The wageworker., 1909-10-09
A TRIBUTE TO NEBRASKA.
Continued from Page H.

n hI6O z ~ NE6nA0NA.
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"Of course we had grasshoppers and
drouths and chinchbugs in our earlier
years, but every one of us knows that
we are better off for having had
measles and mumps and chickenpox
in our boyhood days. Nebraska has
survived all the infantile diseases that
afflict young state in the making
and today our commonwealth stands
out as the guidon to which all her
sister states right dress in the parade
before the nations of the world.
81 have spoken of our material re-
sources; let me now speak of some
thing else. The mathematicians have
figured out that the center of popula-
ton of this republic is near Muncie,
Indiana. They have figured out that
the geographical center of the United
States and her possessions is some
where on the broad bosom of the Pa
cific two thousand miles west of the
Golden Gate. The scientists who
study the mental, moral and physical
development of the human race have
figured out the development of this
age along those lines, and they have
discovered at last what we Nebraskans
have known all the time, that the
center of the worlds best manhood
and womanhood, the center of the
ages greatest development along men
tai, moral and physical lines, it To-
Gated within few miles of the pros
porous little city of Hastings, which
is very near the center of Grand
Young Nebraska.
"Mr. Toastmaster, in the brief time
at my command l have endeavOred to
give you an inkling of what our splen-
did state really is. All this is not
the output of the irresponsible and
irrepressible press agent or the writer
of ads. for cure-all preparations of the
patent brand. The Lincoln Ad Club
of which I am a charter member, has
adopted as its fundamental principle
the insistent demand that all the ad-
vertising written by it's members shall
be honest; that every advertisement
put forth by it's members shall be
backed up by the goods, the price and
the service. That, l am informed, is
also the basic principle of this mag
nificent Ad Club of St. Joseph Far
be it from me, then, to depart one
fift1o fhic honnfnnnf r,rip
ciple. This is no Rears-S -Sawbuck cata-
logue sort of publicity that I am Civ
ing you-it is the gospel truth, written
in the calm and serene repose of an
evening cooled by the balmy breezes
that continually blow across our fertile
Nebraska plains and hills. If there
should be in all this goodly company
one doubling Nathaniel let me quote
the language of Simon Peter and say,
Come and see!' And when you come
We'll show great state, a state
whose present greatness is unrealized
even by the most enthusiastic Ne
braskan, and whose future possibili-
ties are too vast for mortal mind to
grasp. Well welcome you with a
hospitality that knows neither metes
nor bounds, and make you feel so
thoroughly at home that Governor
Hadley will have to ask Governor
Shallenberger for writs of extradition
in order to get you back.
Would that l had the harp of an
Apollo and the voice of Homer that
might sing in fitting phrase the
praises of Nebraska. Would that l
had the eloquence of Cicero or a
Demosthenes that 1 might paint for
your delectation eloquent word pic
lures of our beloved commonwealth.
Not being the possessor of any of
these attributes can but tell in halt
ing phrase of the proud young COM
monwealth whose star adds lustre to
the azure of the Nations flag and
whose history records the greatest
epoch in all the vast expanse of time
An empire wrought by willing hands
From wasted stretch of desert lands,
You offer wealth to those who toll
Your richest need of treasure yields
To those who till thy fertile fields;
The smile of God is on thy soil
Nebraska"