The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-04-23

| The stars in all their course, in all
| their ceaseIess rounds. shines upon no
greater people than those who live in
this great valley of the Mississippi River.
| Greater than the Tgris or Euphrates.
greater than the nile that flowed by the
| homes of the Ptolemis and Pharos. and
| upon whose banks set. grand, gloomy and
peculiar the everlasting pyramids. Great
er than the Tiber of ancient Rome from
| whose banks the imperial Caesars ruled
the world. greater than the majestic
Rhine in whose valley contested the Teu-
ton and Gaul, for the supremacy of Eu-
rope and the world, greater than all these
because it flows by the home of freedom
Nations are not made, they grow. We. see
our Republic entering upon a career of
progress unequalled in the history of Ma
tions and yet in the forenoon OF its great
| ness On that may morning when Dewey
sailed his fleet across the mines of Manil-
/ la Harbor and sank the Spanish ships
we set the lines of liberty further out in
to the dark confines of the earth. even
unto the gateway of the world God never
| gave us this heritage of liberty and en-
| lightenment that We might sit at home in
I
| the American people, onward and for
| ward, and you and cannot measure the
length and breadth and depth Of that
great destiny; and this brings to our
minds the thought that as citizens of
this great and glorious Republic we are
not only the recipients of great blessings.
and benefits but we have upon us grave
] and important responsibilities. 1t reminds
us that citizens of a monarchy may be
| careless if they will. but citizens of
Republic must be thoughtful and vigi-
LIANT We know that the price of liberty
| is eternal vigilance. We never should
| forget or shirl6 our responsibility as
American Citizens, the obligations we
owe to the past, the present and the fu-
ture. We are all equally interested in
this. no matter what our stations in life
may be no matter what our political
convictions are, we all love this cid Re-
| public bounded by the vast ocean, walled
| by the wide air, eomed by heavens blue,
| and lit by the eternal stars. We are
| standing at a period in the worlds his
| tory when it would be INSANE to say
| that anything is impossible. We are just
| at the commencement of the development
| of science and inventions. electricity, the
| telegraph, the steam engine, the electric
motor, the telephone and the phonograph.
are but the toys with which scientists
| have amused themselves. The century
| Just drawn to a close is one marked by
material prosperity, and marvellous pro-
| gress. We have captured the tightening
of heaven. harnessed it to the carriage.
;oy -0rI- 1f . T,o
beasts of the field. We have crossed the
trackless ocean annihlated distance, and
space, and brought the extreme ends of
the earth into close contact and commun-
| ion. We have penetrated the starry
heavens solved the mysteries of astrono-
my, and made natures secrets an open
book, but we firmly believe that in the
| next century there will be greater things,
that the future holds grander possibili-
ties There will be higher degree of
science, higher standard of character of
literature and art. the possibilities of the
future are unlimited and as the careful
mariner scans the horizon for signs of
danger, so the thoughtful and careful
citizen should carefully scan the political
horizon to detect the approach of any
cloud, TO arrest the career of any wind
that may forbode evil. or threaten danger
to our gallant old ship of state. We
should reIigiously guard and zealously
protect the welfare and safety of our
American Institutions, but we should re-
member that political zezal is not always
patriotism; that the man who may talk
politics the loudest, may not be the best
citizen or the safest counselor and ad
visor While we should be tenacious Of
our own honest political ideas, we should
at the same time have a due regard AMI
liberation for the honest opinion of others
The man who will not do this is not Nv
ing up to the true principles of Ameri-
can Citizenship We should always re-
member that We are all citizens Of one
common republic. and are all equally in
terested in its welfare.
The chief bulwark of American safety
is the brains and general intelligence Of
our common people, or what is known
as our laboring classes. III fares that
land 10 Fastening i'll prey, where wealth
accumulates and men decay While
every district has the school house. and
every school house contains its school,
we need have no fears for the stability
or permanency of American Institutions
There never was a time in the history
of our race when an education was as
imperatively necessary as now; or
fathers needed an education more than
our grand fathers, we need it more than
our fathers. and our children win need il
vastly more than We for the intellectual
world viii never stand still. in the econo-
ny of time there is no such place as now.
The ages are constantly progressing. Our
children Will be brought into contact with
a more advanced condition of society,
Will move on a higher moral and intel!ec-
tual plane. and they must be fitted by
education to Keep pace with the march OF
progress by which they win be surround
ed AS far advanced of we of the pres
ent generation believe ourselves II be.
as highly cultured as grandly educated
as We claim to be however much we may
arrogate TO ourselves wisdom and educa-
ton culture and refinement, a few more
decades Of invention. few more years
OF development. and discovery. q few
more steps of advancement. and the peo-
pie Of those days will look back 10 u as
to the dark and barbarous ages We can
not at all agree with the great ard dis
tinguished orator when he says:
Colleges in the main are places where
pebbles are polished and diamonds a-e
dimrued
1t is true that the pebbles are polished.
but the diamonds Of getiius were never
diu1med or their Iusire made less bright
by the fostering and directing hand of