Palisadian., 1915-07-10

it will take a pretty hard rocking to
upset Wilson.
Our Scholar! Ever Needless he
How shrill the shallow clamor rings,
For God has given him to see
The bottom and the top of things.
And while we watch through war
clouds drear,
A world gone mad with blood and
pam,
His voice we hear in counsel clear,
One voice at least serene an sane.
To rattle sword, to strut and stride,
The blatant demagogue to play
He scorns, but calmly meets the tide
Of turmoil in his quiet way.
And let me tell you that our Presi-
dent has faith in our flag and in its
destiny-such faith as few other men
possess. 1t is this faith that has kept
in him in this way of peace that has
guided him like great blazing star,
through the wilderness. And that
faith is guiding all of US.
We believe in our flag. We be-
lieve in the things for which it stands.
And we know that the first of these
things is right as opposed to might.
We have not the slightest desire for
conquest, nor to subdue nor to op-
press any people on earth. We do
not stand menacing Mexico or any
other nation. We want what we al
ways have had-just our own-just
what God has given US, and we want
to be as impeccably honest, as
truly fair in our dealings with all
nations as we have been. We made
one mistake in our history-the tax
ing of the Philippines; but that mis-
take will, believe, be remedied as
soon as the people of those islands
shall be capable of self government.
| say we have made one mistake, but
is it not strange that we should not
have made many more? 1t is our
faith that has kept us SO free from
error-our faith in and our intense
loyalty to the principles of democracy
laid down by our grand old sires,
What men, what glorious men we
have had to lead us, and what women
were the wives and the mothers of
those men! And we have wonder
full race of women to-day, as intense
ly patriotic as the men. Many of them
want to express their patriotism by
the ballot, and that is a matter upon
which you men will be called to vote
next autumn. | deem it uniting in
a Fourth of July speech to intermiX
anything of the nature of politics,
but | want the men carefully to con
slider this great question of suffrage
which, whether or not they are IN
favor of it, means SO much to this
country.
And now as the time allotted to me
is almost spent, | will close by read
ing to you a poem that | wrote the
other day, inspired, if | may say so,
by the approach of our national birth
day. 1t was from this poem that |
took the text for my address to-day.
| call it
THE FLAG OF OUR FAITH
O the Joy of the wind as it shakes the
Into waves of liquid light,
And shreds the cloud from its quiet
Into streaming banners of white!
love the wind as it shouts and
whirls,
Or softly whispereth,
But | love it most when it unfurls
My flag in it's buoyant breath.
My flag, with its ripping white and
red,
In cleaning beauty barred,
Its blue field, blue as the dome
o'erhead,
And so lustrously bestarred
And, ah, the vision it brings to me
AS it lifts in the breeze elate,
Its broad bands binding sea with sea,
Each glittering star State!
The States, the glorious States, my
In you my heart delights.
All, Maine; with your gray old granite
coast!
Vermont, with your green heights!
And all New England's teeming
throng
Of patriot ancestry!
New York, New Jersey, pulsing strong
With peoples nobly free!
Great Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Little, but large of heart!
And Maryland, Virginia fair,
Each is a star apart.
The Carolin twins, bright rays
Clean there, and Florida
And Alabama brightly blaze,
With brave old Georgia.
And all the South, from US once rent,
Now clusters close anew,
Its stars with ours forever blent
/ i g /