The Mena weekly star., 1910-06-16

hand down a history of heroic achieve ment, and for all time to come may pro foundly influence the nations that arise in tts place by the impress of what it has done Best of all is 1t to do our part well. and at the same time to see our blood live young and vital fin men and women flt to take up the task as we lay it down. for so shall our seed inherit the earth. But if this. which is best, is denied us, then at least it Is ours to remember that if we choose we can be torch bearers, as our fathers were before us. The torch has been handed on from nation to nation. fron civilization to civilization through out aH recorded time, from the dim years before history dawned, down to the bla- zing splendor of this teeming century of OUTS. It is dropped from the hand of the coward and the sluggard, of the man wrapped in luxury or love of ease. the man whose soul was eaten away by self indulgenoes 1t has been kept alight only by those who were mighty of heart and cunning of hand What they worked at. providing it was worth doing at all. was of no less matter than how they worked. whether in the realm of the mind or the realm of the body. If their work was good. if what they achieved was of sub stance, then high success was really theirs.
 Strength With Morality.
 Tn the first part of this lecture drew certain analogies between what had oc- cured to forms of animal life through the procession of the ages on this planet. and what has occurred and is occurring to the great artificial civilizations which have gradually spread over the worlds surface during the thousands of years that have elapsed since cities of temples and palaces first rose beside the Nile and the Euphrates. and the harbors of Minoan Crete bristled with the masts of -f tf.a parallel is true only in the toughest and most general way. Moreover, even between the civilizations of today and the civilizations of ancient times there arc differences so profound that we must be cautious in drawing any conclusions for the present based on what has hap pened in the past. While freely admit ting all of our follies and weaknesses of today 1t is yet mere perversity to refuse to realize the incredible advance that has been made in ethical standards. l do not believe that there is the slightest nec- essary connection between any weaken ing of virile force and this advance Tn the moral standard. this growth of the sense of obligation to ones neighbor and of reluctance to do that neighbor wrong. We need have scant patience with that silly cynicism which insists that lMndli- ness of character only accompanies weakness of character. On the contrary. just as In private life many of the men of strongest character are the very men of loftiest and most exalted morality, SO believe that in national life as the ages go by we shall find that the permanent national types will more and more tend towards those in which, while the intel lect stands high. character stands higher; Tn which rugged strength and courage, rugged capacity to resist wrongful ag- sression by others, will go hand in hand ,ith lofty scorn of doing wrong to oth-
 ss. This is the type of Timoleon. of
 amPden, of Washington and Lincoln. These were as good mon, as disinterested
 nd unselhsh men. as ever served
 ate; and they were also as strong men
 ever founded or saved state. Surely such examples prove that there is noth- ag Utopian in our effort to combine justice and strength In the same nation. The really high civilizations must them selves supply the antidote to the self-in- dulgence and love of ease which they tend to produce.
 Problems of Modern Nations.
 Every modern civilized nation has many and terrible problems to solve within its own borders. problems that arise not merely from juxtaposition of poverty and riches, but especially from the self-con- sciousness of both poverty and riches. Each nation must deal with these mat ters in it's own fashion, and yet tho spirit !n which the problem is approached must ever be fundamentally the same. It must be a spirit of broad humanity; of brotheriy kindness; of acceptance of re- sponsibility, one for each and each for all; and at the same time akspirit as re- mote as the poles from every form of weakness and sentimentality. As in war to pardon the coward Is to do cruel wrong to the brave man whose life his cowardice jeopardizes, so in civil affairs fkT justice to give to the lazy, the vicious, or even the feeble and dull-witted, a reward which Is really the robbery of what braver, wiser. abler men have earned The only effective way to help any man is to help him to help himself; and the worst lesson to teach him is that he can be permanently helped at the expense of some ons else. True liberty shows itself to beet advantage in protecting the rights of others, and especially of minorities Privilege should not be tolerated because it is to the advantage of a minority, nor yet because 1t is to the advantage of a majority No doctrinaire theories of vested rights or freedom of contract can stand in the way of our cutting out abuses from the body polite. Just a lit- tie can we afford to follow the doctrin- aires of an impossible-and incidentally of a highly undesirable-social revolution which. In destroying individual rights Qncluding property rights) and the fam fly, would destroy the two chief agents in the advance of mankind. and the two chief reasons why either the advance or the preservation of mankind Is worth while. It s an evil and dreadful thing to be callous to sorrow and suffering, and blind to our duty to do all things possible for the bettormeHt of social conditions But 1t is an unspeakably foolish thing to strive for this betterment by means 80 destructive that they would leave no so- cial conditions to better& In dealing with all these social problems, with the inti- mate relations Of the family with wealth in private use and business use. with la bor. with poverty, the one prime neces- sity is 10 remember that. though hard ness of heart is great evil. 1t is no greater an evil than softness of head
 But in addition to these problems the most intimate and important of all which to larger or less degree affect all the modern nations somewhat alike, we of the great nations that have expanded, that are now in complicated relations with one another and with alien races, have special problems and special duties of our own. You belong to 6 nation which pos sesses the greatest empire upon which the sun has ever shone. belong to e nation which is trying on scale hitherto unex- ampled. to work out the problems of gov ernment for of. and by the people, whilJ at the same time doing the International duty of a great power. But there are certain problems which both of have to solve. and as to which our standards should be the same. The EnglIshman, the man Of the British isles, in his various homes across the seas, and the Ameri- can, both at home and abroad, are brought into contact with utterly alien peoples some with civilization more an- cient than our own, others still in, or hosrtF4rr t4rs