Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-01-05
Eminent Divine Reviews
achievements OF Past Year

most urgent need of the modern world is
a moral equivalent to war must feel that
the need is now being supplied. No year
has witnessed such a fervor of reform as
that which has just closed; holy war
has been waged against graft and greed
from one ocean to the other. The Golden
Gate has a new glory added to it, like
the brightness of the sun.
'If Theodore Roosevelt has been our
crowned captain "a host of others have
followed in his train, and the country we
love is much farther along the heights of
moral excellence than a twelve-month
ago. The rapid and wellnigh irresistible
march of prohibition is part and parcel
of this magnificent onward movement,
The map of the nation has never been
half so white as it is today, and the mill
tant days of 1907 brought about this mir
acle of cleansing. The war Is not ended,
but it is we'll begun. We made history
last year. and to quote the language of
President Woodrow Wilson: 1T is well to
build high places wherein to plant the
clear and flaming lights of experience,
that they may shine alike upon the roads
already Travelled, and upon the paths not
yet attempted And this is one of our
high places, and there is no light that
shines more clearly than that upon the
path not vet attempted that which will
lead to total prohibition in the City of
the Angels For when we look at home,
we see that the wave of reform has
reached our borders. and if 1908 is a
worthy successor to 1907, the saloon may
lust as well get ready to go. The coun-
try is ripe for a temperance revolution,
and we are not going to be the last to
get into line.
"This good old year was rich also in
historic memories The jamestown Ex-
hppD a financial
success, but sentimentally it was unriv-
allied Three hundred years of golden
deeds, the splendid heritage Of this Chris
tan nation. No legal technicalities, no
official edict, expressed or implied, can
avail to hide from the children and youth
of this city the Face of the White
Christ shining with a light that never
was on sea or land. Nor do we, for one
moment, think that anyone in Los An
geles desired that such a thing should be
done. In spite of all the secularized
tendencies of the times, the past year, in
many unmistakable ways, revealed the
fact that the people of this western world
are more sanely religious than ever be-
fore
1.-TWO other features of this great year
may be noted, ere we bring this ram
bling review to a timely close. Not the
fourteen thousand mile trip of the battle
canal; not the Owens river aqueduct
These are great incidents. But when all
is said, the two great moral victories of
the year were, first, the real heroism and
phophetic insight of our much-maliSned
president who has refused third term
in his great office, which would have
been his at a turn of his hand; and then.
best of all, the marvellous self contorl of
the American people in the face of what
,,,tob+ hava been the most fearful finan-
Ecial panic in the history OF the country,
! and vet which, through their moral hero
| ism. and the wisdom and sagacity of
| their financial leaders, has been trans
formed into period of quiet reasonable
ness and thoughtful confidence, which
augurs a time of more substantial
progress and sober happiness, than this
generation has yet known The great
heart of 1907 has ceased to beat but con-
fdently awaits the verdict of history 1t
will hold a high place among the years of
the twentieth century,