The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1904-02-04
MISSION OF PRESS
Is to PersistentIy Preach Patriot
ism as a Political Relig-
ion.
SOCIAL SKEPTIClSM is RAMPANT

Organized, Progressive Conservatism
Finds Its Embodiment in the Repub.
IIcan Party, and It's Army Of the
Press Must Cope courageousIy With
the Forces of Discomfort and DISCO
Iution-The Inner Significance of
Present Political Tendencies.
At the recent meeting of the Indiana
Republican Editorial Association at
indianapolis, one of the notable ad-
dresses was that of w. H. Sanders Of
Marion on The True Mission of the
Party Press" In this address Mr.. San
ders discussed, not the superficial. but
the underlying drift of political af-
fairs, and his words deserve the read
ing of every thoughtful citizen of the
state. Mr.. Sanders said:
One day last fall ! had been wander
ing for an hour or more in the country,
when rather Unexpectedly ! came to
the top of a hill overlooking the city
of Marion. my own home. Here was
q Gene that | wish I might describe,
but l cannot, for I have neither the
time nor the tongue. Think. though,
of a sunny day with just enough Of
haze to temper the glare into a soften
ed light; in the valley the city; beyond
the city the Mississinewa, and beyond
the river hills again, hills and trees:
and this on a day after Jack Frost had
been among the trees just often
enough to leave the handiwork of his
inimitable fancy. I say in the valley
lay the city, but not that I saw much
Of 1t. for II was EMPOWERED in trees.
Here and there was a spire, here and
there a steeple. there a tower and
there the glimpse of a home cuddled
In among the trees.
Here were apparent serenity and
tranquility. Not a person was in sight.
and yet | knew that within the range
OF vision there were twenty odd thou
sand human beings. Think of it
twenty thousand human hearts-more
than a million heart-beats a minute:
dynamic force to move the world. un-
der this unrufied canopy of sunlight
and haze and leaves. Here are all hui
man hopes and fears; here all the ex-
periences that can come to man. Here
is the frightened pulse of the child
just come into the world and here the
feeble one Of the gray-haired veteran
Just leaving it to sink into final rest.
Here are all the variations to be
played upon the heart-strings of hui
man beings by the vicissitudes of life.
| thought OF this, and then I said,
Here in this bend of the river. between
these hills and among these trees. is
all the human nature that Mother
Earth ever gave birth to and here. too,
Is all the struggle that ever was
Here Is the same battle Of life that has
been fought out on every field of hope
and endeavor in all the earth since
first a living creature came into the
world to hunger and to thirst, to burn
with fever or to tremble with cold, to
start with expectancy or to shrink and
cover in fear. Here every twenty-four
hours is being rel;ved the heart his
tory of the entire human race from
the day of the first man unto this day:
all the history hat is worth knowing;
more history than has ever been writ.
ten in books. Be familiar with the i'm
pulses and instincts that animate
twenty thousand human beings for
tw%enty-four hours. and you know all
the motives that have moved man
since nature first crowned the travail
OF the ages with a human being.
Here, then, are the whims and the
caprices and the impulses and the in
stincts as well as the reason at the
foundation of this republic. Here are
specimens Of all the kind of material
that go to constitute this mighty fabric
we call the United States government.
Here are all the kinds of forces that
on the n hand go to stay and to
strengthen our institutions and that on
the other hand tend to weaken, to
impair or to imperil them.
A Few American Types.
Note a few of these types. To start
with, take the tax receipt: the certif-
cate of a thousand-fold more service
on the part of these institutions than
on the part OF the taxpayer; a stock
certificate of the best investment ever
made by the greatest master of finance
that ever lived, and yet too often
looked upon as representing an unjust
and ill-paid sacrifice. Here is the sim
liar case of the man that receives say
300 letters a day or a week or a month.
One letter in the 900 goes astray or is
delayed in delivery. The man spends
more time and energy and vocabulary
In railing at Uncle Sam for the one
letter that goes amiss than in praise
of the service that brings the 2s9
promptly to hand. He takes the 299
for granted, as If he paid the expenses
Of the entire postal service out of his
own pocket. and then works himself
into an ~apoplexy over the one delin-
quency. Here Is a quartette of types
q successful merchant of my acquaint.
ance who declares that the average
man fares as well In barbarism as he
does In this civilization; a young mar
Just out Of the high school who attrib-
utes most OF the unhappiness in the
country to disagreement; a graduate
OF one Of our most conspicuous state
colleges who doesn't pretend to be
patriotic" and a workingman describ-
ed by his employer as without a su-
perior, an arrest and sincere man
who is for revolution and no CON-
promise"