Omaha daily bee., 1910-08-28


THE pioneers and their immediate sue |
cessors won victory only by proving that |
they possess the great, masterful qualities
which lie at the fountain Of national great
ness. There are certain well-meaning men
OF intellectual cultivation, but lacking mem
tai and moral robustness, who complain
continually that they find American life,
and especially the life OF those American
communities emerging from the pioneer
stage, crude and without genius or beauty.
Genius is a fine thing for a nation, but
character is a still finer thing. and though
beauty is good strength is an even greater
good
The men who have made this great re-
public Of the west what 1t is. and especi-
ally the men who have turned It into a con-
tinental commonwealth. have possessed in
the highest degree the great verle virtues
Of strength courage, energy and undaunted
and unwaverlng resolution. Their typical
leaders-of whom Abraham Lincoln. though
the most exceptional, was the most typical
have possessed keen intelligence, and a
character not merely strong but lofty. a
character exalted by the fact that great
power was accompanied by a high and fine
determination to use this great power for
the common good. for the advancement of
MANKIND
New Application of old Principles.
The pioneer days are over, save in a few
places and the more complex life Of today
calls for a greater variety Of good qualities
than were needed on the frontier There is
need at present to encourage the develop
ment OF new abilities which can be brought
to high perfection only by a kind OF training
useless in pioneer times; but these new
qualities can only supplement, and never
supplant, the old, homely virtuesi the need
for the special and distinctive pioneer vir-
tues is as great as ever In other words
as our civilization grows older and more
complex, while 1t is true that we need to
develop men whose lives are devoted wholly
| to the pursuit Of special objects, II is yet
also true that we need a crater and not a
| less development of the fundamental from
tier virtues. These virtues include the
power Of self help, together with the power
Of joining with other for mutual help, and,
what Is especially important, the feeling Of
comradeship, of social good-fellowship.
Any man who had the good fortune to live
among the old frontier conditions must, In
looking back. realize how vital was this
feeling of general comradeship and social
fellowship. 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 strik-
ingly manifested than in older communities;
but among the men who tried to lead hard
working, decent lives, there was feeling
of genuine democracy, which represented
| 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 were equal when they were not
equal, but we did our best to secure some
thing 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 received wherever
he went, on the footing that his merits war.
ranted.
Il Now, so far as possible these qualities
and the conditions that bring about these
Qualities should be kept in the great states
which are growing out Of the old frontiei
communities. We need to strive for the
, general social betterment of the people a.
a whole, and yet to encourage individual
liberty and set high reward on individual
initiative up to the point where they becom,
, detrimental to the general welfare. In con
tinually and earnestly striving for THU
betterment of social and economic condi
tions in our complex Industrial civilization
we should work in the old frontier spirit
of rugged strength and courage and We
with the old frontier spirit OF brotherl,
comradeship and good will. / do not meal
that we should refrain from hating wrong
on the contrary, l would preach fier,
wrath against wrong. But would no
preach such wrath against the wrong
doer, save in those cases where his wrong
doing really is due to evil moral attribute
on his part, and not to a wrong or falls
I system, of which he is almost as much tn
victim as the beneficiary Sometimes
, wrong represents the deliberate wickednes
of the wrong-doer in which case the rem
! edy is to punish him; but sometimes
represents the effects Of false socis
! system, in which case the right course
to alter what is false in the system. Bot
principles need to be kept in view as guide
to our conduct, and 1t is necessary some
: times to work in accordance with one an
sometimes in accordance with the other
= Tribute 10 Remington.
= Before ending wish to say a word o
= something which believe should especial
. interest all men who live in the open cour
= try, and especially all men who during III
= last thirty years have lived and worked O
= ranches, or have done their life work
a hhS NAuSt paris OI our ldnu, on the Rrel
:, plains or among the mountains The pha,
- of our national life In which the stockmal
Il the mining prospector, the frontier farm,
!. and their associates were the chief cha
= acters, was not only very important, b,
, also very picturesque phase often sue
}. a phase passes without any great art
- arising to commemorate il. The old-tin
- back woodsman, for instance, the man
a the back country who lived in the easter
forests through which the waters ran cas-
n ward to the Atlantic and westward to Il
NJ Mississippi, passed away without al
e painter or sculptor arising who possesst
u at once both the keenness OF vision to s.
;. what vital and picturesque figure Ii
baokwoodsman was, and the genius ad
quately to present that figure. The arts
who saw the picturesQueness OF the bac
~ woodsman lacked the genius adequately
= commemorate It, while the artists OF re
- ability unfortunately had their eyes turn
% towards Europe and lacked the robu
:" origtnality-which the novelist Coon
IT. showed-to see where their chance lay
nc do great work. But in our generation, I
~, our good fortune great artist arose WI
III was capable of seeing and of recording 1
sh infinite picturesqueness OF the life OF I
IN plains and the Rockies. OF course. spei