The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-02-15
The Nations Tribute To
"a Great White Soul" a
"Humanjzed interpreted
ton of the Golden Rule"

heaven and earth. They lend an added
luster to every time and every place,
lust as one who wears the human form
worthily confers nobility on all of the
sons of men.
Abraham Lincoln made every one in
human guise more precious. He re-
minds us of our better selves. He was a
symbol of the homeliest and common
est, yet of the highest and rarest hui
man things. We cannot think of him
without becoming more loving. more
charita bic and more true There is not
an element in him that does not make
one better to contemplate. The pure in
heart can read all Of his life without
blush, and the gentlest and most timid
can view his every deed without a
shudder Lincoln had goodness with
out self righteousness, spirituality
without cant. intellectually without
dogmatism and power without tyran-
ny. He had most of the talents with
none of their abuses. There are many
great men we can admire and respect,
but Lincoln we can love
He was born hundred years ago
this year. 1t is fitting, therefore, that
the land for which he lived and died
ored but one other of its sons We
have not enough of the supreme souls
that we can spare the example of one.
1t is not for their sake that we canon
ize them, but for the sake of all the
rest. They do not need our praise. but
we need their stimulus. BY uplifting
them we uplift ourselves They act as
spiritual magnets to draw us to their
height. By contemplating them we
unconsciously grow like them. No one
can measure the moral force OF one
Lincoln centenary.
All men are In substantial agreement
as to their verdict concerning him.
The only difference is in the degree OF
their praise There is no sectionalism
in his appreciation. The south could
not spare his gentle memory more
than the north. Never was victor
less like a conqueror. 1t is as imposs1-
BILE to feel resentment toward him as
toward a dead father.
We grow like what we love. 1t is
this fact which lends such beautiful
significance to the universal regard
for Lincoln that makes so inspiring
the widespread celebration of the CEN
tenary of his birth. A nation which
builds itself around such an ideal
will not only have a new birth of
freedom" but will have new birth
of peace. of manhood and Of nobility
that will place it in the forefront of
the nations of all time.
1t will be an inspiring spectacle
when at the same hour on Feb. II as
sembieS in all parts of the nation
turn their faces toward the tomb at
Springfield 1t may we'll be that this
ceremony will become worldwide and
that Americans in all parts of the
earth will join the celebratOrs at
Springfield in repeating certain of
Mr.. Lincolns utterances with their
faces toward his place of rest Among
local committee of the Lincoln Cen
tennial association are such distin-
guished men as former Vice President
Adlai f. Stevenson, Chief Justice Full
Ter of the United States supreme
court, Senators CullOm and Hopkins,
Speaker Cannon, Governor Deneen,
General Manager Melville E. Stone Of
the Associated Press and other old or
new friends of the martyr president
equally eminent.
Among those who will participate In
the centenary exercises are the Brit
ish and French ambassadors, the two
recent candidates for the presidency,
ex-Secretary Taft and Mr.. Bryan, and
others whose names are household
words in more than one land Now
that the Springfield program has been
adopted by the educatiOna authorities
of so many of the states this simple
ceremony will become the most widely
observed and impressive memorial
service ever given TO a single man on
the American continent if not in the
world. But this will by no means end
the observation of the Lincoln cente-
nary. Almost equally notable will be
the celebration at the Lincoln birth
place farm. which will then be dedi-
Gated and thrown open to the public
as a national park. At this Kentucky
ceremony President Roosevelt has
promised to be present; also Mark
Twain, Governor Folk and others dis
tinguished in politics. law and letters.
There is a generous emulation with
out rivalry between the two commit
tees that have in charge the respective
celebrations at the birthplace and the
tomb. Thus the two ends of Mr.. Lin
coins pathway will be bright with
glory, while the fame of his life will
stretch like a rainbow between But
the chief celebration will be neither at
Springfield nor at the Rock Spring
farm. 1t will be in the hearts OF the
plain people. who loved him while on
earth, who love him now and ever will
love him as their true friend. They