The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-05-31
Devotion to Purpose.


1.-The reply, sometimes audible, some
times hidden within the deeper re.
cesses Of human consciousness, that
this is the accepted age OF exploita-
| ton, Of feverish activity, OF complex
living and Of predatory strife, from
| the individual on up to the mightiest
combination of capital; that self
pres srvation-what Henry George
calls the fear OF coming want" ex-
cuses youth and demands not ideal
ism but alignment with those who
| would profit by prejudice or by IL
gotten power. Thus would the ancient
voice Of greed masquerade as the true
spirit of our age and lull with insidi-
Gus appeal the awakening conscience
OF American youth-the conscience OF
your boy and mine. But be not de-
ceived, my young boy and girl. The
I fair triumphs Of our civilization,
those things which are high and fine
in It, have not thus arisen. They
exist for US only because someone has
dared to- dream unselfsh dreams ana
perform de eds OF sacrifice. When sell
fish interest would have made our
country multitude Of petty. warning
states, Webster and Marshall and
their compatriots dreamed of anG
crystalized for us, the priceless ideal
OF national unity. When commercial
ayarice ON the one hand and timtdity
on the other would have preserved
the stain OF slavery, your father and
mine dreamed OF q reunited land dedi-
Gated throughout to humai liberty
and backed the dream with the offer
OF life itself When the resources or
the confederacy were at low tide and
the horrors Of lifs at Andersonvilie
beyond description, each imprisoned
soldier was offered freedom on condi-
ton of enlistment in the southern
cause. AS each boy in blue, In tatters'
crawied out of his littls shack and
looked OF into the. night toward the
north, there came to him, as there
comes to every man, when confronted
with his duty to society, this voice;
This is q great contest involving mill
lions OF men, the result Is part OF
the broad plans Of human progress,
what one man does is not important.
Yet is 1t not a beautiful and precious
fact that we have but step to go to
learn his final answer, for as the
moon shines tonight over the Gene
terry at Andersonville each little
mound among the thirteen thousand
there assembled is mute but imper-
fshable witness to the devotion OF
men to moral purpose.
An AltruIstIc Age.
But thank God, all over the land
are man and women who are proving
that this is the most altruistic age Ill
the worlds history. More money and
more effort for the worlds betterment
than ever before and one great
agency now developed beyond what
was possible in the past, is the pub
lie press.
stood last year in Herald Square
in New York City looking at the great
Hoe press grinding out its epitome OF
the worlds doings for the previous
twenty-four hours. Tho elevated
cars roared past, the surface cars rat
tied by, the cart OF commerce Jostied
the auto of the millionaire and all the
time that great press, attended by but
boy, ground on and on in dull, In
sfstent monotone And what did 1t
saw? Only this: Hear, one and all
pause and read my story. Ye men
OF wealth, see this human need. We
children Of cruelty and crime, witness [
these fairer paths that invite you. Ye
sons chained to indulgence hear this
fathers cry. Ye daughters emeshed
in the spiders silken web. ses this
earlier victim. And all we human
kind. witness this never ending and
pageant Of humanity, Its
wrongs to be righted. its beauty to
be enjoyed, its purpose to be purih-
ed" This IL the call OF the pubic
nress II You can only seize upon 1t