The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1907-04-26


shall-from one of whom we inherit
the abiding trust in the people which
is the foundation stone of democracy,
and from the other the power to-
develop on behalf of the people
a coherent and powerful government,
genuine and representative nation
ality.
Two generations passed before the
second great crisis of our history had
to be faced. Then came the civil wa I,
terrible and bitter in itself and in its
aftermath, but a struggle from which
the nation finally emerged united in
fact as we'll as in name, united for
ever. Oh my hearers, my fellow
countrymen, great indeed has been our
good fortune for as time clears away
the mists that once shrouded brother
from brother and made each look
"as through glass darkly" at the
other, we can all feel the same pride.
in the valor, the devotion and the
fealty toward the right as it was Civ
en- to each to see the right, shown
alike by the men who wore the blue
and by the men who wore the gray
Rich and prosperous through we are
as a people, the proudest heritage that
each of us has, no matter where he
may dwell, north or south, east or
west, is the immaterial heritage of
feeling, the right to claim as his own
all the. valor and all the steadfast de-
votion to duty shown by the men of
both the great armies, of the soldiers
whose leader was Grant and the sold
iers whose leader was Lee The men
nf hn pixr
their duty bravely and we'll in the
days that were dark and terrible and
splendid. We, their descendants,
who pay proud homage to their mem
ories, and glory in the feats of might
of one side no less than of the other,
need to keep steadily in mind that the
homage which counts is the homage of
heart and of hand, and not of the lips,
the homage of deeds and not of words
only. We, too, in our turn, must
prove our truth by our endeavor. We
must show ourselves worthy sons OF
the men of mighty days by the way in
which we meet the problems of our
own time. We carry our heads high
because our fathers did we'll in the
years that tried mems souls; and we
must in our turn so bear ourselves
that the children who come after us
may feel that we too have done our
duty.
We can not afford to forget the
maxim upon which Washington in
sisted, that the surest way to avert
war Is to be prepared to meet il.
Nevertheless the duties that most con-
Germ us in this generation are not mil
itary, but social and Industrial Each
community must always dread the
evils which spring up as attendant up
on the very qualities which give 1t
success. We of this mighty western
republic have to grapple with the
dangers that spring from popular self
government tried on scale incom-.
parably vaster than ever before in the
history of mankind and from an
abounding material prosperity greater
also than anything which the world
has hitherto SEEN
As regards the first set of dangers.
II behooves US to remember that men
can never escape being governed.
Either they must govern themselves
or they must submit to being govern
ed by others. If from lawlessness or
fickleness, from folly or self-indul-
gence, they refuse to govern them
selves, then most assuredly in the end
they will be governed from the out
side. They can prevent the need Of
government from without only by
showing that they possess the power
of government from within. A SOW
ereign can not make excuses for his
failures; a sovereign must accept the
responsibilities for the exercise of the
power that inheres in him; and where,
as is true in our republic, the people
are sovereign, then the people must
show a sober understanding and a
sane and steadfast purpose If they are
to preserve that orderly liberty upon
which as foundation every republic
must rest.
In industrial matters our enormous
prosperity has brought with it certain
grave evils. 1t is our duty to try to
cut out these evils without at the
same time destroying our well-being
itseif. This Is an era of combination
alike In the world of capital and in
the world of labor Each kind of
combination can do good, and yet
each, however powerful, must be op-
posed when it does ILL., At the mo-
ment the greatest problem before us
Is how to exercise such control over
the business use of vast wealth. in
dividual, but especially corporate. as
will insure Its not being used against
the interest of the public, while yet
permitting such ample legitimate
profits as will encourage individual
initiative. 1t is our business to put
stop to abuses and to prevent their re-
currence, without showing a spirit of
mere vindictiveness for what has been
done in the past. In John Morley's
brilliant sketch of Burke ne lays es-
pecial stress upon the fact that Burke
more than almost any other thinker
or politician of his time realized the
profound lesson that in politics we
are concerned not with barren rights
but with duties: not with abstract
truth, but with practical morality.
he especially euIogizes the way i'm
which in his efforts for economic re-
forlns Burke combined unshakabIe
resolution In pressing the reform with
profound temperatures OF spirit
which made him, while bent on the
extirpation OF the evil system, refuse