Omaha daily bee., 1916-10-07
BUSINESS PROGRAM
FOR WORLDS WORK
President Wilson Talks of Des
tiny and Concern of Nation
for Future.
AUDITORIUM IS TANNED


President Wilson's principal ad-
dress in Omaha yesterday was de-
Iivered at the auditorium in the even
Ing before an audience of 1000 peo-
pie, which packed the auditorium to
Its capacity. while probably as many
swarmed about the doors, overlooked
into the streets. and packed the
streets to the very walls Of the build
ings across the way.
Though it had been annoucned that
the doors would be opened at 7
o'clock, they were actually opened a
little earlier, and when the clock
struck seven the seating capacity was
all filled and standing room was be-
ginning to be denied to those who
came.
Mission to the World.
Taking the appropriate theme of
history Of this semi-centennial of Ne
t braska's statehood, the president
worked up to the destiny OF America.
He declared that since the Spanish
American war, we have been caught
in the inevitable politics of the world.
"Our duty now is to fuse together
the various elements of America" he
said "for the purpose of the life OF
the world. The intensity OF the heat
Of. this fusing centers iy places like
this. On the west coast forces are
at work which constantly remind men
Of the confused politics of the orient.
On the eastern coast, we still feel
the influence of the old world.
"The census takers of 1890 reported
that they could no longer draw any
frontier within the United States. And
since then what has been going on
has not been the extensive processes
that preceded, but the intensive pro-
cesses drawing their life together, in
some places in very hot contact, Great
ing the heat and hurry and excitement
of our cities, spreading our popula-
tons more and more over the quiet
agricultural spaces, going boweling
into the earth where the great noun
tains lifted themselves over the min
eral resources of the far west. And
from that time to this, America has
taken on new aspect.
Destiny, Not Accident.
ut is not by accident. | take it,
my fellow citizens that only eight
years elapsed before we got into the
politics of the world. 1t was in 1898,
you remember, that the Spanish war
came. 1t was, as if America had in
some rough and ready scrt, complet-
ed this internal process, and now
looked with pity upon other peoples
near at hand less fortunate than
themselves, looked with pity upon
the condition OF men struggling for
some kind and part of the light of
liberty, in the neighboring island of
Cuba, interested themselves in affairs
which heretofore they had taken no
heed of. And then the Spanish war
startled us by its consequences. We
had,. as it were, touched aehouse Of
cards, Ind it had collapsed, and when
the war was over we found the guard
ianship of Cuba, the possession of
Porto Rico, the possession of the
PHILIPPINES in our hands. And that
frontier, which no man could draw
upon this continent in 1890, had been
flung across the sea, 1000 miles to
the untrodden forests of some parts
of the PHILIPPINE islands. Ever since
then we have been caught inevitably
in the net of the politics of the world.
Our Duty Not Easy.
$50 what I want to present to you
tonight, my friends, is the picture so
far as ! can of our present and future
duty as Americans. 1t is not an easy
thing to do. No man can speak with
confidence upon so great theme as
that. You can only see here and
there an obvious aspect of it, but it
is very important that we should rea-
lie that the things that used to 90
on In Nebraska have to go on in
new way for new purpose. Ne
braska was once, as have phrased
it, the melting pot in which the vari-
GUS elements of America were fused
together for the purpose of Ameri-
can life. Now it is our great duty
to fuse the elements of America to-
gether for the purpose Of the life |
OF, the world.
1T would be reasonable to expect
that some of the intensity Of that
process would center in communities
like this. Inevitably, because of geo.
graphical reasons, if no other. These
great central plains and valleys OF the
continent are unlike the states OF
either coast. On the Pacific influ-
ences are at work which constantly
remind the people of that coast re-
gion Of the confused and perplexed |
politics of the Orient. Men are aware
there of what is going on in the Far
East and every breath that blows off
the Pacific seems to bring them
rumors of some subtle influence in
politics about which they ask many
questions and also conjecture many
answers. On the eastern coast there
is still felt, more, wildly | dare say
than you feel them, the influence of
the old world Of Furone Not as old |