The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-08-20

b. and Of Itself IS held up as the
greatest good.
eThe materialism of such a view.
whether it finds its expression in the
life of a man who ~accumulates a vast
fortune in ways that arc repugnant
to. every instinct of generosity and of
fair dealing. or whether 1t finds its
expression In the vapidly useless and
s~elf-indulgent life of the inheritor of
that fortune, Is contemptible in the
eyes of all men capable of a thrill
of lofty feeling. Where the power of
the law can be wisely used to prevent
OF to minimize the acquisition or busI-
ness employment of such wealth and 10
make Ii pay by income or inheritance
tax Its proper share of the burden of
government, ] would invoke TINT power
without n moments hesitation.
But while we can accomplish some-
thing by legislation, legislation can
never be more than a part. and often
no more than a small part, In the gem
era1 scheme of moral progress: and
crude or vindietive legislation may at
any time bring such progress to a
halt. Certain socinIistic leaders pro-
pose TO redIstribute the worlds goods
by refusing to thrift and energy and
industry their proper superiority over
folly and idIenes and suIIen envy.
Such legislation would merely. In the
words of the president of Columbia
University, wreck the worlds efficiency
for the purpose of redistrlbuting the
worlds ~discontent.' We should all of
us work heart and soul for the real
and permanent betterment which will
lit our democratic civilization 10 a
higher level of safety and usefulness.
Such betterment can come ONLY nv
he slow, steady growth of the spirit
which metes a generous, but not a.
sentimental, justice to each man on
MS merits as a man, and which recog-
rnizes the fact that the, highest and
lies not in s%elnshness but in service"
President Roosevelt's remarks relat-
ing to the event of the day were as fol-
lows:
1T is not too much to say that the event
COMMUNICATED by the monument which
we have come here to dedicate was one
OF those rare events which can in good
faith be called of world Importance. The
coming hither of the Puritan three GEN.
turtles ago shaped the d~estinies of this con-
tinent, and therefore profoundly affected
the destiny of the whole world. Men of
other races, the Frenchman and the Span
lardi the Dutchman, the German, the
Scotchman and the Swede, made settle
ments within what is now the United
states, during the colonial period of our
history and before the Declaration Of In
dependence, and since then there has been
an e~ver-swelling immigration from Ire
lana ana from the mainland of Europe,
but It was the Englishman who settled in
Virginia and the Englishman who settled
in Massachusetts who did most I'm shaping
the lines of our national development.
w cannot as a nation be too profound
~ grateful for the fact that the Puritan
has stamped his influence so deeply on our
national life. We need have but scant
patience with the men who now rail at
the Puritan's faults. They were evident,
of course, for it Is a quality of strong ma
lures that their falllngs. like their virtues,
should stand out IN bold relief, but there is
nothing easier than to. belittle the great
men of the past by dwelling only on the
points where they come short Of the uni
versally recognized standards of the pres
emit. Men must be judged with reference
to the age in which they dwell, and the
work they have TO do. The Puritan's task
was TO conquer n continent; not merely
build upon 1t a high Industrial and social
life; and, while engaged in the rough work
of tanning the shaggy wilderness. at that
very time also to lay deep the immovable
foundations of our whole American system
of civil. political and religious liberty
achieved through the orderly process of
law. This was the work allotted him to
do; this is the work he did; and only a
done it.
I'VE have Travelled far since his day.
That liberty of conscience which he de-
manded for himself, we now realize must
be as freely accorded to others as IL Is
IesoIulely insisted upon TOR ourselves. Inc
splendid qualities which he left to his
children, we other Americans who are not
of Puritan blood also claim as our heritage.
You, sons of the Puritans, and we, who
are descended from races whom the Puri-
tans would have deemed alien-we are all
Americans together. We all feel the same
pride in the genesis, In the history, of our
people; and therefore this shrine of Puri-
tanism is one at which we all gather TO pay
homage, no matter from what country our
ancestors sprang.
Must Not Lose Sense of Duty.
I'VE have gained some things that the
Puritan had Motive of this generation,
we OF the twentieth century, here in this
great republic; but we are also in LANCER
Of losing certain things which the Puritan
had and which we can by no manner of
means afford to lose. We have gained a
joy of living which he had not, and which
1t is n good thing for every people TO have
and to develop. Let us see TO it that we
do not lose what Is more important still.
that We do not lose the Puritan's iron
sense of duty, his %unbending. unflinching
will to do the light as 1t was given him
TO see the right. 1t is a good thing that
life should gain in sweetness. but ONLY pro-
Ease and rest and pleasure are good
things, but only If they come as the re-
ward or work well done, of a good fight
we'll won, of strong efforts resolutely
made and crowned by high achievement
The life of mere pleasure, of mere effort
less ease, is as ignoble for n nation as for
an individual. The man is but q poor
father who teaches his sons that case and
pleasure should be their chief objects in
life; the woman who is a mere petted toy,
incapable of serious purpose, shrinking
from effort and duty, is more pitiable than
the Veriest oVerworked drudge. So he is
but a poor leader of the people, but a poor
national adviser, who seeks to make the