Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-08-19
CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY
OF THE TOWN OF SOLON.
CONTINUED from Page One.)

in the thought that your companion
ship. your citizenship has been SO
pleasantly adjusted in the grand old
town, that you are able to make merry
with the years.
The mounds in yonder churchyard
speak today. We mingle joy with tears,
sunshine with the storm. But, thanks
be to God in the bottom of the cruel
BILE we find the nugget of gold. for So
! Ions hundred years have been a ben
ediction of peace, credit to herself
and to the State.
Again with gratitude we recall the
passionate love our forefathers bore for
education. Every settlement has been
blest with it's free schools, and very
early in our colonial history they es-
tablished Harvard College We are the
heirs of a goodly heritage. 1t is your
high privilege, my friends. to live in
a community where the standard of ed
ucation, virtue and comfort are prob
ably as high as any rural community
in the world. And, as a result of all
this. we are an educated people
Every life has infinite power in fact.
there is no limit to achievement with one
carrying out the will of God. Watts took
the giant steam and after tanning it made
it turn the iron arms of industry Frank
lin. playing with the lightning. grasped
the thunderbolt, and Morse and Edison
and others, Selling it, distance became
annihilated. Today men are flying
through the air like birds; flashing their
speech thousands of miles without even
the miracle of wires. They have en-
balmed the human voice and turned dark
ness into day. And yet, friends, you and
know that other and greater discoveries
yet await the curious prying eyes of men.
In the language of Jesus, as recorded in
Johns gospel "Other men labored and
ye have entered into their labors." This
is the uplift of the centuries, for, after
all, what is civilization but the accumu-
lation of each life added to each other
NE 1t is the realization in part of the
hopes and ambitions of the race, and this
great heritage is ours because throughout
all the ages past men have been reach
ing out to things that were beyond them.
Each generation in turn has added it's
wealth to the common store and the gen
efations to come are sure to go on in
the infinite progression until that time
shall come towards which mankind has
ever dreamed, the dawn of the perfect
day.
The saddest thing in all our American
life is the chronic political fault finder
the man who never sees anything right
in government. He is sure to exaggerate
He is always unfair
affirm that ours is the best form of
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the world. Every voter is a sovereign:
the ballot the pride of every American:
every true citizen a power. The man who
neglects to vote on election day is de-
serving of the severest censure Every
honest vote is needed to preserve the
equilibrium Of pure politics. When a man
sneers at politics and cries out that lit is
dirty. / will have nothing to do with
it," he abdicates his throne. If all were
like him we would be governed by king.
Such man lacks patriotism. for patriot
ism is nothing but the love and reverence
for the principle and the great thought
which our forefathers have held SO dear.
Man cannot live to himself alone with
out colossal crime .sgc,s,
And now. friends, what splendid tri-
umph is yours today! Who can measure
the fruits of a hundred years? AS we
look back over the past, what though
some little shadow may have crept over
the valleys. the sunlight playing with
golden radiance on yonder hilltop gave us
the assurance that the little night of dis
comfort. of vexation and of sorrow. was
soon to pass and give place to the bright
ness of the coming day. In sunshine and
in storm, with loyalty and love nobly
have you stood by this grand old town
But, friends. let US not forget that today