Arizona republican., 1907-12-02

Once more we have come to this house of God to render our grateful praise and thanksgiving for the blessings. na- tional and individual, material and
 spiritual. that the great loving Father
 of us all has richly poured into our
 lives. It is a day of thanksgiving. The
 feast. provincial and sectarian in it's
 origin. born less than 300 years ago
 amid the little group of Pilgrims that
 knelt beside the sandy shores of Ply
 mouth bay to render their gratitude
 to the God of the harvest, has become
 national and catholic. Today. through
 out the length and breadth of the land
 the feast is kept. The descendants of
 the Pilgrim fathers, who have wan dered far and away, both in space and creed. from their ancestral land and religion. and the alien races who have
 come to our shores from the four cor
 ners of the earth, unite today in the
 keeping of the feast. Not only on the Atlantic seaboard and among the hills of New England but also on southern,
 plains and western prairies. amid the
 mountain peaks of the Rockies and by the summer waters of California, do ' places of worship to keep the great religious festival. It is not only a re- ligious holiday. but it is also a na- tional holiday and a home day. It touches the church in its great and up- lifting service of thanksgiving in its recognition of the Author of all good, from whom has come the gift of the harvest. It touches the nation, which on this day seeks the union of church
 and state when it's rulers send forth
 the call to the people of the land to
 thank God in the houses which are called by His name for the rich bless ings that have descended upon the commonwealth. Therefore it is a time
 for merrymaking and rejoicing. It is
 a family day, too. The fire burns with renewed brightness on many
 hearthstone, as children who nave
 wandered far and long gather once
 more beneath the ancient roof-tree.
 and the sad and joyous memories of other days are revived in the welcome
 that awaits them. It is a day of broth erly sympathy and good will. in which , the hearts of the prosperous go out to their less fortunate brethren and the i poor rejoice through the bounty and beneficence of the rich.
 T have sometimes felt that it is only
 those who live close to the heart of ] God who with firm faith believe in His
 universal Fatherhood, that can enter | into the deepest and most spiritual meaning of democracy. It is such
 Christian statesmen, who through their reception of Christ's great teaching of brotherhood, grasp the fullness of the divine truth that whatever may be our arbitrary distinctions of race and so- cial condition, yet in Gods eyes all
 men are free and equal.
 "A generation has come and gone since the most typical and seeing of American citizens. the ideal demo- 7 crat. who believed in and loved with passionate devotion this whole land.
 standing among the graves of Gettys- burg. spoke these memorable words, that government of the people. by the people. for the people shall not perish from the earth Standing upon his Mount Pisgah, the great soul of Ab- raham Lincoln was permitted to look over into that promised land. where God denied him the future leadership
 of his people; but the solemn words of cOnsecration. sealed one year later by
 his own martyr death. have been the
 flaming torch to tighten and guide the
 people amid the shadows and the pit falls which have beset the nations life during the intervening years in which
 the storms of winters and the rains of summer have beaten upon his grave.
 From a theoretical standpoint there can be no question, it seems to me. of the value of limited suffrage. so far as 1t requires a certain minimum of education and of property qualifica- tions in those who vote. But when we are confronted with the practical prob lem itself. it becomes a serious ques- tion to depart from universal suffrage whether we take 1t away from those who have once. wisely or unwisely, re- ceived it. or refuse to give it to one half of our citizens, not less intelli- gent thar the other half. but who hap pen to De of a different sex. So far as the experiment has been tried in this country. which has held so stur- dily to the idea of democracy. it can not be said that our near approach to universal suffrage has been dis astrous. But where our democratic government has met with it's greatest failures is in the government of our cities. The government of some of our large cities, it must be sadly confessed. has been oligarchic and not demo- cratic. There has been a tyranny of tentimes greater and more burdensome than that of an absolute monarchy. Taxation has been excessive and al- most unbearable. The public money has not gone into public works an1 the improvement of civic life and the just government of the city The streets are left uncleaned and un- guarded The sanitary condition of some of our great cities has been all
 most as bad as possible and the pub lie funds have enriched the oppressors of the people Vice has been ram pant. Corruption has stalked abroad with brazen face. Ways have been
 found to still the voice of the reform CT. To such tyranny and degradation have the people of this land submitted. not on account of our democratic sys-
 tenn, but rather because we have not lived up to the spirit democracy. have not believed in it. have not sought to
 realize it. I am almost inclined to
 sl, ,f,Ir f,, ,l trfo