Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1915-05-14

you who have just sworn allegiance
to this government that you were
drawn across the ocean by some bee
koning finger of hope, by some belief,
by some vision of a new kind OF JUS
tice, by some expectation OF a better
kind OF life. No doubt you nave been
disappointed in some of US. Some or
us are very disappointing. No doubt
you nave found that justice in the
United States goes with a pure heart
and right purpose as 1t does every
where in the world.
mo doubt what you found here did
not seem to be touched for you after
all, with the complete beauty of the
ideal which you had conceived before
hand. But remember this, If you had
grown at all poor in the ideal, you
brought some of it with o A man
does not go out to seek the thing
that is not in him. A man does not
hope for the thing that he does not
believe in, and if some of us have for
gotten what America believed in, you,
at any rate, imported in your own
hearts, a renewal of the belief. That is
the reason that ], for one, make you
welcome.
Vision Necessary for Growth.
"If I have in any degree forgotten
what America is intended FOR. ! will
thank God If you will remind me. /
was born in America. You dreamed
dreams of what America was to be
and I hope O brought the dreams
with you. No man that does not see
visions will ever realize any high hope
or undertake any high enterprise. Just
because you brought dreams with you,
America is more likely to realize the
dreams such as you brought. You are
enriching us if you come expecting us
to be better than We are.
"See, my friends, what that means
it means hat Americans must have a
conscience different from the on
seriousness of every other nation in
the world. l am not saying this with
even the slightest thought Of criticism
of other nations. You know how it is
with a family. A family gets centered
on itself If it is not careful and is less
interested in the neighbors than 1t is
in it's own members. So a nation that
is not constantly renewed out of new
sources is apt to have the narrowness
and prejudice of a family; whereas,
America must have this consciousness,
that on all sides it touches elbows
and touches hearts with all the ma
ions of mankind. The example OF
America must be a special example.
The example of America must be the
example not merely of peace because
it will not fight, but of peace, because
peace is the healing and eleyatlng in
fluence of the world and strife is not.
There is such a thing as a man being
too proud to fight. There Is such a
thing as a nation being so right thai
il does not need to convince others by
force that it is right.
No Man Exempt from Work.
$50 if you come into this great ma
ton as you have come, voluntarily
seeking something that we have to
give, all that we have to give is this:
I'VE cannot exempt you from work.
No man is exempt from work any
where in the world. I sometimes
think he is fortunate if he has to work
only with his hands and not with his
head. 1t is very easy to do what other
people give you to do, but it is very
difficult to give other people things
to do. We cannot exempt you from
work; we cannot exempt you from
the strife and the heartbreaking bur-
den of the struggle of the day-that is
common to mankind everywhere; W
cannot exempt you from the loads that
you must carry; we can only make
them lighter by the spirit in which
they are carried. That is the spirit
of hope, it is the spirit of liberty,
it is the spirit Of justice.