The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-04-26
Jamestown Exposition.
Continued From Page

Continued From Page One.)
of lapsing back from civilization.
The history of pioneers of James
town, of the founders of Virginia, il
illustrates the truth of all this. Fam
inc and pestilence AID war menaced
the little band of daring men who had
planted themselves alone on the edge
of a frowning continent. Moreover,
as men ever find, whether in the tin
lest frontier community or in the
vastest and most highly organized and
complex civilized society, their worst
foes were in their own bosoms. Dis
sension, distrust, the inability of some
to work and the unwi1ling1ess of 9TH
ers, jealousy, arrogance n envy, fol
ly and laziness-in short all the hor
comings with which we have to Crap
pie now, were faced by those pio-
neers, and at moments threatened
their whole enterprise with absolute
ruin. 1t was some time before the
ground on which they had landed sup
ported them, in spite of its potential
fertility, and they looked across the
sea for supplies. At n moment so
hopeless did they become that the
whole colony embarked, and was on
ly saved from abandoning the country
by the oppOrtune arrival of help from
abroad.
At last they took root in the land,
and were already prospecting when
the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. In
a few years a great inflow of settlers
began. Four of the present States of
New England were founded. Virginia
to the south of it, and Maryland to
the north of it. The Dutch ~colonies
between, which had already absorb
ed the Swedish, were in their tru1
absorbed by the English. Pennsylva-
nit was founded and, later still, Geor-
gia. There were many wars with the
Indians and with the dauntless cap
tails whose banners bore the lilies
of France. At last the British flag
flew without a rival in all eastern
North America.
Then came the successful struggle
for national independence.
For half a century after we became
a separate nation there was compare
lively little immigration to this coun-
try. Then the tide once again set
hitter, and has flowed in e~ver-increas-
ing size until in each of the last three
years a greater number of people came
to these shores than had landed On
them during the entire colonial per-
iOd. Generation by generation these
people have been absorbed into the
national life. Generally their sons,
almost always their grandsons, are in
distinguishable from one another and
from their fellow-America1s descend
ed from the colonial stock. For all
alike the problems of our existence
are fundamentally the same, and for
all alike these problems change from
generation to generation.
In the colonial period, a1d for at
least a century after it's close, the
conquest of the continent, the eXpan-
sion of our people westward, to the
'Alleghenies, then to the Mississippi,
then to the Pacific, was always one
of the most important, in our nation
al life. Behind the first settlers the
conditions grew easier, and in the old
er settled regions OF all the colonies
life speedily assumed much of COM
fort and something of luxury; and
though generally it was on a much
more democratic basis than life il
the Old World, 1t was by no mean
democratic when judged by our mod
ern standards. and here and there,
as in the tide-water regions of Vir-
ginia, a genuine a~ristocracy grew and
f1ourisAed. But the men who first
broke grounds in the virgin wilder
ness, whether on the Atlantic coast,
or II the interior, fought hard for
life In the early stages the
fro1tiersman had, to do battle with