The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1903-05-01

pie have from the beginning been pick
ed out by process of natural selection
from among the most enterprising in
dividuals of the nations of western
Europe. The acquisition of the terri
tory is a credit to the broad and far
sighted statesmanship of the great
statesmen to whom 1t was Immediately
due, and above all to the aggressive
and masterful character OF the hardy
pioneer folk to whose restless energy
these statesmen gave expression and di-
rection, whom they followed rather
than led. The history of the land COM
prised within the limits of the Purchase
is an epitome of the entire history of
our people. Within these limits we
have gradually built up state after
state until now they many times sur
pass in wealth, in population, and in
many-sided development, the original
thirteen states as they were when their
delegates met in the continental con-
gress. The people of these states have
shown themselves mighty in war with
their fellow man, and mighty in
strength to tame the rugged wilderness.
They could not thus have conquered
the forest and the prairie, the noun
tain and the desert, had they not pos
sessed the great fighting virtues, the
qualities which enable a people to
overcome the forces of hostile men and
hostile nature. On the other hand, they
could not have used Alright their con-
ha1 tha1, ot IN, oAd
ed the qualities of self-mastery and
lself-restraint, the power of acting in
combination with their fellows, the
power Of yielding obedience to the law
and of building up an orderly civiliza-
ton. Courage and hardihood are in
dispensible virtues in a people; but the
people which possesses no others can
never rise high in the scale either Of
power or of culture. Great peoples
must have in addition the government
al capacity which comes only when in
diyiduals fully recognize their duties
to one another and to the whole body
polite, and are able to join together
in feats or constructive craftsmanship
and of honest and effective administra-
ton.
The old pioneer days are gone, with
their roughness and their hardship,
their incredible toll and their wild half
savage romance But the need for the
ever. The peculiar frontier conditions
have vanished; but the manliness and
stalwart hardihood of the frontiers
men can be given even freer scope un-
der the conditions surrounding the COM
plex industrialism of the present day.
In this great region acquired for our
people under the presidency of Jeffer-
son, this region stretching from the
Gulf to the Canadian border, from the
Mississippi to the Rockies, the material
and social progress has been 80 vast
that alike for veal and for woe its
people now share the opportunities and
bear the burdens common to the entire
civilized world. The problems before
US are fundamentally the same east and
west Of the Mississippi, in the new
states and in the old, and exactly the
same qualities are required for their
successful solution.
We meet here today to commemo-
rate a great event, an event which
marks an era in craftsmanship no less
than in pioneering. 1t is fitting that
We should pay our homage in words;
but we must In honor make our words
good by deeds. We have every right
to take just pride in the great deeds
Of our forefathers; but we show our
selves unworthy to be their descend
ants II we make what they did an cx-
cuse for lying supine instead of an
incentive to the effort to show our
selves by our acts wortbyOf them.
In the administration of city, state and
nation, in the management of our
home life and the conduct of our bus
mess and social relations. we are
hound to show certain high and fine
qualities of character under penalty II
seeing the whole heart of our civiliza-
tion eaten out while the body still
lives.
We justly pride ourselves on our
marvellous material prosperity, and
such prosperity must exist in order 70
establish foundation upon which a
higher life can be built; but unless we
do In very fact build this higher life
thereon, the material prosperity itself
will go for but very little. Now, in
| 1908, in the altered conditions, we
must meet the changed and changing
problems with the spirit shown by the
men who in 1908 and in the subsequent
years gained, explored, conquered, and
settled this vast territory, then a
desert, now filled with thriving and
populous states.
| The old days were great because the
men who lived in them had mighty
qualities; and we must make the new
days great by showing these same
qualities We must insist upon. cour-
age and resolution, upon hardihood,
! tenacity, and the fertility in resource;
/ we must insist upon the strong virile
virtues; and we must insist no less
upon the virtues of self-restraint, self
m astorV regard for the TyvhtS Of 9TH