Mexico Missouri message., 1916-02-17
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GMDjkM mentS or our nations Ia
k1l CAA Their. The United States
, of America is now in the
midst of great crisis-one of three
Inc first was the desperate struggle
OF the baby republic to maintain life
between 1776 and 1916. The second
was the terrific fever which ratified the
bones of the half-grown nation from
1851 to 1865. The third is different
The hungry, blood-mad wolves OF
war are snarling all about us. We are
charged with the problem of taking
means of defense against the time
when they may turn from their car
cases to attack us. We must insure
for ourselves prosperity. For the good
of the whole we must assume the task
OF harmonizlng all the multitude
of discordant and misunderstanding
groups of people that compose our
body policemen and women of a
great variety of racial antecedents, of
political tenets, of religious beliefs, of
capital and labor, of education and
ignorance-and weld them into one
great patriotic mass. We must keep
friendship with cur neighbors to North
and South and across the seas.
So in this time of stress it behooves
us to keep our national temper and
deal fairly and mean what we say. 1t
is well worth while to consider the
historian Leckys description of George
Washington:
In the dependency of long contin-
ued failure, in the elation Of sudden
success. at times when his soldiers
were deserving by hundreds, and when
malignant plots were formed against
his reputation, amid the constant quar-
rels, rivalries, and jealousies of his
subordinates, in the dark hour of ma
ttonal ingratitude, and in the midst
OF the most universal and Intoxicating
hattery, Washington was always the
same calm, wise, just and single-mind-
ed man, pursuing the course which he
believed to be right without fear or
favor or fanaticism; equally free from
the passions that spring from interest
and from the passions that spring from
imagination.
He never acted on the impulse of
an absorbing or uncalculating en-
thusiasm. and he valued very highly
fortune, position, and reputation; but
at the command of duty he was ready
to risk and sacrifice them all.
He was, in the highest sense of
the words, a gentleman and a man of
honor, and he carried into public life
the standard of private morals.
1T was at first the constant dread
of large sections of the American peo-
pie that If the old government were
,overthrown they would fall into the
hands of military adventures and un-
fdergo the yoke of military despotism.
1t was mainly the transparent integ-
rity of the character of Washington
that dispelled the fear"
There has rarely been a time when
the people had more need of the les.
sons of Washington's life than now.
We are in the midst of the uncertain
ties visited upon us, as a people at
peace, by conflagration which has en-
veloped continent in war. In a year
'of peace, of sowing and reaping, of
the productive activities of market and
factory, we suddenly found ourselves
face to face with the peril of such a
panic as the world had never wit
messed. Industry withered as under a
blight; trade dried up at the roots;
our chief export crop lost for a time
two-thirds of it's value; specie pay.
ments were suspended in our financial
centers. Instead of having heavy trade
balances in our favor, we were called
upon for gold by the ton to pay for Sc
curities sent back to US by foreign in
vestors. Want and restitution ap-
peared where there had been plenty.
We have come far since those black
days, but dangerous road still
stretches before us. Let US remember
Washington the commander in chief
of one battle.
That was Yorktown. Washington
took the command of the armies of
the colonies in July, ITS. He received
the surrender of CORVALLIS in Octo-
Der, 1881, more than six years later.
These six years were spent in avoid.
ing battle. There was one brilliant
sortie-the battle of Trenton. But the
history of his campaigns is the his
tory of skillful retreats. like that which
followed Trenton, rear-guard actions
defensive fights when attacked, disas.
itrous offensive movements like that
.on Germantown.
He had no government behind him
only loose confederation of colo
mics, which refused to pay their levies
and left him at one time with a dis
scouraged remnant of only 5000 sol.
oilers. He avoided battle with the Brit
ish; he used the arts of the Indian
fighter and slipped out of the very
jaws of disaster; he moved from place
to place. But he could not evade hum
ger. cold. nakedness, dissension, dis
.couragement. These met him in frontal