The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-09-10


power in him, you have to have that too
but he had in him the capacity for doing
well the plain every day work right along,
doing it whether there was any immediate
reward ahead or not Neither of these
two men would have said there would have
| been any war before the time of their re-
tirement came, and if they had not acted
upon the principle that it was well to take
pains with the little things of life, the time
| of their retirement would have come and
you would not have been aware they had
| been in the war
They had the little things, they made
| the preparations in advance. Here you
can draw the lesson for all of us on that
fact. Take the men on horses back
there, the regulars over there. Thank
heaven, think we are long past the stage
in this country when any of our citizens
feel any jealousy or anything but the
heartiest admiration for the regular army
and navy. loud applause). All honor to
the men who spend their lives in training
themselves, and die at need for the honor
and necessity of all of rs should that call
be made. In the army and navy ak
the way to make certain success it to train
in advance.
The President welcomed the young men
of the National Guard, giving them whole
some counsel and paying them honor FOL
their part in the Spanish war Further
on this subject, he said;
1t is to you of the National Guard, here
in front, that ! speak. want you to have
and hope the end to see that you have
the best high power smokeless pow err
weapons. don't like back powder
weapons at this stage of the game had
about as soon see our people armed with
crossbows. (Applause). want to see
this nation and the States join in giving
to the National Guard the best Weapons
of precision that can be obtained After
you have got that weapon what will talk is
the use you make of it. If you are put
against equally good men with better
weapons, the equally good men will beat
you; if you have got the best weapon in
world and are second rate men, the first
rate men will beat you for all he has only
a club Y have got to have-you of the
Civil War, you fought with widely differ
ent weapons and widely different tactics
from the men who were with Ethan Allen
when he struck the first great blow for
Jehovah and the Continental Congress, up
here, but the spirit that modelled him and
those like him was yours, and so now, the
men who at any time in the future find it
their duty to hand down the honor of the
flag that you have handed down to us
they must have, must be spurred on by
the feelings, the ideals that spurred you
on from 81 to 60 if they are to rise to the
1a,.a1 az I,a ,,ot;Ap'a laet
This country is full of opportunities.
Pardon me for making personal allusi n
but am so pleased as an American to
come here to this beautiful city, the capital
of the State, this State of which we are so
proud, and see in your mayor man who
by his life gives the lie to those who say
there is not chance for a man in Ameri
ca to rise. There is a chance, a first rate
chance for the man who takes advantage
of it, but not for the man who is continu-
ally grumbling because there is no chance.
Addressing the veterans, the President
said:
You left us reunited country and you
left us more for you left us the memory
of the deeds by which you kept us reuni-
ted, you left us the memory of what you
did in the war, and what you did in peace,
and one of the fundamental lessons we
learn from what you did was the lesson of
brotherhood, the lessons of comradeship,
and the lesson implied in that of treating
each man according to his worth as a man.
All of you, after you had been in the war
but short while you grew to value the
man on your right and the man on your
left not with reference to this mans past,
but to what they were in the present,
whether he came from the town or the
country, whether he was a banker or a
briCklayer, a farmer or a mechanic, it
made no difference to you if he had in
him the stuff that made him move forward
when the call was to move forward, that
was what you wanted to know. (Applau,e).
You wanted to know if he would stay put.
That was what interested you, and if he
was man whose metal rang true in bat
tie, if he was a man who was true and
trled loyal man on the march or in
camp, so you need not have any doubt
where he was, that was what you cared for.
And SO it must be with our citizenship
in civil life. We must test man by the
fundamental qualities of his manhood
have spoken of these qualities before to-
day but am going to speak of them
again now In the first place man must
be honest, must be decent. If he is not
honest, if he is not straight in his dealings
with his fellow man then the more popu-
lar he is the more danger he is to the
community as whole.
Benedict Arnold was as gallant soldier
as ever wore the American uniform and
that was what made him so dangerous
when he betrayed that unifo m. Benedict
Arnold left leg at Saratoga when he
fought at the forefront of the battle. Bene-
dict Arnold had he died then would have
left his name as heritage of honor for
all time to his children, but he did not
have the root of righteousness in him. SO
it was in war, so it is i'll peace. The pub
lie man who is brilliant, able, but who is
so absolutely selfish that he is willing to
mislead his countrymen to their destruc-
ton is rendered infinitely more dangerous
to them by the qualities that bring him
success.
The business man of great talent in af
fairs, the man who has the gift of making