The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1914-09-24
RA,bOOTH ADD.
RESSES PIONEERS
Fine Tribute Is Paid To The Early
Oregon Home Builders.

The address of Hon. R. A. Booth,
of Eugene, Oregon. to the Pioneers
of Morrow county, gathered at the
Fair on Friday afternoon, to cele-
brate Pioneers Day, was the main
feature Of the occasion. Mr.. Booth
was in good voice, and being speak
er of force and earnestness, he was
listened to with rapt attention and
made a favorable impression upon
the large audience assembled.
The full text Of the address is CIV
en- here that it may be preserved by
every pioneer resident Of the county.
It is a mastery tribute to those early
settlers of the Oregon country-the
builders of an empire-delivered by
the worthy son of one of the earliest
pioneer residents of the Willamette
Valley.
After neat introduction, in which
Mr.. Booth complimented the people
of Morrow county upon the splendid
exhibit of their resources as shown
by the fair, and expressed to them
the pleasure of being present on this
occasion and having the privilege of
addressing the Pioneers, he spoke as
follows.
The early history of the Northwest
is largely the record of the achieve
ment of men of broad vision, indom-
liable will and noble purposes. This
is true whether it relates to Captain
Gray, the navigator; Jefferson, the
statesman; Lewis and Clark, the ex-
plorers or the Pioneers, who were the
complement to all that went before.
Our country has often been spoken
of as a child of Providence and there
seems much to justify the expression
but nowhere are the indications more
apparent than in some Of the events
that led to the Northwest discovery
and occupation.
The flag that the world halls as
the emblem of liberty and peace. was
born in the tragedy Of Revolution
and bloodshed on the borders of the
troubled waters of the Atlantic. The
CLEAN of it's thirteen stars were suf-
ficient to early photograph the new
constellation upon the canopy that
overhangs the nations. The light
from it was at once beacon to the
oppressed, star of hope that many
followed. The broad expanse OF the
Atlantic was the pathway of those
who sought its illumination.
If the original thirteen stars were
painted in the studio on high; If the
friendly breezes of heaven so fond
led the folds of the flag that its
stripes reaches westward to bind to
Plymouths rocks the valleys and the
plains of a broad continent, then
from the same hand that fashions
worlds and controls the universe
came the stars that completed the
galaxy; the bright stars that have
sent their rays across the broad wat
ers of the great ocean to the noun
tain tops of Asia, to bespeak liberty
and enlightenment, to dissolve dark
ness and destroy oppression.
What significance attaches to and
what mighty issues were involved in
the spirit of explorations that moved
the nation little more than one
hundred years ago.
The navigators of Spain, who three
hundred years before sent out the
Great Columbus and gave to Europe
the news of a new world, now had
her navigators along its western
shore, but her ships seemed to hang
heavily upon the southern coast. Her
discoveries, her conquests, the plant
ing of her institutions were confined
l., tbic CO
we need not discuss now. The re-
suits of it being so is what most con-
Germs. Spain was not alone in eX-
ploration The spirit pervaded all
of the nations of Europe. The gen
ius of Peter the Great sent the ships
of Russia to the Pacific but the winds
drove them to Kawchatka and Behr-
ing sea and confined the influence of
the Muscovite where icebergs could
mark its boundary. 1t is interesting
to speculate why the Latin Explorer
should limit his discoveries to the
Southern regions where tropical sun
should enfeeble or why the Slav
should possess only those regions
where Arctic rigor should blight. The
best comes neither from the tropics
nor the poles. The latitudes for ac-
tion lie between. Here the virile
race was to discover to anchor, to
plant, to reap to scatter abroad
About the regions of the broad Pa
cihc, religious freedom and civil lib
erty were in embryo and from the
womb of the AngloSaxon was to
come forth the defenders of right
eousness-righteous to become
alike applicable to individual con-
science and world action.
The thirst for empire had not
been quenched in the Britisher and
the flush of youth was marked in the
American mind which was just be-
coming distinctive and established
beneath the thirteen states. Thlth-
erward were pointed the prows ol
the vessels of the mother and the
daughter and here side by side each
anchored, in strife sufficient in invig'
crate, but in common ties sufficien1
for defense.
There has been much of anxiety
for each during the one hundred
years Just passed but the glorious
dawn of the twentieth century is re
vealing why God willed it so.
But let us localize little more II
our speculation. While the Span
lard stayed South and the Russian
went North. along the coast OF the
Great Oregon country lowered the
British and American ships. Eacl
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