Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-06-20

ginia. whose final. supreme effort faded az
the stone wall on Cemetery Ridge on that
July day forty-one years ago.
But. after ALL hard though Ii 10 to rise
to the supreme height of self-sacrtnce and
of effort at time of crisis that is short,
to rise to II for single great effort-it 10
harder yet to rise to the level of crisis
when that crisis takes the form of needing
constant. patient. steady work. month
after month. year after year, when. too. IL
glorious day-when IL means months Of
gloom and effort steadfastly endured and
triumph wrested only at the very end.
Here at Valley Forge Washington and
his Conunentals warred not against the
foreign soldierly. but against themselves,
against all the appeals OF nature that
are most difficult to resist-against dis
coure cement. discomfort. the mean envieA
and jeaIousies and heart-burnings sure to
arise at any time in large bodies of men,
but especially sure to arise when defeat
and disaster have come TO large bodies Of
men. Here the soldiers who carried our
national flag had TO suffer from cold from
privation. from hardship. knowing that
their foes were well housed. knowing that
things went easier for the others than IL
did for them And they conquered because
they had in them the spirit that made them
steadfast not merely on an ccasional great
day. but day after day in the life of daily
endeavor to do duty well.
Both Lessons Are Indispensable.
W men TWO lessons are both indiSpenSa-
BILE, it seems hardly worth while to dwell
more on one than on the other Yet think
that as a people we need more to learn the
lesson Of Valley Forge even than that Of
Gettysburg. / have not the slightest anx-
iety but that this people. II the need should
come IN the future. VIII be able to show the
heroIsm, the supreme effort that was
SHOWN at Gettysburg, though il may well he
that II would need similar two years OF
effort, checkered by disaster. to lead up
to it,
But the vital thing for this nation to do
Is steadily to cultivate the quality which
Washington and those under him so pre-
eminently showed during the winter at
Valley Forge-the quality of steady adher.
ence to duty in the teeth Of difficulty. in
the teeth of discouragement, and even dis
aster. the quality that makes a man do
what is straight and decent, not one day
when great crisis comes. but every day,
day in and day out. until success comes at
the end.
"Of course. all OF us are agreed that a
prime national need is the need Of COM
memorating the memories of the men who
did greatly, thought highly, who fought,
suffered. endured. for the nation. 1t Is II
great thing to commemorate their lives:
but. after ALL the worthy way to do so IS
to try To show by our lives that we have
profited by them. II we that the lives
Of the great men Of the past have been TO
us indictments to do well In the present.
then we have paid TO them the only homage
IF treat their great deeds as matters
merely for idle Boosting not squirting us
on to effort, but as excusDg us from ef-
fort, then We show that we not worthy
of the sires who bore US, of the people who
went before in the history of our land.
What we a people need more than aught
else is the steady performance of the every
day duties of life. not with hope OF reward.
but because they are duties.
Patriots Worked for Fellow Men.
Il spoke of how felt that had in
Washington and Lincoln national ideals.
1 contras ted their names with the names
of many others in history. names which
will shine as brightly. but oh. with how
much less power and light. think you
will find that the fundamental difference
between our two great national heroes
and almost any other men of equal nOto
in the worlds history. is that when you
think of our two men you think inevlta-
bly, not of glory, but of duty, not OF what
the did for himself in achieving name
or fame or position, but OF what he did Tor
his fellows.
They set the right ideal and also they
lived up to it in practical fashion. Had
either of them possessed that fantastic
quality of mind which sets an Impossible,
and, perhaps. an undesirable ideal or which
declines to do the actual work of the pres
ent because forsooth the implements win
which 1t is necessary to work are not 10
that mans choice. his fame would nave
been missed. his achievement would have
crumbled into dust. and he would not
have left one stroke on the book winch
tells of effort accomplished for the good
of mankind.
"A man. to amount to anything. must be
practical. He must actually do things, not
talk about doing them; least of all casl
at him: they are accomplished by those
who actually go down into the arena. ana
actually face the dust and the blood and
the sweat. who actually triumph IN tho
struggle. The man must have the force.
the power the will to accomplish results,
but he must have also the lift toward Ioity
things which shall make him Incapable or
striving for aught unless that for which
he strives is something noble and high
something well worth striving for.
II congratulate you that 1t Is your good
fortune to be engaged In erecting me-
mortal to the great man who was equal to
the great days-to the man and the men
who showed by their lives that they were.
indeed doors OF the word and not hearers
only"