The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-05-06

to their dependent fellows through the COLI
umns of their publications. We have no
right to assume that papers published in
foreign tongues stand for Old World an
archy; we should, the rather, heartily con-
cede the fact that these journals, printed
in Italian, German, Hebrew, Welsh and
other languages, constitute a great mis-
sionary agency for doing foundation work
in Amercanism and altruism. Indeed, the
very fact that our citizens in the making
eagerly grasp these informing agencies is a
prophecy of great things to come. We
have here no isolated, lethargc, self-satis-
fled aggregation of human beings, but we
have millions of men who are being in
spired by the air o. a free country and by
her institutions. The newspapers in the
bands of these men are as banners waving
encouragement to faraway nations lying in
darkness and distress.
When we come to speak Of the new
American politics we invite the ridicule of
those who see in American politics at its
best only crude "shirt-seeve diplomacy"
and at its worst a contemplate system of
loot and graft. And the self-satsied crit
les Of our political life ignore their own in
consistency in that they expect govern
ment which they take pains to tell us is
only an experiment" to run with the
smoothness of an old governmental ma
chine. The man who is content to live in
a primitive cabin, subject to the limitations
of a semi-barbaric life, may have tranquil
ity and peace of a certain kind, but he
should be the last person to seoff at the
man who is battling against heavy odds
for better and more adequate accommoda
tions. As nation we are building the
better house. We nave found that it costs
labor and blood to secure the site for our
ediice, that our material, cut from the
forests of the Old World, is rough and UNI
seasoned; that sometimes our workers fail
to enter unselfshly into the spirit of the
enterprise. We at times discover, too, that
we have not followed correctly the plan of
the great architect, and then it becomes
necessary for us to humble ourselves by
tearing down part of the structure. But,
after all, the building grows, and its pro-
portions already begin to challenge the adj
miration of the world. The critic, as he
sits at the cabin door of monarchy or aris-
tocracy, begins with vague alarm to con-
tast the cracked and crumbling walls and
the leaking thatch Of his abode with the
rising mansion in the distance. s.ov,..l{
The nations social ideal makes inexor-
able demands upon every citizen Of the re-
public. The world of to-day marvels at
the matchless benefactions Of our men of
wealth, and the nations are asking why it
is that this unprecedented philanthropy is
so peculiarly American. 1t is due to the
imperative claims of our social ideal. Pub
lie sentiment demands, and men of wealth
recognize the demand as just, that private
wealth should be spent for the good of the
nation and for the good of the race. The
educator feels the same pressure. He hears
the voice of the people summoning him to
a free search for truth. The true labor
leader recognizes the same stern call to SER
vice; so he becomes a mediator, an arbl-
traitor between two great forces. The old
c+oV ~ +l,o hot
Babel a mighty calamity befell the race
that there the speech of mankind became
confused. In this land Of ours Babe1 Is re-
versed. The nations are here assembled
TO build the greater tower of truth, and
the confusion Of the Babel tongues gives
place little by little to new language, the
language of love, spoken by the tolhng
so that in sweeter, grander
sense than ever before it is to be true that
the whole earth shall be ''of one language
and of one speech"
Thales of old, with so shadowy con-
ception of God that we know not whether
to classify him as atheist or as theist, yet
strangely conceived of deity as creating
the great world temple and so possessing
it as to reveal in its every part the pres
ence of the Creator. The world of our
time may seem strangely Indifferent to
that presence of God which the seers OF
The race feel to be the most tremendous
act of life But the world will not remain
'orever content with mere things. The
time is to come when the nations must feel
The Divine Presence. When that time
comes the cry of the peoples will be,
'Wherewith shall we come before the
Lord?" God grant that in that solemn
lay of the worlds supreme need it may be
granted unto us as the teacher of the ma
ions to shout the great reply: "He hath
showed you, 0 nations, what is good; and
What doth the Lord require of you but to
10 justly, and to love mercy, and to walk
h1,r cd >,