Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-21

hood has great deal to do with our
prosperity.
You are acquainted with the idea
that a rich and advanced civilization
depends entirely upon the fertility of
the ground. That rich and fertile soil
will produce a great civilization aseau
tomatically as it will eXhuberant Vege-
tation. Men who believe in this say,
Yes, the United States is rich because
Of it's rich mines, its large forests, its
fertile fields and its teeming waters
Now. 1 am willing to grant that We
could not have our great material pros
perity without these things, but these
are, after all, simply the raw material
out of which our prosperity is wrought.
We found few years ago that ii took
the man back Of the gun to make the
most valuable gun worth anything. 1t
takes the man back of the greatest ma
terial resources to give them human
value and worth.
Were these mines poorer or these
fields less fertile Whens the wild In
dans roamed over them chasing their
prey over the sites of great cities, CEN
ters from which now radiate forth the
higher life of civilization?
Other Countries Equally Rich
HAS the United States a monopoly
over the material resources of the uni
verse? We know well that there are
other countries with material resources
greater than our own, yet lacking our
material prosperity because they can
not use those resources so rs to give
them human value.
"Our free institutions is our other
boast Why is it that we have been
able to make a comparative success OF
this great experiment of democratic
government? Other countries have at
tempted it and failed. The South
American countries are looking VIII
longing and envious eyes upon this
country. We have opened for them th'
door into the promised land of liberty
and they have attempted to enter i'm anG
they have copied, so far as they can
our institutions. Their constitutions
are modelled after our own, but you who
read the papers know how lamentably
| they nave failed as yet please God, they
| viii presently succeed. They have the
| letter Of our constitution, but they lack
the spirit The spirit of self govern
ment, Of self control, of reverence foI
law that going along with the passion
| for personal freedom alone makes il
| possible,
This attempt at democratic govern
| ment having failed in those countries
| why should it succeed here? Again we
, have the argument urged that ii is be-
/ cause of the great extent Of our ma
| tcrial resources and the great extent of
! our territory. But other countries have
great resources and greater territory
and they have not been able to make il
go. Back Of our free institutions, as
back Of our prosperity, we find as the
/ controlling cause the quality of our
/ manhood
whence came this quality which en-
! ables us to utilize all those resources
and TO develop a rich and free civiliza-
! tion? one man says it comes from our
race. But that will hardly answer, for
this is the most strangely mingled race
! the world has ever seen. The English
race, we are told, has a genius for self
! government, which all other races lack
| That may be true, though there was a
! time when the English race seemed to
| be as far from government as any
! other But racially We are not English
! but composed of all the races of the