Omaha daily bee., 1910-09-25
Tn. Mission Of Amsrina.

In his speech at the Omaha Field
club Theodore Roosevelt said that in
his travels through Europe he found
the subject of chief interest among all
people to be America and its mission
to the world.
The eyes Of every nation are turned
toward this one, to see whether It is
going to fail or succeed. The OPP
pressed of every nation are looking to
America as the hope OF their relief and
wishing It success. The reactionaries
among the ruling classes hope 1t will
fail, for IL IL does not their system Of
government must. And Colonel
Roosevelt declared that IL America
does fail in this great universal mis-
sion, then the cause Of mankind would
be retarded for many years.
Cardinal vannutelli, the papal le-
gate while in Omaha declared Amer
lea to be the real leader of the nations,
and that as went America, so goes
much of the world. America leads,
others follow. In the leadership Of
America he beholds the hope of man
kind and he expressed the fervent
hope that America would not fail.
This great thought expressed by two
great thinkers, one the representative
of the peerless republic itself, the
other from imperial Europe, ought to
be taken up by Americans everywhere
in sober earnestness. 1t ought to inn
press them, those in high station or
low with the solemn rights and duties
and responsibilities Of sovereign citi-
zenship. 1t is one of the biggest
thoughts before them and before the
world today. We are prone to vaunt
our national greatness and say we
know no such thing as failure. But
failure may know us and may come to
us whenever We cease to realize the
mission of America or falter in follow
ing out the performance of that
mission.
Today the test suggested by Colonel
Roosevelt is before this country.
There is one way to meet it, and that
is by finding out the right and doing
it. That right is not to be found in
civil strife or Internal dissension; not
to be found in social dereliction or po-
litical corruption; not TO be found in
the system of money power in politics;
not to be found in class legislation mol
in the bigotry of religious intolerance
OF this last there is little danger, fol-
we as a people and a nation have
fought out with ourselves the question
of religious as we'll as civil liberty
But there is danger to be apprehended
in some of the other aspects of the
question. We may as easily avoid
that danger, however, as we did that
of ecclesiastical intolerance.
Any citizen of America who does
not see in this great mission a per.
sonal responsibility does not compre
bend its import 1t is we'll that Theo
dore Roosevelt and Cardinal vannu
I tell nave nelpeu us 10 see the truth
and we believe with His Eminenc,
that America will not fail. that 4
will meet the test and give to those
oppressed of other nations In theil
struggle for liberty, the powerful in
fluence of its example for which the!
look and which they need, and that 4
will fulfill its part as the hope of man
kind in working out the destiny of tn,
race and teaching oppressive rulers
that they must give up their code o
ethics and annuI every statute tina
does not rest upon the basic principl,
of all law and American justice-"th,
greatest good to the greatest number.