Arizona republican., 1902-10-20
THE PLACE WE OCCUPY.


 Before the on-sweep of the great re- public of the United States the world stands awed and apprehensive. Every where present is an energy, an aggres- siveness that brooks no restraint; the work accomplished year by year is something immeasurable, and slower nations unconsciously are saying to themselves, What is the continuation to be?" The grandfathers of this ir- resistible host fought under Washing ton when the forests of the new world came close down to the sea; now the continent has been swept over, sub- dued, transformed and, commanding both seas, this new race stands forth as if about to undertake the conquest of the world.
 That is all true and it has all come about through natural causes. At first | it was a fight for life. There was but stubborn, rocky soil out of which to obtain food. Then before that soil : could be titled the forest had to be felled. There was the savage in the path that had to be pushed back or annihilated. Then the lubricating fluid : of commerce. money, was so scarce I that all that could be done was to bar ter. There were no manufactures. few mines, only the stubborn soil was given them, the soil and the privilege of going out against the Atlantic gales to fish or to carry away the raw products of the soil to exchange for the goods of other lands. By land and sea it was but a fight for life. Who kept the rec ord of the brave lives that were thus worn out, of the overborne hearts that [ 1a,. 1,a ht,r hrn1xo m made no signs?
 But all that time a national charac- ter was forming, such a character as would naturally crystalline around the people that depended upon nothing except their own exertions, that feared nothing save God. Then men, north and south, began with a determina ton that their own home should be made sacred to liberty. They knew the his tory of Europe; they know that for rffteen hundred years it's soil had been soaked with blood; that it had been swept by a thousand wars, and that al- most every one had been instigated by either the merciless despotism of kings or priests and they determined from the first that there should be an abso $ lute and perpetual separation of church and state. When the time was ripe
 they vindicated their determination
 through the blood and suffering of an } eight years war against the mightiest power of the earth and were victori- ous. Then came the framing of a new government and the wisdom was given them to fashion it in a form to give eX-
 precision to the dream that had been . nursed by five generations of ancestors
 Then. with neither king nor priest to . interfere, with the friction of no op- 2 pressive law to restrain their perfect , freedom, the mighty work before them, the work of building up a great } nation was entered upon with an en- thusiasm that was conta gious. Then steam came to take from man his l heaviest burdens, steam and labor saw
 ing machines without limitation, and finally the magnetic telegraph began , its work of gathering daily the worlds history of the previous day, while the perfecting press picked up the rude : sheets, transformed them and laid them clear and beautiful before the people
 every morning. Then when the con-
 tinent beyond the great western river
 was subdued and the people were dis
 ciplined and matured, precious metal
 mines were given them to reinforce
 
 wings for their commerce and material
 for their factories, and that flow Of
 gold has been a stream of steadily-in-
 creasing volume for now more than
 fifty years, with the result that no
 other such progress was ever seen, no
 other such industrial miracles were
 ever before performed.
 It has all been natural. too, for two
 reasons. First, when men undertake
 and carry through great enterprises
 they grow mentally with the work.
 When all the millions of a people are
 thus engaged the result can but be a
 superior people. Second, when men
 are unhampered by useless or oppres-
 sive laws, when in their souls they
 know that they may do any legitimate
 thing without restraint or question,
 with love of such a country comes the
 ambition to excel it. Then as the pos abilities of the land opened more and
 more it finally became apparent that l there was no limit upon an American : boys achievements except in the meas
 ure of his own courage to dare to grasp 3 the triumps within his reach. 1 Is it any wonder that ours are a I great people? Is it any wonder that y the cramped and tagging nations of the S old world look on dazed at the progress they behold on our side of the Atlantic l But looking back we discover that I all that has been accomplished has
 been due first to the form of govern n ment which the fathers framed and the y spirit which they breathed into it, and e second, to the honest work of our peo- s Iple. These truths should make us = humble and still vigilant We never e for moment should forget that as the V progress was brought by labor. labor f in all the industrial and intellectua e fields, so it can only be maintained . through continuous labor.-Goodwin's | Weekly.
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