The Prescott daily news., 1910-08-27

 but lacking mental 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 with out 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 republic of the west what 1t Is. and especially the men who have turned 1t into a continental commonwealth have possessed in the highest degree the great virile virtues of strength, courage. energy and undaunted and unwavering resolution. Their typical leaders-of whom Abraham Lincoln though the most cxcepiipnal was the most typical-have possSs!sed keen intel ligence, and character not merely strong but lofty. a character exalted by the fact that great power was accom- panied by a high and fine determination to use this great power for the common good. for the advancement of mankind The pioneer days are over, save in few places, and the more complex life of today calls for a greater variety of good tier, There is need at present to en- courage the development of new abilities which can be brought to high perfection only by a kind of training useless in pio neer times; but these new qualities can only supplement, and never supplant, the old, homely virtues; the need for the special and distinctive pioneer virtues Is as great as ever. In other words, our civilization grows older and more com plex, while 1t Is true that we need new forms of trained ability, and need to de- velop men whose lives are devoted wholly to the pursuit of special objects, 1t Is yet also true that we need greater and not less development of the fundamental frontier virtues. These virtues include the power of self-help. together with the power of Joining with others 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 are good men and bad men, in the new communities Just as in the old communi- ties, and the conditions on the frontier were such that the qualities of the good and bad alike were rather more strikingly manifested than in older communities, but among the men who tried to lead hard-working, decent lives there was a feeling of genuine democracy which rep resented an approach to the American ideal which we certainly should do erything 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 something 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.
 Now so far as possible these qualities and 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 betterment of the people as a whole, and yet to encourage individual liberty and set high reward on Individual initiative up to the point where they become detrimental to the general welfare
 Wrong Doers and Wrong Systems.
 In continually and earnestly striving for this betterment of social and economic conditions in our complex industrial civ- lization, we should work in the old iron tier spirit of brotherly comradeship and good will. do not mean that we should refrain from hating wrong on the con trary. I would preach frey wrath against wrong. But I would not preach such wrath against the wrong -dosr 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 sys- tenn, of which he is almost as much the victim the beneficiary Sometimes wrong represents the deliberate wicked ness of the wrong-doer, in which case the remedy Is to punish him. but some times 1t 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 conduct, and 1t Is necessary sometimes to work in &C., cordance with one and sometimes in ac- cordance with the other
 Before ending I wish to say a word on something which I believe should espe- cially 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 or among the mountains. The phase of our national life in which the stockman, the mining prospector. were the chief characters was not only a very important but also a very picturesque phase Often such phase passes without any great artist arising to commemorate 1t.
 The old-time backwoodsman. for in stance, 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, passed away without any painter or sculptor 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 adequate ly to present that figure. The artist who saw that picturesqueness of the back woodsman lacked the genius adequately to commemorate 1t. while the artists of real ability unfortunately had their eyes turned towards Europe and lacked the TO- bust originality which the novelist Coop CT showed-to see where their chances lay to do a great work. But in our genera tinn. fnr good fnrtuna