The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1905-03-06

ment of responsibility which is ours;
and a fixed determination to show that
under a free. government mighty
people can thrive best, alike as re-
CARDS the things of the body and the
things OF the soul.
Much 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
tion, forced by the fact Of its great
ness into relations with the other ma
tions of the earth; and we must be-
have as becomes a people with such
responsibilities. Toward all other ma
tions, 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
desirous Of securing their good will
by acting toward them in spirit Of
just and generous recognition of all
their rights But justice and gener-
osity 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 9TH
ers we must be no less insistent that
we are not wronged ourselves. We
WislSpeace; but we wish the peace Of
justice, the peace of righteousness.
Wsss=Wish$ because we think it is
right and dsSnOt because we are afraid.
No weak nation that acts manfully
and justly should ever have cause to
sfeareet and no strong power should
ever be able to single US out as sub
ject for insolent aggression.
Our relations with the other powers
| of the world are important; but still
more impoItsslt are our relations
among ourselves. Such growth in
wealth. in population and in power as
this nation has seen during the cen
tury and a quarter of it's national life
is inevitably accompanied by like
growth in the problems which are
CVC1y USlOIG=SSS1y udItOAr CudI IlSGS "
greatness. Power Invariably means
both responsibility and danger. Our
fOrefathers faced certain perils which
we have outgrown. We now face
other perils, the very existence OF
which it was impossible that they
should foresee. Modern life is both
complex and intense and the tremen-
dous changes wrought by the eXtraor-
dinary Industrial development of the
last half cer tury are felt in every fibre
of our social and political being Never
before have men tried so vast and for
midable an experiment as that of adj
| ministering the affairs of continent
under the form of a democratic repub.
lie. The conditions which have told
for our marvellous material well being,
which have developed to very high
degree our energy, self-reliance and
individual initiative, have also brought
| the care and anxiety inseparable 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. If
| We fail the
Cause OF Free SeIf-Governmen
throughout the world will rock to it's
foundations; and therefore our respon-
slbility is heavy, to ourselves, to the
world as it is today and to the genera
tiOns yet unborn. There is no good
reason why we should fear the fu-
ture, but there is every reason why we
should face it seriously, neither hiding
from ourselves the gravity of the prob
lens before lis nor fearing to approach
these problems with the unbending,
| unfiinching purpose to solve them
Alright.
Yet, after all, though the problems
are new, though the tasks set before
| us differ from the tasks set before our
fathers who founded and preserved
this republic, the spirit in which these
tasks must be undertaken and these
problems faced, if our duty is to be
/ we'll done, remains essentially un-
changed. We know that self-govern-
ment is difficult. We know that no
people needs such high traits Of char
acter as that people which seeks to
govern it's affairs Alright through the
freely expressed will of the freemen
who compose it. But we have faith
that We shall not prove false to the
memories OF the men of the mighty
past. They did their work they left
US the splendid heritage we now enjoy.
| We in our turn have an assured conf
dence that we shall be able to leave
this heritage unWasted and enlarged
to our children and our children's S chill
|dren. To do so we must show, not
merely in great crises, but in the
every day affairs of life, the qualities
of practical intelligence, OF. courage,
of hardihool and endurance, and above
all the power of devotion to a lofty
ideal, which made great the men who
founded this republic in the days of
Washing ION. which made great the
men who preserved this republic In
/ the days Of Abraham Linnoln.