Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-07-03
THE DAY WE CELEBRATE

It was the result of the first shot for indepen- dence at Concord 134 years ago that the biggest men in the then colonies later appended their signatures to the Declaration of Indepen- dence" But be it observed and thoroughly un- derstood that the mere promulgation of this document did not bring independence.
 Independence was wrung from an unwilling mother country only at terrible cost in lives and money.
 It was worth it and the price was paid will lngly. That was many years ago, and we have forgotten some of the lessons of that struggle.
 In forgetting we have been merely human. There is no memory so bitter, no sorrow so great, but yields to the soothing influence of time and the crowding of events in our busy modern life affords small opportunity for dwell ling on the past
 Thus we have come to think of our nation as a thing incarnate, something intangible in the concrete, made up of policies, rules and prin- ciples, instead of human institution composed of men and women of flesh and blood, human beings with passions liable at any time to sway the nation as they sway the individual, for veal or woe, fearlessly in defiance of the laws of God or man. And we have come to regard other nations in the same light
 Our tendency in this direction has been given an impulse, because modern invention has brought the world close together. We visit other countries and mix with other people. We enter tain travellers from every country on the face of the globe. We take in every year thousands upon thousands of immigrants from every Eur opean country. Our women have intermarrled with men from every civilized nation We are at peace with the world. The entire world rec ognzes the independence of the United States. Why, therefore, give it's maintenance serious thought!
 With our mother's milk we had implanted in our minds the complacent dream that the United States stands aloof from the rest of the world. We believe in this as we believe that the sun rises and sets. We pay no heed to the lessons of history, although they show very clearly that war is the result of progression, precpitated by acquisitiveness. When the United States desired to expand westward it hestated not to drive the Indian out of the lands which were his. The same was true when we took California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas from the Mexicans. All the wars which the earth has known will pale into insignifcance beside the great war which will inevitably come as result of inter- national commercial competition. Instead of promoting peace, the Interviewing of interna- tional commercial relations will lead to dis putes, and, strong as is the individual and na- tional desire for peace it has no standing with that first law of human nature-self- -preserva- ton.
 Before the United States became an indepen- dent nation and flung the stars and stripes to the breeze other peoples had passed through their national infancy-whether under dictator ship, absolute monarchy or limited monarchy Uhoco oI +bn;r ence any less than we They will not fight for it less valiantly. What is the attitude of these older nations todavG Let us ouote from an in teresting author. who tells us that:
 Germany can mobilize a million men in a