The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-06-07

LOTS ana three or the nVe representa- lives in congress were partly of In dian blood
 In but few years these Indian tribes will have disappeared as com pletely as those that have actually diet out, but the disappearance will be b, absorption and transformation into tn, mass of the American population
 Growth and Decay.
 Why do great artificial empires
 whose citizens are knit by a bond O speech and culture much more than bl a bond of blood. show periods of ex traord1nary growth and again of sud den or lingering decay? In some eases we can answer readily enough; in oth CT cases we cannot as yet even guess what the proper answer should be. Il In any such case the centrifugal forcct overcome the centripetal, the natior will. of course, fly to pieces, and thu reason for its failure to become dom tnant force is patent to every one.
 The minute that the spirit whict finds its healthy development in local self government and Is the antidote te the dangers of an extreme centraliza ton develops into mere particularism into inability to combine effectively for achievement of a common end then it is hopeless to expect great re suits.
 We Americans and you people of the British isles alike need ever to keep in mind that among the many quail. ties indispensable to the success of 8 great democracy and second only to high and stern sense of duty. of moral obligation. are self knowledge and self mastery.
 You. my hosts, and I may not agree in all our views. Some of you would think me very radical democrat, as, for the matter of that, I am, and my theory of imperialism would probably suit the anti-imperialists as little as 1t would suit certain type of forcible- feeble imperialist. But there are some points on which we must all agree if we think soundly. The precise form of government, democratic or other wise, is the instrument, the tool, with which we work. It is important to have good tool, but even if it is the best possible it is only a tool No implement can ever take the place of the guiding intelligence that yields it.
 A very bad tool will ruin the work of the best craftsman, but a good tool in bad hands is no better. In the last analysis the all important factor in national greatness is national charac- ter.
 Tho Birth Rate Question.
 There are questions which we of the great civilized nations are ever tempt ed to ask of the future. Is our time of growth drawing to an end? Are we as nations soon to come under the rule of that great law of death which is it. self but part of the great law of life? None can tell Forces that we can see and other forces that are hidden or that can but dimly be apprehended are at work all around us both for good and for evil. The growth in lux ury, in love of ease, in taste for vapid and frivolous excitement, is both evil dent and unhealthy.
 The most ominous sign is the dimi- hutton in the birth rate, in the rate of natural increase, now to larger or lesser degree shared by most of the civilized nations of central and vest ern Europe. of America and Australia, a diminution so great that if it contin- ues for the next century at the rate which has obtained for the last twen- ty-five years all the more highly civ iltzed peoples will be stationary or else have begun to go backward in population, while many of them will have already gone very far backward.
 There is much that should give us concern for the future, but there is much also that should give us hope. No man is more apt to be mistaken than the prophet of evil.
 I believe with all my heart that great future remains for us, but wheth- er it does or does not our duty is not altered. However the battle may go, the soldier worthy of the name will with utmost vigor do his allotted task and bear himself as valiantly in de feat as in victory.
 Come what will. we belong to peo- ples who have not yielded to the craven fear of being great In the ages that have gone by the great nations, the nations that have expanded and that have played a mighty part in the world, have in the end grown old and weakened and vanished. but so have .he nations whose only thought was to avoid all danger, all effort, who would risk nothing and who therefore gained nothing. In the end the same fate nay overwhelm all alike, but the mem ory of the one type perishes with it, while the other leaves it's mark deep on the history of all the future of mankind.
 Nations Born Again. A nation that seemingly dies may be porn again. and even though in the physical sense it die utterly it may yet land down history of heroic achieve nent and for all time to come may profoundly influence the nations that lrise in its place by the impress of what 1t has done.
 Best of all is 1t to do our part well and at the same time to see our blood i've young and vital in men and wo- men fit to take up the task as we lay It down, for so shall our seed inherit the earth. But if this which is best