The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1908-07-23

asserts too truly when he says, "as an
American wish 1 could say that the
| United States is Mistress of the seas:
that vessels sailing under her flag were
found on every ocean highway and
in every prominent port. Alas! it is
not so. Our position as a maritime
nation is represented by one single
form of success-the building of the
fastest 80 foot racing yacht" Cochrane
is right. would 60 further. would
add to his statement that our foreign
commerce is the laughing stock Of the
world and our navy is question mark.
l believe in my sovereign country,
but do not believe in it's foreign COM
merce. What little we had in the be-
ginning went overheard during the
Civil War.
L will thrust no more statistics upon
you, friends. My enthusiasm and the
sublimity of my subject have reached
| plane where statistics are too tame.
The mysterious measured utterances
of the. oracle who proceeded me de-
mand ar encounter too rabid for sta
tistics. With infinite care he polished
prejudice to resemble truth. He has
attempted to cloud real facts with OBJ
scurity and absurdity and he has lifted
in august effrontery three or four
hacknied limmericks as proof positive
of his jesting contentious.
From the dim day of filibustering
Rameses II. down thru all the Weiss
itudes of centuries, black and fair,
pedants, pedagogues, and palaverers
have successively and persistantly de-
duced great susquipidalian theories
of popinjay calibre, from the follow
ing sophisms:
1stly. To the discoverer belongs
the credit.
2ndly. There is no such achieve
ment without population. Therefore
the source of population is the demi-
god who wears the sweet-bay.
3rdly. That multiplication involves
new factors That progress and ex-
pansion demand that the ranks be
replenished and increased.
Now these three clauses are truisms.
but they are often used like the cat
argument OF the ancients, who claimed
that no cat had nine tails, that one cat
was one more than no cat, that there
fore one cat had ten tails. My oppo-
nents argument is of the same breed
as that of the aucients. If the affirm
ing gentleman has not put the ques-
tiOn directly he has in substance asked
you what on earth we would have done
il this country had never been dis
covered, with ships, what under the
sun would have become of this land if
ships had not borne thru the billOwy
crests of the ocean the first immigrants
for the settlements and lastly, how,
in the name of painted Cherokee half
breeds, we were, as nation, to accom-
plish anything unless our ranks were
replenished and increased by means
of ships How manifestly beautiful
are these remarks. How sublime their
spirit. If there were just four more
of them to, complete the seven, these
tenets, unquestionably, would rival
the beatitudes. Wouldn't it be exquis-
ite?
[ assert here that discovery is
minor gift ant so is exploration. But
I say that development is the greatest
boon. Discovery achieves nothing but
the beginning and sometimes not even
the beginning. Did discovery and ex-
plOrati0n make us nationp Did they
solve our future? Did the boat that
cast Alexander Silkirk upon that lonely
savage island prolong his life or work
his salvation? No. 1t left him there
to die or live. The result was beyond
its influence. Do vessels that sail up
the Delaware or the Hudson and cast
their human freight ashore, ever after
Influence the passengers that leave
themY Some fiippant fop may say,
Yes, they bring tea and coffee and silk.
But these items are not benefits.
ask you to mark the words that
am about to say. a man and q wom-
an. husband and wife, bring to this
world three children. No one will
dispute the fact that these three chill
dren could never have existed but for
these parents. One child is blind.
Another is deaf. And the third is