Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1910-09-08


| ed on the frontier There is need at
present to encourage the development
of new abilities which can be brought
to high perfection only BY klhu Oh
| training useless In pioneer times, but
! these new qualities can only supple
ment and never suppiant the oiu'
homcly virtues; the need for the spe-
cial and distinctive pioneer virtues Is
as great as ever.
| In other words, as our civilization
grows older and more complex, WINE
! 1t is true that we need new forms Oh
trained ability and need to develop
men whose lives are devoted wholly TO
the pursuit of special objects, 1t Is yet
also true that we need a greater ana
not a less development of the iunda-
mental 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 comradcship, OF social good
fellowship Any man who had the
good fortune to live among the olu
frontier conditions must In looking
back realize how vital was this feelihs
OF general comradcship and social TEL
lowship.
There were good men and bad men
in the new communities just as in the
old communities, and the conditions
on the frontier were such that the
qualities Of the good and bad alike
were rather more strikingly manifest
cd than in older communities, but
among the men who tried to lead hard
working, decent lives there was feel
ing of genuine democracy, which rep
resented 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 We're
equal when they were not equal, but
we did our best to secure something
like an equality of opportunity and an
equality of reward for good service.
and, moreover, each man expected to
be received, and on the whole was re-
ccivcd wherever he went ON the foot
ing that his merits warranted
Now, so far as possible, these quail
ties and the conditions that bring
about these qualities should be kept in
the great states which are growing
out of the old frontier communities.
We need to strive for the general So
cial betterment of the people as a
whole and yet to encourage individual
liberty and set high reward ON indiyid-
ual initiative up to the point where
they become detrimental to the gen.
cral welfare
In continually and earnestly striving
for this betterment of social and eco
nDmic conditions in our complex in
dustriai civilization we should work
in the old frontier spirit Of rugged
strength and courage and yet with the
old frontier spirit of brotherly COM
radeship and good will
do not mean that we should refrain
from hating wrong. On the contrary,
would preach fiery wrath against
wrong. But l would not preach such
! wrath against the wrongdoer save in
those cases where his wrongdoing real
/ ly is due to evil moral attributes on
his part and not to a wrong or false
system, of which he is almost as much
| the victim as the beneficiary.
/ Sometimes n wrong represents the
4 deliberate wickcdness of the wrong
4 docr, in which case the remedy is tC
\ punish him, but sometimes it repre-
sents the effects of false social sys
tenn, in which case the right course is
4 to alter what is false in the system
4 Both principles need to be kept III
view as guides to our conduct, and il
4 is necessary sometimes to work in &c
4 cordance with one and sometimes il
II accordance with the other
4 Before ending l wish to say a word
ON something which, believe, should
especially interest all men who live III
the open country. and especially ali
men who during the past thirty years
4 have lived and worked on ranches OF
i have done their life work in the wilder
parts of our land, on the great plains
4 or among the mountains
\ The phase of our national life il
| which the stockman, the mining pros
A pector, the frontier farmer and theil
4 associates We're the chief characters
was not only an important, but also 9
4 very picturesque phase.
4 Often such a phase passes without
any great artist arising to commem
\ crate it. The old time backwoodsman
4 for instance, the man of the back coun
4 try, who lived in the eastern forests
d through which the waters ran east
A ward to the Atlantic and westward t.
4 the Mississippi, passed away without
4 any painter or sculptor arising, who
\ vision to see what a vital and pic
turesque figure the backwoodsman was
A and the genius adequately to prescn
that figure
Monument For Remington.
The artists who saw the picturesque
A ness of the backwoodsman lacked tn,
4 genius adequately to commemorate it
i while the artists Of real ability unfor
4 tunatcly had their eyes turned towar1
i Europe and lacked the robust original
I ity- which the novelist Cooper Shove,
q to see where their chance lay TODD {
great work.
4 But in or. generation for our goe'
i fortune II great artist arose who wat
4 capable of seeing and of recording the
4 infinite picturesqueness of the life OF
the plains and the Rockies. OF course
4 speak of Frederic Remington. Ht
/ was one of those Americans who b.
their achievements distinctly deserved
1 we'll of America. He worked will
4 pencil, With brush, with chisel. liz
was both painter and a sculptor