Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-03-01

continent require the putting forth of
those splendid individual qualities of
heroism and self assertion incarnated
in the pioneer. The pioneer must act
wholly upon his own initiative. He
must go into the wilderness with his
axe and his rifle He must have
courage, endurance, industry, patience,
skill
''He must be undaunted by failure;
the spectres of suffering, of hunger
and cold must not terrify him. Within
his breast there must be dynamic
force which drives him on.
| $50 valuable have been these quail
ties, so great the tasks accomplish
ed by the men who have possessed
them, that they have become embod-
led in the creed of American life.
The American child is taught that he
must have pluck, initiative and enter
prise. He must get there He must
1 depend upon himself He must land
on his feet. He must reach the top
of the ladder no matter what becomes
of those he pushes aside in the as.
cent.
Under limitations these qualities
are admirable. We want men of abil-
ity, of ambition, of persistence, men
who believe in themselves. But
/ desire to point out some very grave
dangers which have resulted and will
continue to result from the overem.
phasis of the forest.
THE pioneer was law unto him
self. The citizen of the great city is
only one man in a hundred thousand.
Each Of that hundred thousand has
his own needs, his own desires, is
seeking his own ends, and each is en-,
titled to equal consideration under the
great law of democracy.
''The failure of our civic life has
| come largely from the fact that we
have carried our self assertive, indi-
vidualistic qualities of the pioneer in.
to the life of our American cities.
Each man has been bent, with rest
less energy, upon carving out his own
fortune, seeking his own ends, and
he has been careless of the fact that
he owed any duty or responsibility
whatever to the community in which
| he lived
..We are beginning to realize that
this Indifference to the duties and OBJ.
lligations of citizenship cannot contin-
ue. A man is not good citizen, he
is not even respectable citizen, nor
a desirable one, simply because he is
4 rich, because he has great possessions,
because he has pulled down the an
cient landmarks and built business
blocks on the sites. A man is not
good citizen today because he has the
sterling qualities of the old pioneer,
because his is shrewder or stronger
or more inscriptions than his COM
petitof. ''r''7-'-7- =
In the wilderness the strong arm
and the keen eye, and the finger
quick on the trigger, were the distin-
gushing marks of the successful man
and the desirable citizen. You can
not carry over these qualities into
the city. Or, if you do, you will have
ia civilization which is brutal, coarse,
with anarchy and revolution revolu-
| ton looming through the red haze
ahead.
| Labor in the cities grows more and
more cooperative. There must be buy
ers as well as sellers, and the rights
of each must be protected. The train.
ed hand takes the place of the strong
arm. Instead of the subduing of the
wilderness, the arts must be cult
waited.
THE true citizen of the modern city
is the man who forgets himself; who
is sensitive to the city's myriad moods
and endless wants, to it's passions and
its pains, to the marvelously compli-
Gated life which goes on beneath the
stars by night and the pail of smoke
by day.
Responsibility! That Is the key.
word of the new citizenship. Here
is this complex life which has been
called into being. 1t is a living or
ganism; it has soul. Infinite pos
sibilities are contained within it's flu.
ture. We have not yet begun to meas.
! ure these forces; hardly to under.
stand them.
i who shall be responsible for the
city? Who, if not her citizens, and
her educated citizens, her men OF
training and resoucefulness and pow.
| er?
What is the city for? What is its
end and aim? Is it not, in the provi-
dence of God, the place where life
| shall be better and ssweeter and rich
er and more abundant than elsewhere?
| It's functions of government, it's
schools, and its libraries, its public
u ~