The Republican journal., 1912-10-17

regard to the affairs of his town and he
participates in every vote which provides
for the expenditure of money.
"All this may seem natural and simple
enough to these who have performed
these duties generation after generation,
but the significance of all this is appar-
ent when we pass from the town to the
larger community, the city, for instance,
where no such opportunity exists and
where no such rights and responsibilities
are exercised. The city of New York,
for instance, raises and expends in a
single year, $l6O,OO0,OOO, and this
amount is annually increasing, and yet
how little governmental training have
the citizens of New York received in the
aggregate. The wonder is not that many
instances of waste and graft are found;
the wonder is that the record is as good
as it is.
more than half the people living in
New York today are either foreign born
or are children of parents foreign born.
What enables such community to up
hold the principles of free representative
government? What enables them to
maintain their high standards of bust
ness? What constrains them to main
tain their great educational institutions?
They expend annually over $35, 900, 900
for their public schools. What is it that
urges them to sustain library system,
second to no other in the country? What
is it that keeps alive their benefcent
institutions? Whittier comes the red
blood which flows constantly into the
veins of the great metropolis?
eve know wha. fills the rivers that
flow into her harbor - the country's
- e.
with its education in government, in
industry, in economy, in morals, that
leavens the lump of this municipal ag-
gregation of humanity. This is what
preserves our institutions in these great
centers of population; this is what keeps
the ship of state staunch and strong as
she pursues her course.
''Fellow citizens, when you come again
to the old townhouse to provide for the
public needs of Jackson, to exercise the
rights and perform the responsibilities
Of free men, remember that what you
do is not for Jackson alone, it is for the
ration. He who is faithful over a few
The lessons which you teach become in
principles which you uphold become the
nations preservation.
THE CHURCH.
"And now word concerning the
church. By the church, mean organ
lied Christianity, and this includes all
sects and creeds based upon the life and
teachings of Christ. We speak under
standingly Of the Roman civilization and
of the Grecian and of the Syrian and
Egyptian as we go back as far as history
will take US, but it sometimes seems as
though we forget that we are living in e
civilization all our own. distinct from al
others and it is called the Christian civil
cation. This is not alone because
churches abound and sermons are preach
ed. 1t is because our governmental con-
struction and our laws. organic and
statutory, record the teachings Of the
founder of Christianity and civilization
SO founded has brought into the world a
humanity which never existed before.
mo other civilization ever recognized
to the same extent the rights of men, no
other civilization ever to the same extent
taught the responsibilities of men, no
other civilization ever created hospitals
for the sick, homes for the unfortunate;
no other civilization ever produced the
same results in human activity, in dis
covery, in colonization, in invention, in
construction, and, best of all, no other
civilization ever lifted the individual to
the same position of dignity and of des-
tiny.
''It is no wonder that when man feels
that he is the GROWING work of the
Creator, that he has relationship with
that Creator himself, his faculties are
quickened, his powers enlarged and his
ideals magnified. / have no doubt that
the Christian civilization as l have tried
to describe it has not only given to man
new and higher faith, but courage
and fortitude and power for achieve
ment never possessed before.
''And so, when you come again to this
little church, you will clasp hands with
those who meet in the old townhouse
and you will be working with them, not
alone for individual betterment but for
national salvation. And so the town and
the church become commanding ele-
ments in our national life. They keep
our feet upon the foundation upon which
we have built. To neglect them would
bring individual loss which we could
never measure and national loss which
we could never recover.
''We are met to celebrate the Tooth an
niversary of little town and little
church. Acres are few and numbers are
small, especially in view of our mighty
domain reaching from the Lakes to the
Gulf and from the Atlantic to the Pa
cific with nearly one hundred millions of
people, but we have not met to note acres
or numbers. We are here to commence
rate principles, virtue, purposes, respect
for manhood and faith in God as you have
illustrated them in your quiet ways of
life and as they have become command
ing powers throughout the world.
my point is this. Your little church
may claim no architectural merit, but in
the purposes for which you have kept it
in existence, it is model for the noblest
structures devoted to church purposes.
And as this work of Christian construc-
ton and church life must 60 on and on as
long as the nation lives, God bless those
who make and preserve the models.
THE OLD TOWN HOUSE.
"And so, too. with the old townhouse,
when you meet there and seriously and
conscientiously perform the duties of
government you feel and exemplify the
truth of those words found in our great
charter of liberty: We hold these prin-
ciples to be self-evident, that all men
are born equal, endowed by their Crea-
tor with certain inalienable rights,
among which are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. You. too. have
constructed and are preserving model