Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-03-04
TWE :%,AYau7s,- ADDRESS.
A Short But Dignified Talk to Pros
porous People.

MY fellow citizens: No people on
earth have more cause to be thank
full than ours, and this is said rever-
emily, aud In no spirit Of boastfulness
In our own strength but with graf
itude to the Giver of Good who has
blessed us with the conditions which
have enabled us to achieve 80 large
a measure Of well being and of hap
plness. 10 us as "a people 1t has been
granted to lay the foundations of our
national life in new continent. We
are the heirs Of the ages, and yet we
have had to pay few OF the penalties
which in old countries are exacted by
the dead hand OF a bygone civilization.
We have not been Obliged to fight for
our existence against any alien race;
and yet our life has called for the
vigor and effort without which the
imanller and harder virtues Wither a.
way Under such conditions 1T would
be our own faalt II we failed: and
the success which we have had IN the
past, the success which we confidently
believe the future will bring, should
cause in us no feeling of vainglory.
but rather a deep and abiding reali-
zation of all which life has offered
us: full acknowledgment of respon-
sibility which is ours, and fixed de-
termination to show that under free
government mighty people can
thrive best, alike as regards as the
things of the body and things of the
soul.
"NIuch has been given to us and
much will rightfully be expected from
us. We have duties to others and
duties to ourselves; and we can shirk
neither. We have become a great ma
ton; great by the fact of its greatness
into relations with the other nations
of the earth, and we must behave as
beseems a people with such RESPONSE
bilities. Towards all nations, large and
small, our attitude must be one OF cor
dial and sincere friendship. We must
shown not only In our words but In our
deeds that we are earnestly deslrous OF
securing their good will by acting to-
ward them in Il spirit OF just andNgen-
erous recognition of all their rights.
But justice and generosity In nation,
as in an individual, count most when
shown not by the weak but by the
strong. While ever careful to refrain
from wronging others we must be no
less insistent that we are not wronged
ourselves. We wish peace: but we
wish the peace of justice, the peace of
righteousness. We wish it because we
think it is right and not bcause we are
afraid. No weak nation that acts man.
fully and justly should ever have cause
to fear us, and no strong power Should
eve.. be able. 10 single us out as sub
iect for insolent aggression.
"Our relations with the other powers
of the world are important; but still
more important are our relations
among ourselves. Such growth in
wealth, in population, and in power
as this nation has seen during the CEN
tury and quarter of its national life
is inevitably accompanied by like
growth in the problems which are ever
before every nation that rises to great
ness. Power invariably means both
responsibility and danger. Our fore
fathers faced certain perils which we
have outgrown. We now face other
perils, the very existence of which it
was impossible that they should fore
see. Modern life is both complex and
and the tremendous changes
wrought by the extraordinary indus
trial development of the last half CEN