La Junta tribune., 1910-06-18

- university OF ancient renown
cannot but feel with peculiar vivid.
ness the interest and charm. of his
surroundings. frought as they are
with a thousand associations. Your
great universities. and all the memo
ries that make them great. are living
realities Ia the minds OF scores OF
Thousands Of men who have never
seen them and who dwell across the
seas in other lands. Moreover, these
associations are no stronger in the
men OF English stock than In those
who are not My people have been
for eight generations in America. but
In one thing | am like the Americans
of tomorrow rather than like the
Americans OF today. for have in my
veins the Hood of men who came
from many different European races.
The ethuic makeup Of our people Is
slowly changing. so that constantly
the race tends 20 become more and
more akin 10 that OF those Americans
who. like myself. are OF the old stock
but not mainly of English stock Yet
think that. as time goes by. mu.
tual respect. understanding. and sym.
pathy among the English speaking
peoples grow greater and not less.
Any OF my ancestors. Hollandcr or
Huguenot. .Scotchman or lrlshman. no
had come to oxford In the spacious
days Of great Elizabeth would have
felt far more allen than |. their de
scendant. now feel Common heirship
in the things of the spirit makes a
closer bond than common heirship In
the things Of the body.
More than ever before in the
worlds history. We OF today seek to
penetrate the causes OF the mysteries
that surround not only mankind but
all life. both In the present and the
past. We search. We peer, Ne see
things dlmly. here and there We get
a ray OF clear vision swe look be-
fore and after We study the tre-
mendous procession Of the ages. from
the immemorial past when in ''eramp
elf and saurian forms" the creative
forces "swathed their too-muoh pow
er.' down TO the yesterday. a few
score thousand years distant only
when the history Of man became the
overwhelming fact in the history Of
III. on this planet: and. tudyinx. we
see strange anaiogies In the phenom-
ena OF lie and death. Of birth. growth
and change. between those physical
groups Of animal life which we desig-
nate as species. forms. races. and the
highly complex and composite entities
which rise b.for. our minds when We
speak OF nations and civilizations.
or course there is no exact paral-
lelism between the birth. growth and
death OF species In the animal world
and the tirth. growth and death of
societies in the world OF man Yet
there is a certain parallelism. There
are strange analogies; It may be
that there are homologes
Why do great artificial empires,
whose citizens are knit by bond of
speech and culture much more than
by bond Of blood. shoW periods o;
extraordinary growth. and again o,
sudden or lingering decay In some
cases We can answer readily enough (.
In other cases We cannot as yc, even
guess what the proper answer should
be. II la any such case the centri.
fugal forces overcome the ccnirip"ial.
the nation will Of course ny to pieces.
and the reason for its failure 10 be-
come dominant force is patent TO
every one The minute that the spirit
which finds its healthy dcseiopmen,
In local self if'goyernment. and Is the
antidote to the dangers Of an extreme
Capitalization. develops into mere
partlcularlsm. Into inability 10 CON.
blnc effectively for achievement OF a
common end. then II II hopeless To
expect great results Poland and Ger.
tain republics OF the w.sircn hemi'
sphere are the standard examples OF
failure OF this kind. and the United
States would have ranked with them.
and It's name would have become a
hy~ord OF d.rislon. II the forces Of
union had not ,riumphcd In the Civil
War. SO the growth OF soft luxury
after II has reached a certain point
becomes a national danger patent to
all. Again. Il needs but little OF tn.
vision OF = seer to forc,ell what must
happen In any community " the aver.
age woman ceases to become the