The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1907-06-11

en- at country fairs, to colleges, to com
mercial and business organizations. to
associations of professional men, to
labor organizations, to men Of every
creed and parentage. The thing that
has struck me most has been the es-
sential oneness, the essential unity of
our people.
Americans Are all Alike.
In the fundamentals I have found
American citizens to be just about the
same everywhere. In whatever To-
cality of the country we live, what
ever our fortune or occupation in life.
| there exist just about the same es-
sential good qualities and much the
same shortcomings in any gathering of.
our citizens. OF course, each com
munity has its especial temptations,
its especial shortcomings; and if it is
wise each community will try to cure
itself rather than to cause heartburn
ings by railing at the shortcomings of
a sister community. There is ample
field for the reform energies of every
one of US in his or her particular
gsphere Of home and neighborhood
activity.
| Not only is all of this true as be-.
tween one community and another, but
it is just as true between one class of
our citizens and another. Now and
then we meet well meaning people
who have a genuine horror and dread
of all rich men and think of them as
being set apart by peculiar vice and
iniquity. Now and then we meet
equally well meaning rich men who
have an equally irrational dread of
those whom they style tabor leaders"
In each case think the hostility is in
large part due to want of sympathy
caused by complete ignorance of the
men who arouse such distrust or
anger AS a matter of fact, if we take
a given number of men of large for
tune and a like number of wage work
ers, we find that in their essential
human nature they are all alike. In
each group we find men as wise and as
foolish, as good and as bad as in the
other group. Such being the case it is
certainly we'll that, SO far as possible,
when the men of a given group, as a
! whole act in way that we deem con-
trary to the public interest, we should
treat the action as a wrong to be
remedied rather than wrong to be
avenged. We ought not to tolerate
wrong. It is a sign of weakness to do
SO, and in its ultimate effects weak
ness is often quite as bad as wicked
ness. But in putting a stop to the
wrong We should, so far as possible,
avoid getting into an attitude of vim
dictiye hatred toward the wrongdoer.
He may be morally to blame and it
may be necessary to punish him; but
On the other hand the wrong he has
committed may simply be due to the
existing condition of things, to condi-
tions under which he has been brought
up; and in such case, while we must
4 apply the remedy, and see that there
/ is no further chance of harm to the
community, it is neither just nor far
sighted to exact revenge for what has
been done. In short, friends, let US
realize that in very truth we are knit
4 together in ties of brotherhood, and
that while it is proper and necessary
that we should insist upon our rights,
we should yet be patient and consid-
crate in bearing with one another, and
in trying, SO far as in us lies, each to
look at the problems that face us from
his brothers standpoint as well as
from his own.
/ Astounding Material Progress.
During the last quarter of a century
this nation has made astounding
strides in material progress, and in
no other section has this progress been
more noteworthy than in the south.
| While her agriculture has grown
| faster than ever before. there has also
been a new growth Of her manufac-
turing ndustries-indeed, there has
been growth of every kind. But OF
course there is ample room for fur
/ toonkinued ON Highth Pasa.,