New-York tribune., 1905-07-23
I 2

AS another instance of our regard for the finer
and loftier aspects of life consider our parks, set
apart for the of the people by the city the State
and the nation. In the cities of this new country
the public Fairgrounds have had to be made, the
most of them, and at high cost whereas the towns
of the old world have into possession oil thelrs
for nothing, more often than not, inherting the
private recreation grounds of their rulers. And
Europe has nothing to show similar in kind either
to the reservations of certain States like the steadily
enarging preserves in the Catskls and the Adlron-
dacks, to the ampler national parks, the feIoW-
stone, the Yosemite and the Grand canon oil the
Colorado, of them far larger III area than one
at least of the original thirteen States. Overcoming
the pressure of private greed, the people nave or
dained the preservation Of this natural beauty and
its protection for all time under the safe guardian
ship of the nation and with free access 10 all VINO
may claim admission to ENJOY It,
In like manner the battle-heldS whereon the
nation spent its blood that it might be what 1t IS
and what it hopes to be-these have been taken
over by the nation itself and set apart and Kept as
holy places of pilgrimage. They are free from the
despoing hand of any private owner Ihey are
adorned with monuments recording the courage
of the men who fought there. They serve as
constant reminders of the duty we owe to the
country and of the debt we owe to those who
made it and who saved 1t for us. And the
1oya veneration with which these helds OF
blood have been cherished here in the Omted
States finds parallel in any country IN
Europe no matter how glorious may be It's
annals of military prOwess. Even Waterloo IS
in private hands; and its fields enriched by the
bones of thousands TILED every year by
the industrious Belgian farmers. Yet 1t was a
Frenchman Renan, who told us that what YIELDS
men into nation is 1.-The memory of great
deeds done in common and the will to ac-
Complish vet more"
According to the theory of the conservation OF
energy there ought to be about as much virtue
in the world at one time at another. Accord
iuUt tO he of
test, there ought to be a little more now
than there was a century ago. We Ameri-
cans to-day have our faults, and they are
abundant enough and blatant enough, and
foreigners take care that we shall not overlook
them; but our ethical standard however i'm
perfectly may attain to it's at least as h1gh
as that of the Greeks under Pericles OF the
Romans under Caesar of the English under
Elizabeth. 1t is higher even than that OF our
forefathers who established our freedom, as those
know best who have most carefully inquired INTO
the inner history of the American Revolution.
In nothing was our advance more striking
than in the different treatment meted out to
the vanquished after the Revolution and after
the Civil War. When we had made our peace
with the British the native Tories were pro-
scrbed and thousands of lOyaSts left the
United States to carry into Canada the in
durated hatred of the eXiled But after Lees
surrender at AppomattoX, no body of men,
no single indeed, driven forth to
live alien for the rest of his days; few
might choose to go, but none were compelled
This change of feeling the part of those
who were victors in the struggle was evidence
of an increasing sensitiveness, increasing
svmpathv-whch was the exciting cause of our
rush to the relief of Cuba. Not only is
tionalism disappearing, but with it is departing
the feeling that really underlies 1.-THE dstrust
of those who dwell elsewhere than where we do.
This distrust is still common all over Europe
fIo1 II hos ia11