The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1902-09-26
AMERICAS GREATNESS
And the Resulting Cause and Effect
of the Western Giant.

Everywhere present is an energy, an
aggressiveness that brooks no re
straint; the work accomplished year
by year is something Unreasonable,
and slower nations unconsciously are
saying to themselves, What is the
elimination to be?" The grand
fathers of this irresistible host fought
under Washington when the forests
of the New World came close down
to the sea- now the continent has
been swept over, subdued. trans
formed and commanding both
oceans, this new race stands forth as
if about to undertake the conquest of
the world.
That is all true and it has come
about through natural causes. At
first it was a fight for life There
was but a stubborn, rocky soil out
of which to obtain food Then before
that soil could be titled the forest
had to be felled. Then 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 that all that
could be done was to barter There
were no manufactures, few mines
only the stubborn soil was given
them, the soil and the privilege of go
ing out against the Atlantic gales to
fish or to carry away the raw pro-
ducts of the soil to exchange for the
goods of other lands. By land and
sea it was but fight for life. Who
kept the record of the brave lives
that were thus worn out, of the over
borne hearts that under the mighty
burdens broke and made no sign?
But all that time national char
acter was forming, such character
as would naturally crystalize around
people that depended upon moth
ing except their own exertions, that
feared nothing save Cod Then men,
North and South, began with a deter
mination that their new home should
be made sacred to liberty. They
knew the history of Europe; they
knew that for fifteen hundred years
it's soil had been soaked with blood;
that it had been swept by a thousand
wars and that almost every one had
been instigated by either the merci
less despotism of kings or priests
and they determined from the first
that the people should rule and that
there should be an absolute and per-
petual separation of church and state.
When the time was ripe they vindi-
Gated their determination through
the blood and suffering of an eight
years war against the mightiest
power of the earth and were victo-
rious. Then came the framing of a
new government and the wisdom was
given them to fashion it in a form TO
give expression 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 oppressive law to re
strain their perfect freedom, the
mighty work before them, the work
of building up great nation was en-
tered upon with an enthusiasm that
was contagious. Then steam came
to take from man his heaviest bur
dens, steam and labor-saving ma
chimes without limitation, and final
ly the magnetic telegraph began it's
work of gathering daily the worlds
history of the previous day, while the
perfecting press picked up the rude
cbaotc +ropcforr,ad tbon, opd 1oid
them clear and beautiful before the
people every morning. Then when
the continent beyond the great west
ern river was subdued and the people
were disciplined and matured, pre-
cious metal mines were given them
to reinforce their treasury and credit
and to supply wings for their COM
merce and material for their facto-
ries, and that flow of gold has been
a stream of steadily increasing vol
ume 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.
1t has been natural, too, for two
reasons. First, when men under
take and carry through great en-
terprises they grow mentally with the
work. When all the millions of a
people are thus engaged, the result
can but be a superior people. Sec
ond, when men are unhampered by
useless or oppressive laws, when in
their souls they know that they may
do any legitimate thing without re-
straint or question, with love of such
a country comes the ambition to ex-
eel in it. Then as the possibilities
of the land opened more and more it
finally became apparent that there
was no limit upon an American boys
achievements except in the measure
of his own courage to dare to grasp
the triumphs within his reach.
II