Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-02-24
CLEAR. CRISP AND CLEAN
BIRTHDAY ADDRESS


mons have been preached. Many
Il OF our readers yesterday listened
to pulpit eloquence on the subject of
the Father of His Country. We will not
tiespass upon their patience by at
tempting a belated sermon. We would
like to have your attention, however.
while we recall to your recollection the
fact that George Washington was the
founder of Americanism as well as the
father of his country. 1t must have
been difficult for a man of aristocratic
ancestry, one who was not man OF
The people in the common acceptation
Of that term, a STAKEHOLDER and an
sristocrat, TO bring himself to the point
of asserting to the proposition of the
freedom and equality of all men at their
creation But he became the champion
If the people because he believed in
God and the Right-and in the people.
Any one who is student of human
nature, which is much the same today
as it was yesterday and the day be-
fore in history. will readily see that the
language of the Declaration was for
eign to the circumstance and environ
roent of washington's birth and up
lringing.
I'VE hold these truths to be self-evi-
dent, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Crea-
tor with certain unalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty and
.no z,,,rs,,;t af haDpipass Thar IN CO.
cure these rights governments are in
stituted among men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the gov
erned; that whenever any form of gov
eminent becomes destructive of these
ends it is the right of the people to
alter or abolish it and to institute
new government
The right to revolt when conditions
become intolerable is here declared to
he perpetual right and one that did
not end with the close of the war of
the Revolution. But it is not at all
likely and it is not at all desirable that
Americans should ever be driven to
have recourse to this first principle
the right TO use force in order to clean
house and establish conditions of life,
liberty and happiness. 1t is highly de-
sirable, however. that citizens, much
more frequently and faithfully than
they have been in the past, should be
reminded by pulpit and by press that
as long as the United States exists as
a nation there eo-exists the right of the
PEOPLE to what President Roosevelt
calls a square deal-Eot merely the
privilege or the opportunity, but the
RIGHT.
Two characteristics have marked the
American people in the years that
have elapsed since Washington and his
Americanism. One is a long-suffering,
Dumb, pathetic patience under condi-
tions which from time to time have
Knocked the memory of Washington
and fcuted Independence" Another
is a fantastic acquiescence in condi-
tons created within comparatively re-
cent years, conditions which wage per-
petual war against the GREATEST good
Tor the greatest number, which starve
thousands Of our American people.
which deprive hundreds of thousands
Of children of school privileges. which
are altogether bad and absolutely
wrong.
Now, Americanism may not be a
panacea, but 1t was the mothers milk
Of our country, upon which the young
giant grew lusty and strong. The land
has long ago grown away from apron
strings and first conditions. but it has
not forsworn first principles. and even
ia the days of meat the first principles
Of Americanism are still the vital
principles of America. and should stu
pourish the country.