Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-08-23

fortress ease, Is as ignoble for a natio
as for an individual. The man Is bu
q poor father who teaches his son
that ease and pleasure should be thei
chief objects in life; the woman who 1
a mere petted toy, incapable of seriou
purpose, shrinking from effort an,
duty, Is more pitiable than the veri
est over-worked drudge. So he Is bu
a poor leader Of the people, but a poo
national adviser, who seeks to maxi
the nation in any way subordinate eff
fort to ease, who would teach the peo
pie not to prize as the greatest bless
ling the chance to do any work, NJ
matter how hard, II 1t becomes thei
duty to do II. To the sons Of the Pu
ritans It Is almost needless to say tina
the lesson above all others which Pu'
ritanism can teach this nation Is thu
all-importance of the resolute per-
formance Of duty. II we are men We
will pass by with contemptuous dis
dain alike the advisers who woult
seek to lead us into the paths Of igno.
BILE ease and those who would teach III
to admire successful wrong doing
Our ideals should be high, and yet they
should be capable Of achievement ir
practical fashion; and we are as little
to be excused II we permit our ideal:
to be tainted with what Is sordid ant
mean and base, as II we allow oul
power Of achievement to atrophy anc
become either incapable Of effort as t.
accomplish nothing Of permanent good
The true doctrine to preach to this ma
tion, as to the individuals composing
this nation, Is not the life of ease, but
the life of effort. II 1t were In my
power to promise the people of this
land anything, 1 would promise them
that stern happiness which comes from
the sense Of having done in practical
fashion a difficult work which was
worth doing.
The Puritan's Weapons.
The Puritan owed his extraordinary
success in subduing this continent and
making 1t the foundation for a socia
life Of ordered liberty primarily to the
fact that he combined in a very re-
-aarkable degree both the power Of in
dividual initiative, Of individual self
help, and the power Of acting in COM
bination with his fellows; and that
Furthermore he joined to high heart
that shrewd common sense which
saves q man from the besetting sins OF
the visionary and the doctrinaire. He
was stout hearted and hard-headed
He had lofty purposes, but he had
practical good sense, too. He could
hold his own in the rough workaday
world without clamorous insistence
upon being helped by others and yet
he could combine with others whenever
It became necessary to do job which
could not be as we'll done by any one
man individually.
These were the qualities which en-
abled him to do his work, and they are
the very qualities which we must
show. in doing our work today. There
Is no use in our coming here to pay
homage to the men who founded this
nation unless we first Of all come In
the spirit of trying to do our work to-
day as they did their work in the yes
terdays that have vanished. The prob
lens shift from generation to genera
ton, but the spirit in which they must
be approached, II they are to be sue
cessfully solved, remains ever the same
The Puritan tanned the wilderness
and built up free government on the
stump dotted clearings amid the pri-
meval forest. His descendants must
try to shape the life Of our complex In
dustrial civilization by new devices, by
new methods, so as to achieve In the
end the same results Of justice and
fair dealing toward all. He cast aside
nothing old merely for the sake OF in
novation, yet he did not hesitate to
adopt anything new that would serve
his purpose. When he planted his
commonwealths On this rugged coast
he faced wholly new conditions and ne
had to devise new methods Of meeting
them. So We Of today face wholly new
conditions in our social and Industrial
life. We should certainly not adopt
any new scheme for graphing with
them merely because 1t Is new and un-
tried; but we can not afford to shrink
from graphing with them because they
can only be grappled with by some
new scheme.
The Puritan was no Laodicean, no
laissez- faire theorist. When he saw
conduct which was in violation OF his
rights-of the rights of man, the rights
Of God, as he understood them-he at
tempted to regulate such conduct with
instant, unquestionlng promptness and
effectiveness. II there was no other
way to secure conformity with the rule
Of right, then he smote down the trans
gressor with the iron Of his wrath
The spirit of the Puritan was a spirit
which never shrank from regulation OF
conduct If such regulation was neces-
sary for the public veal; and this Is
the spirit which we must show today
whenever 1t is necessary.
Changes the Times Demand.
The utterly changed conditions OF
our national life necessitate changes In
certain Of our laws, Of our govern
mental methods. Our Federal system
OF government Is based upon the the
ory of leaving to each community, to
each state, the control over those
things which affect only its own MEM
bers and which the people Of the local.
ity themselves can best grapple with,
while providing for national regula-
ton in those matters which necessari-
ly affect the nation as a whole. 1t
seems to me that such questions as ma
tional sovereignty and states rights
need to be treated not empirically or
academcally, but from the standpoint
Of the interests Of the people as
whole National sovereignty is to be
upheld In so far as 1t means the SOW
ereignty Of the people used for the
real and ultimate good Of the people;
and states rights are to be upheld In
so far as they mean the peoples rights