The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1910-09-02

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-
eeived, wherever he went, on the foot
ing that his merits warranted.
Now, 50 far as possible these quail.
ities 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 social
bettermeut of the people as a whole.
and yet to encourage individual liberty
and set high reward on individual in
itiative up TO the point where they be-
come detrimental TO the general well
fare In continually and earnestly
striving for this betterment of social
and economic conditions In our com.
plex industrial civilization we should
work In the old frontier spirit of rug
ged strength and courage, and yet with
the old frontier spirit Of brotherly
comradeship and good will. | do not
mean that we should refrain from hat
ing wrong; on the contrary, l would
preach fiery wrath against wrong. but
! would not preach such wrath against
the wrong-doer, save in those cases
where his wrong-doing really is due
to evil moral attributes on his part,
and not TO a wrong or false system,
OF which Is is almost as much the VIC
tim as the beneficiary. Sometimes
wrong represents the deliberate wick.
edness of the wrong-doer in which
case the remedy is TO punish him; but
sometimes It represents the effects OF
a false social system, in which case the
right course is TO alter what is false
in the system Both principles need to
be kept in view as guides to our con-
duct and II is necessary sometimes to
work In accordance WITH one and some
times In accordance with the other.
Before ending, | wish to say a
word on something which believe
should especially interest all men who
live in the open country, and especially
all men who during the past thirty
years have lived and worked on
ranches, or have done their life work
in. the wilder parts Of our land; on the
great plains and among the mountains
The phase OF our national life in which
the stockman, the mining prospector,
the frontier farmer and their associates
were the chief characters, was not only
a very important but also a very pic
turesque phase. Often such a phase
passes without any great artist arising
to commemorate It. The old-tlme back
woodsman, for instance. the man of
the back country who lived In the
Eastern forests through which the
waters ran eastward to the Atlantic
and westward to the Mississippi, pass
ed away without any painter or sculp-
tor arising who possessed at once both
the keenness OF vision to see what a
vital and picturesque figure the back
woodsman was, and the genius ade.
quately to present that figure. The ar
lists who saw the picturesqueness of
the backwoodsman lacked the genius
to adequately commemorate It; while
the artists of real ability unfortunately
had their eyes toward Europe, and
lacked the robust origlnallty-whieh
the novelist Cooper showed-to see
where their chance lay to do a great
work. But IN our generation. for our
good fortune a great artist arose who
was capable Of seeing and of recording
tho infinite picturesqueness of the life
of the plains and the Rockies or
course / speak Of Frederick Remington
He was one of those Americans who by
his achievements distinctly deserved
all of America He worked with pencil,
with brush, with ehiseli he gas both a
painter and a sculptor His pictures
and his few bronzes are equally good.
When my own regiment. a typically
Western regiment. recruited mainly
from the men of the great plains and
the mountains, was disbanded at Mon.
tauk Point, the officers and enlisted
men joined in giving me Remlngton's
bronze Broneho Buster, a gift which !
thought peculiarly appropriate, com
ing from such a body Of men. In Rem
ington's pictures all the most vivid and
characteristic features Of the Western
pioneer life which Is Just closing were
set forth, and he has commemmorated
forever the men Of the plains and the
mountains as they actually were. The
cowbow Is bis fayorite type, but the
mining prospector the frontier far.
mer, the man who guides ox-wagon
or mule trains, the soldier the Indian
an appear Now / wish very much that
these men themselves would in turn
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