Alaska sentinel., 1905-03-23
Wise Words We'll Spoken.

My FELLOW CITIZENs:-No peo- pie on earth have more cause to te | thaakful than CUTS, and this is said reyerently, and in no spirit oi ! boastfulness in our own strength, but with gratitude to the Giyer of Good who has blessed us with the conditions which have enabled Us to achieve SO large a measure of
 well being and of happiness. To us as 6 people 1t has been granted 10 lay the foundations of our na- tional life in q new continent. We are the heirs of the age, and yet We have had to pay few of the penal ties which in old countries are ex- acted 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 lie has called for the yigor and effort without which the manlier and hardier virtues wither away. | Under such conditions 1t would be our own fault if we failed; and the success which We have had in the
 pasG, the success which we coni- dently believe the future will bring should cause us no feeling of vain glory, but rather a deep and abid-
 ing realization of all which life has offered us; a full acknowledgement of responsibility which is ours; and
 fixed determination to show that
 under Q free government a mighty
 people can thrive best, alike as re- gards the things of the body and 1 the things of the soul.
 Much has been given to us, and much will be rightfully expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can
 shirk neither. We have become a treat nation, forced by the fact oi Its greatness into relations with the other nations of the earth; and We must behave as beseems a people with such responsibilities. Toward ill other nations, large and small, our attitude must be one of cordial and sincere friendship. We must show not only in our words but in our deeds that we are earnestly de- ,irous of securing their good will by acting toward them in a spirit Jf ust and generous recognition of all their rights. But justice and generosity in a nation, as in an in .lividual, count most when shown not by the weak, but by the strong. While ever careful of wronging oth- IFS We must be no less insistent hat we are not wronged ourselves. We wish peace; but We wish the peace of justice, the peace of right aousness. We wish it because We
 hink it is right and not because We Ire afraid. No weak nation that acts manfully and justly should ever have cause to fear us, and no strong power should ever be able to single us out as a subject for inso- solent aggression.
 Our relations with other powers ef the world are important; but still more important are our relo- tions among ourselves. Such growth in wealth, in population, and in power as this nation has seen during the century and quar-
 ter of its national life, is inevitably accompanied by a like growth in the problems which are eyer before every nation that rises to greatness. Power invariably means both re- sponsibility and danger. Our fore fathers faced certain perils, the very existence of which 1t was i'm possible that they should foresee. Modern life is both complex and intense, and the tremendous chan ges wrought by the extraordinary industrial development of the last nave century are felt in every fibre of our social and political being. Never before have men tried so vast and formidable an experiment as that of administering the affairs of q continent under the forms of democratic republic. The condi- tions which have told for our mar vicious material well being which. have developed to very high de- gree our energy, self-reliance and individual initiative, have also brought the care and anxiety in- seperable from the accumulation of great wealth in industrial centers. Upon the success of our experiment much depends, not only as regards our own welfare, but as regards the welfare of mankind. Ii we fail, the cause of free self-government throughout the world will rock to its foundations; and therefore our responsibility is heavy to ourselves, to the world, as it is today and tc