The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1901-06-01

human existence was the rural home;
DOW, it is the city mart of commerce.
In the city center all the institutions
and interests with which humanity is
vitality concerned, and all the agencies
of production and distribution have
their dwelling there. From the cities
are controlled all the great lines of
communication, and all the great high
ways oil travel and transportation There
the temples of the worlds money
changers are built, and there the
worlds ~reasures are locked up and
let out. There policies of state have
their birth; the plans of statecraft are
laid, and the iniunces of political
action are set in motion. There is no
longer, as there once was, dominating
force and moulding influence in the
country home. Every directing con
trolling agency of modern civilization
springs out of urban lite and subjects
every creature of civilized kind to the
potency of its will.
However, commercial and material
istic as is the spirit Of the present o
tt is a nobler spirit than that of any of
the ages past. There is in the world
today more that ministers to the
rational desires and elevates and en-
larges the soul of man that there ever
was before. Education today is more
widely dlffused, morals purer, religion
more rational, sentiment on all sub
Jects more tolerant, houses warmer,
clothing better, labor lighter and more
effective, government freer, art more
beautiful. social intercourse more COZ.
constant and congenial, and withal q
wider philanthropy and a more abun-
danl charity. We live today a larger
life than ever before because the soul
: has grown big upon the food of those
Igreat events which have taken the
form of vast commercial enterprise
and sociallzed industrial efforts. True
the animating spirit of many of the
promoters of these enterprises is sell
Fish, brutal, %tyranical, and, unchecked
it would speedily involve us in indus
trial serfdom; but the methods Of
combination, organization and system
winch it must adopt are the methods of
social Indignation which will widen
and strengthen ieto the legalized state
called collectiVism. Trusts and COM
oinatlons are but the heterogeneous
elements which will presently coalesee
into the perfect social state.
Young men of the graduating class,
let me say that the spirit of this age is
commercial enterprise and achieve
ment; the spirit of this age is breadth
OF view, vastness OF plan, strength and
power of action; the spirit of this age
Is combination, cooperation, and So
cializatiou of all the heterogeneous,
waring, and discordant interests and
institutions of mankind; the spirit of
this age is that masterful, imperial
spirit which is generated out of the
worlds great centers of population aud
commercial activity.
In conclusion, let me say that the
person who sets himself in harmony
with the general spirit of the age, who
catches its enthusiasm, and puts him
self under its vitalizing, energizing in-
~fluence is the one who with others of
like temper will mould the policy and
shape the destiny of the American
people and the world. So | welcome
the new invention, the new discovery,
the new labor saving device, the new
combination, the new great enterprise.
| know they cannot make the world
worse. | believe they can and do
make the world better.