The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-04-27

counsel. If it be possible, as much rs
lieth in you, live peaceably with all
men
''We have met today TO celebrate
the opening of the exposition which IT.
self commentaries the first permanent
settlement of men OF our stock In Eir-
ginia, the first beginning OF what mas
since become this mighty republic:
Three hundred years ago Il handful oi
English adventurers, who had crossed
the ocean in what we should now eau
cookie boats, as clumsy rs they were
frail, landed in the great wooded vii
derncss. the Indian-haunted waste,
which then stretched down To the wa
ter's edge along the entire Atlantic
coast They were not the first men of
European race TO settle in what Is now
the United States, for there were al
ready Spanish settlements IN FLORIDA
and on the hcadwaters of the hlo
Grande; and the French, who at almost
the same time were struggling up the
st. Lawrence. were likewise destined TO
form permanent settlements on the
Great Lakes and in the valley OF the
mighty Mississippi before the people OF
English stock went wel ward of the Al
and the Swedcs we're shortly TO found
colonies, those that grew up around the
Potomac and those that grew up on
what is now the New England coast.
Nevertheless, this landing at James
town possesses for us of the United
States an Jaltogcther peculiar slgnlh-
cance. and this without regard to our
several origins, The men VINO landed
al jamestown and those who, thirteen
years later, landed at Plymouth. all of
English stock, and their owsettlers
who during the next few decades
streamed in after them, were those who
took the lead in shaping the life hls,
tory of this people in the colonial and
revolutionary days. II was they who
bent into definite shape our nation
while il was still young enough most
easily, most readily, to take on the
characteristics which were to become
part of its permanent life habit.
influence of English Stock.
"'Yet let us remember that while this
early English colonial stock has left
deeper than all others upon our ma
tional life the mark of its strong twin
indiVidualities, the mark OF the Cav
alier and Of the Puritan-nevertheles
this stock, not only from its environ
ment but also from the presence with 1T
of other stocks, almost from the begin
ming began to be differentiated strong
" from any European people. As |
have already said, about the time the
first English settlers landed. the French:
man and the Spaniard, the Swede and
the Dutcbman, also came hither as per
manent dwellers, who left their seed be-
hind them to help shape and partially to
inherit orr national life, The German.
the Irishman, and the Scotchman came
later, but still IN colonial times. Be
fore the outbreak Of the Revolution the
American people, not only because OF
their surroundings, physical and splr.,
itual, but because Of the mixture of
blood that had already begun TO take
place, represented a new and distinct
ethnic type. This type has never been
fixed in blood. All through the colonial
days new waves of immigration from
time to time swept hither across the
ocean, now from one country, now from
another. The same thing has gone on
ever since our birth as nation; and
for the last sixty years the tide Of Inn
migration has been at the full. The
newcomers arc soon absorbed into our
eager national life, and are radically
and profoundly changed thereby, the
rapidity of their assimilation being mar
velous But each group of newcomers,
as it adds its blood to the life, also
changes 1T somewhat, and this change
and growth and development have gone
on steadily, generation by generation,
throughout three centuries.
Work of the Powers
"The pioneers Of our people who first
landed on these shores on that eventful
day three centuries ago, had before
them a task which. during the early
and difficulty. The conquest of a new
continent is iron work. People who
dwell in old civilizations and find that
therein so much of humanity's lot is
hard, are apt to complain against con-
ditions as being solely due to man and
to speak as if life could be made easy
and simple if there were but virgin
continent III which to work. IL is true
that the pioneer life was simpler but it
was certainly not easier. As matter
OF fact, the first work of the pioneers III
taking possession of lonely wilderness
IS so rough, so hard, so dangerous that
all but the strongest spirits 1all. The
early iron days of such a conquest
search out alike the weak in body and
the weak in soul. In the warfare
against tho rugged sternness of prime
val Nature, only those can conquer who
are themselves unconquerable. 1t Is
not until the first bitter years have
passed that the life becomes easy
! enough to invite a mass of newcomers,
and so great are the risk, hardship,
and toll of the early years that there
always exists threat Of lapsing back
from civilization,
Inc history OIL Inc plOHeer5 OF
jamestown, Of the founders of Vir-
| ginia, illustrates the truth of all tins.
Famine and pestilence and war menaced
the little band of daring men who had
planted themselves alone on the edge of
frowning continent. Moreover, as
men ever find, whether in the tiniest
frontier community or IN the vastest
and most highly organized and complex
society, their worst foes wero in their
own bosoms Dissension, distrust, the
inability Of some to work and the IN
Willingness of others, jealously, arro-
gancc and envy, folly and laziness-in
short, all the shortcomings with which
we have to grapplc now, were faced by
those pioneers, and 1T moments threat
ened their whole enterprise with abso-
Lutte ruin. 1t was some time before the
ground on which they had landed sup.
ported them, in spite of It's potential fer
tility, and they looked across the sea
for supplies. At one moment so hope
less did they become that the whole
colony embarked, and was only saved
from abandoning the country by the OPP
perfume arrival of help from abroad.
"At last they took root in the land
I 1.