The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1916-09-07

III 1OlANluNCN-
Il have come here today, not to ut
ter Il eulogy on Lincoln; he stands in
need of none, but to endeavOr to in
terpret the meaning of this gift to the
nation of the place of his birth and
origin. Is not this an altar upon which
we may forever keep alive the vestal
fire of democracy as upon shrine at
which some of the deepest and most
sacred hopes of mankind may from
age to age be rekindled? For these
hopes must constantly be rekindled,
and only those who live can rekindle
them. The only stuff that can retain
the life giving heat is the stuff of liv-
ing hearts. And the hopes ef mankind
cannot be kept alive by words merely,
by constitutions and doctrines of right
and codes of liberty.
"The object of democracy is to trans
mute these into the life and action of
society, the self-denial and self-sacri-
flee of heroic men and women willing
to make their lives an embodiment of
right and service and enlightened pur-
pose. The commands of democracy are
as imperative as its privileges and OPP
portunities are wide and generous It's
cOmpulsion is upon US. 1t will be great
and lift great light for the guidance
of the nations only if we are great and
carry that light high for the guidance
of our own feet.
eve are not worthy to stand here
unless we ourselves be in deed and in
truth real democrats and servants of
mankind, ready to give our very lives
for the freedom and justice and spir-
itual exaltatiOn of the great nation
which shelters and nurtures u.s."
The special train, with the President
and his party aboard left Washing
ton Sunday and proceeded without a
stop to Hodgensville, the county seat
Larue County, in which the farm is
located.
Accompanying the President on the
special were Mrs. Wilson; Mrs. Helen
Woodrow Bones, the Presidents cous-
in; Joseph Tumulty, the Presidents
Secretary; former Governor Joseph w.
Folk of Missouri, Chief Counsel to the
Interstate Commerce Commission;
Secretary of War Newton D. Baker,
Senator Williams OF Mississippi; Rob
ert J. Collier, chairman to the Execu-
tive Committee of the Lincoln Farm
Memorial Association; Senator Ollie
NJ. James of Kentucky and Richard
Lloyd Jones.
Arriving at Hodgensville, the Presi-
dent and his party were escorted to
and the procession start
ed for the Lincoln Farm over the new
road, a section Of the Dixie Highway,
that had been constructed especially
for the occasion. A force of special
constables had been provided by La
rue County and aided by police detail
ed from Louisville kept the road clear
for the Presidential party.
The Presidents journey to the farm
was made over part of the Highway
from the lakes over which in the years
to come untold thousands will make
patriotic pilgrimages by automobile to
pay their devotions at this spot.
Sweeping into the entrance to the
memorial park, perhaps over the very
spot where Thomas Lincoln and Nancy
Hanks Lincoln trudged more than one
hundred years ago when they decided
to make this little farm a stopping
place, the President beheld the stately
Memorial Building, rising like tenn
pie, with its approach marked by an
avenue of trees that set off to the best
possible effect the stately beauty of
the structure.
Since early morning there had been
a continuous stream of vehicles from
A 9 o'clock the road
was barred to horse-drawn vehicles
and only automobiles were permitted.
President Wilsno and those who were
to take part in the program with the
few who were admitted to the speak
er's stand, mounted the platform as
soon as they left the cars and the ex-
arcises began.
As the words of the invocation were
spoken by the Rev. Charles r. Hem
phil, president of the Presbyterian
Seminary at Louisville, a
hush fell upon the crowd.
Following the invocation, General
John d. Castleman of Louisville, a |
Kentucky soldier who fought for the
Confederacy in the Civil War and for
The United States in the Spanish |
American War, stepped forward to in
troduce Mr.. Folk, who is President of
the Lincoln Farm Association.
When CaSt1eman. q soldier in the !