The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1908-05-16
Presidents Speech.


The President said:
1T IS a pleasure to be with you today.
and TO bid you welcome on behalf OF the
nation, here in the Capital OF the Ma
ton. Important though the Methodist
Church IS Ia many lands, there IS none
in which il has played so great ana
peculiar a part as mere in the United
States. It's history is indissOlubly inter
woven with the history Of our country
for the six score years since the cOnsJ1-
tutiOnal convention made US really
nation. Methodism in America entered
on its period Of rapid growth just about
the time Of WashingtOn's first Presi-
dency-
ats essential democracy, its fiery
and restless energy OF spirit, and
the wide play that it gave to indi-
viduaI initiative, all tended TO make
IT peculiarly cOngeniaI to a hardy
and Virile folk, democratic to the
core. prizing individual independ-
enee above all earthly possessions,
and engaged in the rough and
stern work of cOnquering a cOntl-
nent.
.sNethodism spread eveh among the
old communities and the loug-settled dis
rricts of the Atlantic tidewater; buI us
phenomenal growth was from Jhese re-
g{Ous westward The whole country Is
Under a debt OF gratitude TO the Metho-
dist circuit riders, the Methodist pioneer
preachers. whose movement westward
kept pace with the movement OF the
frontier. who shared all the haIdshlps
in the life OF the frontiersman, while at
the same time ministeT1ng TO that IRON
tiersman's spiritual needs, and seeing
that his pressing material cares and
the hard and grinding poverty OF his
life did not wholly eXtlngulsh the ClVlne
are within his soul.
Field Of Service Widens.
such was your work IN the past; and
your work IN the present is as great;
for the need and opportunity for serv-
ice widen as the field of national in
terest widens. II is not true in this
country that the poor have grown poor
er; but It IS true that in many sections.
and particularly in our large cities, the
rich have grown so very much richer
as to widen the gulf between the man
of very large means and the man who
makes each days livelihood by that
DAYS work: and those who with sim
cerity. and efficiency, and deep convic-
| ton. band together for mutual help are
those who can DO most 10 keep the
| gulf from becoming too wide True re-
| ligion, through church organizations
| through philathropic organizations, in
all the field Of kindred endeavor, can
/
| crowded and complex life OF today as
| in the pioneer yesterdays; and the souls
/ OF men need the tight now, and strive
/ blindly toward j., as they needed il and
! strOve toward in the vanished past.
| 1T is your task to do the work of
| the Lord on the farm and in the mine,
/ in the coUntingroom and the factory.
/ in the car shops and beside the blast
| ing furnaces, just as IL was the task
| of your spiritual fOrebeaTS TO Wrestle
for the souls Of the men and women
| who dwelt on the stump-dotted clearings
| in the wilderness.
'ENO ration I'm the world has more
right tIan ours TO IOOE with proud
confidence toward the future. Me-
where else has the experiment OF
democratic government, Of govern
ment by the people and for the
people, of government based on the
principle of treating each man on
his innate worth as a man, been
tried on so vast a scsie as with
us; and on the whole the expert
ment has been more successful
than anywhere else. Moreover, on
the whole, ! think 1t can be said