The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-07-04
1.-THE DAYS OF THE FATHERS"


Lesfie's Weekly, that apostle OF return to an
cient days. whose soul revolts at the
thought of change, exclaims IN its most recent
issue:
This nation needs a revival of patriotism
pure, unselfsh and undecided. Let the states
men rulei
This and every other nation has always
needed more and purer patriotism and no man
living will see the day when it viii not be
needed, but It is needed no more today than in
the day tof the fathers" all of whom were not
actuated by pure motives and many OF whom
thought more of their own interests and the
interests of their narrow world than of the
nation. We do not need revival" OF patrio-
tism, pure selfish and undefiled. We need
continuation OF the growth In the quantity and
quality Of that virtue. and we are getting 1t
daily. There Was never more patriotism than
now and there is not as much there will be
when the old fogies of future days shall point
backward to us as The acme of all that is
good.
AS for the rule OF the statesmen, do not
prefer It, If the statesmen who to be given
the reins of government the men upon whom
verence Aldrch and Lodge and Hemenway and
Littlefeld and Cannon and Watson are states
men who have ruled entirely too long. Their
departure is blessing
Still harping on the virtues OF other days
and of the fathers" Lesfte's continues:
Nor was there ever time when more little
men thought they were big men than now never
time when the little man with a big mouth
pYld yrNnlQ s-fts 3tZfII Fta 20 tn11
In the days of 1.-THE fathers" there were many
representatives in the continental congress
whose sole ambition seemed TO be to embarrass
General Washington In his conduct OF the war
of the Revolution. In the days of the fathers"
there were many men In the constitutional con-
vention whose sole ambition seemed to be to
prevent the adoption of constitution and the
union Of the thirteen colonies. Many of the
features Of that constitution of today the
result of the voting power of 1.-The little man
with the big mouth" In the days of "the faith
ers" there were many detractors Of one of the
greatest of the "fathers"-men who did not
hesitate to attempt the assassination of the char
acter OF George Washington In the days OF
'the fathers there were little men" who
"thought they were big'-enough of them in
New England to gather at Hartford and threaten
the integrity OF the republic because they could
not do as they pleased.
From the time Of Adam TO the present there
have been little men and a plenty of them
who exercised power; there have bedn men
with big mouths and little BRAIN there have
been men absolutely void Of patriotism and
they have been numerous and menacing
People who talk of the patriotism Of "the
days of the fathers" things through haze
and over the span of more than century the
voices Of the contractors of the Revolutionary
war crying peer! Beef" and the rnurmurs Of
the plotters at Valley Forge and the vaporings
of the weakings In the continental congress and
the selfish wailings of the representatives of
the little States and Of the niger trading" New
England States and the niger buying South
ern States are not heard by them They live
In the past without knowing anything OF their
habitat.