and wearers of ancient titles,
but for an American citizen, born of
our race, reared in our schools, common
| soldier and subaltern under the flag,
practitioner in our courts, representa-
! tive of our people.
But no prince of royal blood in the
| long corridors of history could point to
greater events than he in his brief ad-
ministration saw. Coming to his office
after several years of business unrest
uncertainty and depression, he saw the
country enter upon a course of uneX-
ampled prosperity The national treas
ury ceased to be a borrower and source
of financial anxiety, the cry of the I'M
employed died out in the land, and the
ring of industry was heard on every
hand. The balance of trade was in for
| eign markets swung in our favor. We
became lenders to foreign powers.
In war, too as well as peace, his adj
ministration was successful. At our
doors a starving people cried out to us,
and outrage upon our flag and murder
of our men drove US into war. Swiftly
as it came, it was ended still more
swiftly. Spanish fleets sank before our
guns, and Spanish forts and cities
hauled down their flags New and ire
mendous responsibilities were forced
upon u.s. How well these responsible
tiles have been met let reorganized and
prosperous Porto Rico say; let Cuba,
framing her constitution ind taking her
place among self-governing republics,
say; let the misguided, jealous, suspi-
cious islands across the Pacific say; let
their chieftain, captured but treated
with the honors of war, say; let their
towns, captured, but protected, say.
During all this momentous period, the
country as a whole, has rested implic-
lilly on the honestly and sincerity of
William Mckinley and his advisers.
Nothing was being done for glory
Nothing for the greed of gain or lust
of foreign conquest. Nothing to ape
the colonization schemes of despotic
powers. And on the other hand, no re-
sponibility the war placed upon us was
being shirked. All was done in the per-
Torrance of solemn duty. And if we
are taking our place among world pow
= ie-
est and most powerful commercial ma
tons, we cannot fail to do so.
Mark our course in China. As prompt
as any to meet the responsibility of
the hour, or land our troops in that
seething land and march to the relief +,
of our embassy, we were the first to
withdraw our troops and yet made eff
fectual protest against the dismember-
ment of the empire.
This is not the time nor place to
frame the eulogy of William Mckinley.
The voice of the entire country has
done that. 1t will be again spoken in
civic and national tribute. The history
of the brief years of his administration
is his best monument. But we cannot
fall from this worldwide homage and
this record of events to see the princely
dignity of American citizenship and the
eminence to which the republic has
come That eminence among the ma
tions of the world has been reached
with Titan's strides in the past 40 years.
During those four decades, the repub-
lie has asserted, and with its blood de-
Tended, its unity and its perpetual ex
istence as a nation.f In this struggle
it wiped the stigma of slavery from
its Constitution and from its flag. Ris-
ing from the commissions of conflict
and facing enormous obligations, it
refused the easy sophistry of fiat mon |
ey and paid its debts in gold. Through |
out the years it fostered its manufac- !
lures and protected its farms. 1t re-
fused TO make the advantageous pur-
chase of the moment at the expense !
of the future of its Industries. 1t de- /
veloped its mines and fields and shops !
till it is a world within itself and feels l
dependence nowhere. Firmly intrenched |
it becomes a strong and vigilant COM
petitor for markets beyond the seas. |
Worshipping no fetch, its great Pres