The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-07-16
lPhiladelphia North Americana

ON thu Fourth OF July-rhis Year.
last %ear, any year. \ hundred mil
lion patriots and near patriots. born
ot M~ay1l"Wer stock or born OF Magyar
hunger for American opportunities,
recall the familiar picture of 1876 Years
ago.
y weak. almost helpless people.
h"rnmcd between the oak-rihbed pow
er Of Britain on the sea and the Whet-
TED s"alping knives OF the saVaees on
their l1nd. Patient. meek. long-sutfer-
in@. starved ard oppressed until Chris
ti1n humility can heal no more. the
HANDFUL of patriots rise in their might.
In thunder tones tho voice Of freedom
calls. Daring all--all hanging toeeth-
or lest all hang separately. in the
words nf ~ of their provincial lead
e's-thcY hurl defiance in their ops
prossor's teeth: starNc. freeze. perish
Of wounds and privatinn: Yet eve
falt"r. never quail. until at last their
hateful foe, giant amone n giant ma
ti"ns and dread Of their sublime
rrowess and abiectedly acknowledges
the justice Of their holy cause.
That's the vision Fourth of July
conjur"S up. phrased in strictly APP
propriat" style, isn't it?
We'll. the real truth is a sad story,
ibl't. S't ~ II H.. tNtis eau IL IIlih-
ing its verify more evident, as every
year makes il more evident that tho
vision. like the style of it's doscrip-
ton. belongs To the utterly unrcliab le
brain and the fire-alarm pen of tho
first American popular historian, Rev.
Mason J.. Gems. book peddler. tid-
der. (aker and the most cheerful ole
liar who eVer came down the pike ir
dire need Of earning a dollar.
For IA good many years the intelli
gent patriots of the United States
guided hy some emphatic hints giver
by honest historians, have had theil
doubts ahou, the cruel expressions ol
the British and the meek f~orebearanct
Of the patriots, Every little while
some American author of high stand.
ing for moral courage and old facts
like Owen Wister, would drop over.
board into the of conflicting
statements and bob up. gasping from
the muck of reality he had struck un.
der the surface of sublime humility
and sup"rhunan courage which ha:
adorned all the history Americans, a:
a whole. over knew. There was ever
one secretary of war in the United
States who explained that the militis
Of the revolution included so man,
deserters that it was a miracle Their.
was any revolution at all.
This year the historical facts of tina
portentous conflict reached the stag,
Of study before the American Philos
optical society. which may be rate.
among the most conservative and dig
nitied scientific bodies in the world.
Sidney c.. Fisher. in an elaborat,
study of h actual conditions attend
ing the revolution, found that tn,
making Of myths about it began al
most before the revolution did, which
is about a thousand years or so ahea,
of mythnaking in other lands. Thi
shows not only what' AN enterprisini
people Americans are. but also ii
what reverence they hold their fines
liars.
When he got all through he hadn'
the smallest hope to express tina hi
countrymen will ever foresake the fc
ton and believe the facts. The orig
inal lying was done at a time of sucl
necessity. it stood SO long the test O
time. it has been so ingrained and in
born in the very con%volutions Of tn
American brain, that the millions We
unborn will be prepared to fight hard