Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-06-01
PRESIDENT WILSON
SEESU. S. ASLEADER
Nations Business, He Says, Is Con-
stantly in Years That Lie
Ahead of II
MAKES MEMORIAL ADDRESS
Greater Days Lie Before This
Nation Than 1t Has Ever Yet
Seen," He Declares
Special to The TeIferobh

|
Washington, June 1.-Eulogies of
Americas soldier and sailor dead were
voiced here yesterday by Presiden
Wilson, Secretary Bryan, Secretary
Daniels and Governor Willis, of Ohio,
[ at impressive Memorial Day exer-
cises at Arlington National Cemetery.
Large crowds seized upon every op-
portunity to show that the present in
Iternational situation was uppermost in
the public mind.
President Wilson, cheered on his ar
rival and departure and during his ad-
dress, carefully avoided any direct
reference to problems now facing the
United States He was enthusiastical-
ly applauded when he declared that
greater days lie before this nation
than IL has ever yet seen, and the SOL
emn consciousness of those who bear
| office in this time is that they must
make their best endeavor to embody
in what they do and say the best
things in the United States
The President spoke as follows:
have not come here to-day to
deliver an address, but merely rever-
emily to take part in expressing the
sentiment of this impressive day. 1t
necessarily is day or "reminiscences.
Reminiscence is not always a profit
able exercise. 1t generally belongs
to those, appropriately to those only,
who have left the active stage of life
and have nothing to think about, ex-
cept the things that are gone and
dead.
1T does not behoove a nation to
walk with Its eyes over its shoulder.
Its business is constantly in the years
| that lie ahead of ii, and in the present,
that challenges Ii TO the display of its
powers.
But there are "reminiscences which
are stimulating and wholesome, and
I =
| 10 be ranked the recollections of days
of heroism, days when great nations
found 1t possible to express the best
| that was in them by the ardent eXer-
else OF every power that was in them.
This is what gives dignity to a day
| like this. 1t is not a day of regret !;
| II is not day of weakening memory.
1t is day of stimulation. But, my
friends, these stimulating memories
we are sometimes apt to minimize.
because we do not see the full signifi-
canoe of them. We are constantly
speaking of the great war, of which we
| think to-day as war which saved the
| Union, and it did, indeed, save the
| Union, but ii was a war that did a
great deal more than that. 1t created
in this country what had never exist
ed before-a national consciousness.
| 1t was not the salvation of the Union;
| 1t was the rebirth of the Union. 1t
was the time when America for the
first time realized it's unity and saw
the vision of its united destiny.
The solemn lesson of these memoir
les for us is not that we must be ready
to save the Union again, for there are
none among us who threaten it's life,
btu that we must see to it that the
unity, then realized, the vision then
seen, is eXempiified in us and the
things that we do, because there is no
lot - lot TrRT1
the stimulation to duty. There is no
stimulation in any occasion, If it be
merely the pleasure of recollection; it
must also be the ardor and courage of
hope. Greater days lie before this ma
ton than it has ever seen yet; and the
solemn consciousness of those who
bear Office in this time is that they
must make their best endeavor to en-
body in what they do and say the best
things in the United States.
1T does not do to talk too much
about ones self, and do not think that
| II is wholesome for the United States
to talk too mucn ABOUT itself
II do not want to know what you
are to-day so much as I want to
know what you are going to do to-
morrow.
The only test I know of that is
competent to determine what you are
is the test of what you do. Let us not
think of our characters; let us think of
our duties and of the az dons that lie
before us. l always have maintained
that the man who lives to cultivate
his own character will result only in
cultivating an intolerable prig; be-
cause his object will be himself
Character, my friends, is a bypro-
duct. 1t is produced in the great
manufacture of daily duty. But duty
is not easy to determine
'Duty for a nation is made up of so
many complicated elements that no
man can determine IL. No group of
men without wide common counsel
can possibly determine what the duty
of the day is.
That is the strength of a democ-
racy, because there daily rises in the
great body of democracy the express
sion of an untrammeled opinion.
which seems to fill the air with it's
suggestions of duty; and those who
stand at the head of affairs have IL as
their boumden duty to cndeavor TO
express in their own actions those
things that seem to rise out of the con-
science and hope and purpose of the
great body of the people themselves.
| America, 1 have said, was reborn
lby the struggle of the Civil War, but
America Is reborn every day of her
life by the purposes we form, the con-
Iceptions we entertain, the hopes that
we cherish. We live in our visions
We live in the things that we see. We
live, and hope abounds in us as we
live, in the things that we purpose.
Let us go away from this place renew
ed in our devotion to daily duty and
to those ideals, which keep a nation
Iyoung, keep it noble, keep ii rich in
enterprise and achievement; make il
to lead the nations of the world in
III