The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1910-08-31

men, the miners, the COW punchers,
the mul-skinners, the bull-whackers
who actually opened up the coun-
try. l have seen the herds and nocks
of the cattlemen and sheepm en- sup
plant the game, l have seen the for
tunate movment by which the small
farm has tended gradually to take
the place of the great unfenced
ranch. now travei in every comfort
on railways across lands which when
| first rode across them, were still
the home of the 1ndian and the buff
falo; and l find cities where one can
obtain not merly comfort but lux
ury in the places where 80 years ago
there was not a building beyond a |
log hut or a dobie house. The men
who did this work were engaged in
the final stages of conquerng the
continent; and it was their privilege
to do one of the great works of all
time, to do their part in the perform
ancc of an epic feat in the history
of the progress of mankind.
Stand for Progress.
Il have used the work progress
The west stands for growth. for pro-
gress. So must the whole American
people stand. A great democracy
must be progressive or it will soon
cease to be either great or demo-
cratic. No nation, no state, no party,
can stand still 1t must either go
forward or go backward: and it be
comes useless if ii goes backward
Therefore | greet you, men of the
west, and l stand for progress as
all men must stand who are progress
sive.
THE pioneers and their immediate
successors won victory only by prov
ing that they possessed the great.
masterful qualities which lie at the
foundation of national greatness.
There are certain well-meaning men
of intellectual cultivation. but lack
ing mental and moral robustness,
who complain continually that they
find American life, and especially the
life of those American communities
emerging from the pioneer stage,
crude and without genius or beauty
Genius is fine thing for a nation,
but character is a still finer thing
and though beauty is good. strength
is an even greater good.
'"The men who have made this
great republic of the west what it is
especially the men who have turned
it into continental commonwealth,
| have possessed in the highest degree
the great virile virtues of strength,
courage, energy. and undaunted and
unwavering resolution. Their typi-
cal leaders-of within Abraham Lin
| In h.
was the most typical--have possessed
keen intelligence, and character
not merely strong but lofty, char
acter exalted by the fact that great
power was accompanied by high
and fine determination to use this
great power for the common good,
for the advancement of mankind
The pioneer days are over, save in a
few places; and the more complex
life of today calls for greater var
iety of good qualities than were
needed on the frontier. There Is
need at present to encourage the de-
velopment of new abilities which can
be brought to high perfection only
| by a kind of training useless in pio-
neer times: but these new qualities
can only supplement, and never sup
plant, the old, homely virtues; the
need for the special and distinctly,
pioneer virtues is as great as ever.
| In other words. as our civilization
grows older and more complex. while
it is true that we need to develop
men whose lives are devoted wholly
to the pursuit of special objects. 1t
is yet also true that we need a great
er and not a less development of the
| fundamental frontier virtues. These
virtues include the power of self-help
together with the power of joining
with others for mutual help, and.
what is especially important, the
feeling of comradeship, of social
good-fellowship. Any man who had
the good fortune to live among the
old frontier conditions must, in look
ing back, realize how vital was this
feeling of general comradeship and
social fellowship. There were good
| men and bad men in the new COM
| munities just as in the old commu-
mites, and the conditions of the from
| tier were such that the qualities of
the good and bad alike were rather
| more strikngly manifested than in
men who tried to lead hard working,
| decent lives, there vas a feeling Of
genuine democracy. which represent
ed an approach to the American
ideal which we certainly should do
everything in our power to preserve
We did not try to say that men were
equal but we did our best to secure
something like an equality OF oppor-
tunity and an equality of reward for
good service; and. moreover each
man expected to be received, and, on
the whole, was received wherever he
went on the footing that his merits
warranted.
Strive for Social Bettermcnts
Nov, so far as possible these
qualities and the conditions thai
hiring about these qualities should be
kept in the great states which arc
growing out of the old frontier com
munities. We need to strive for the
general social betterment OF the PEG.
pie as whole, and yet to encour-
age individual liberty and set high
the point where they become detrl-
mental to the general welfare. In
continually and earnestly striving for
this bcttcrment Of social and econ
omic conditions in our complex in
dustrlal civilization, we should worl:
in the old frontier spirit of rugged
strength ana courage. and yet with