The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1910-07-07

anu dS L look out INTO the de-
serted streets where the silence
is only broken by the explosion
of an occasional fire cracker, or
the hoarse cry OF him who calls
hack for the ball game" my
memory involumtarily goes back
to former years, and | find my
SELF comparing the present with
the past and the question unbid-
den presents itself, has the spirit
OF real patriotism departed from
the American people?
We hear no more, at sunrise
the national salute of thirteen
guns and the old anvil is silent
as the sphynx. We hear no
more, the thnob6ing sotll-stirring
music of the sheepshin band, the
parade of mounted men, the
voice of him who reads in solemn
tones the Declaration OF indie
pendence and the servid oratory
OF the speaker on the day who
recounts the glories OF the past
and fires the hearts OF young and
old with lofty sentiments of lib
erity and human rights.
We see no more the respect
full and intelligent hearing given
TO all the public exercises, the
rapt attention OF the old and mid
die aged to the words OF the
speaker, who pours forth all the
energies OF heart and soul on the
inspiring theme OF love OF coun-
try and the rights OF man.
We see no more those mani
festations OF gratitude for the
heroic services OF the brave men
who strove in the days that tried
mems souls against the mightest
nation in the world, for the lib
critics and Institute ions we EN- Joy,
but on the contrary we see slow
ly creeping into OUR national life
what seems to be spirit OF IN
difference and a love OF mere
amusement supplantlng these
graver and more serious things.
Strange, isn't it? IRE political
liberty and free institutions so
old and commonplace that their
blessings are to be deSpised on
the very soil where they first saw
the light of day and in less than
century and a half from the
hour OF their birth?
We have a fairly authentic his
tory of the social. political and
industrial condition of the
masses OF mankind, extending
backward over period OF four
thousand years. During all OF
that time until quite recently,
there existed not in all the wide
world a single government or
state of society in which the
rights of the masses, the COM
mon people, were in any manner
safeguarded and protected by
law.
Prior to the age of authentic
history, there is every reason to
believe that the condition OF the
masses was still more wretched
and deplorable.
From the days when the chill
dren of Israel were compelled to
make brick without straw. under
the taskmasters of the Pllarols.
down to the days OF serfdom and
feuslalism i'm western Europe. it
is the same old STORY OF exploit
ing the MASSES for the benefit of
the privileged and ruling classes.
The spirit of equality was
buried in the breasts OF its vo-
taries and liberty skulled in the
shadows and in darkness.
The world was without the
semblance of free popular gov
eminent and liberty was burt an
emDty name.
Scarcely more than four hun
dred years ago. America a virgin
continent. Law, basking in Gods
SUNLIGHT inhabited by savage
aborigines and separated by an
almost impossible waste of
water from the Old World,
where the wretched toiling king
ridden and prieSt-ridtlen millions
were practically enslaved in both
mind and body and where kings,
emDerors and a dissolute mobility
sucked the life blood from the
veins of the toiling masses.
a few men only, the more
thoughtful and intelligent of their
number began to awake from the
darkness OF the middle ages.
For the first time in history, men
began to question the doctrine
OF the divine right OF kings, and
the right OF one class of men to
lord 1T over their fellow men and
to rule them without their con-
sent.
Those who had received this
new revelation from heaven,
were largely in the minority, and
any attempt on their part to
have put their new born pr1nci-
plies in practice in their native
lands would have resulted in GER
tain persecution, conhscatfon OF
property and death.
Accordingly these lovers OF
political and religious liberty
THESE pioneers OF enlightenment
and progress, THESE heralds OF
the dawn OF Freedoms Day,
cast their longing eyes on the far
distant shores OF the New World
and thus began that second and