The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1916-02-03
THE OPEN ROAD
Along Which An Effort Will BE lade to
Wanderer on His Wav Up Hill.
BY LEO J. RASCHE.
KAISER BILLS BIRTHDAY.


not born at the top but at the bottom
and this thing of thrusting greatness is
not daily practice, so most conspicu-
ously out of. the quotation arises the
one word, achieve. Many dubs have
been born TO great places, but that did
not make them great Others have
been born to great places and made the
places greater because they occupied
them, and none ever had their backs
broken with the greatness thrust upon
them because they had first to be great
enough to bear the burden. So from
the sentence above quoted we sift the
word achieve, " as the one part that
stands best the test of analyzation.
If a man be born to princely place
and fails to achieve he is lost behind the
barrier of his own insignifcance, and if
a man is born in the most lowly estate
and does by his own efforts achieve, tor
all achievement is by individual effort,
he will loom like light of obscurity,
and surmount the barrier of birth that
originally hid him from his well won
heritage. Achievement is a powerful
personality made strong by persever-
ance. Greatness is in the man and not
in the place he occupies. Character
will conquer conditions.
In all ages there have been men great
in peace and great in war. War is one
of the worst woes that warps the
world. 1t has always been a hindrance
to humanity, varacious, greedy glut-
ton that gloats over gore. 1t has always
substituted sorrow and distress and
desolation for happiness and husbandry
and humanitarianism. 1t always will.
Mars is mighty old meddler whom
men cannot resist when he starts to
stir up strife. There are those who
are wasting words in the vain hope
that they can head off future strife
pacitists who imagine they can make
men with the blood of ten thousand
years of fighting ancestors coursing
through their veins simply kiss and
make up when they feel like fighting
make their little arguments with ink
and air. Would that they could But
it is an absurd idea for parleying pacifists
to imagine they can obstruct the tide
of mems passions. Men have fought
from the beginning of the world, and
what effect will the work and words of
these pacifists have on the fighting
generations of the future. Long after
their scattered dust has mingled again
with Mother Earth, in unborn centuries
to come, red blood will still be ruling
young blood. fighting blood-and when
wrong outrages this blood of the future
and arouses 1t to resentment and re-
venge to the flood tide of fury-it will
demand an outlet in war. Men don't
kiss when they're mad, they fight.
Mars has lived since the beginning.
He's in the prime of his youth today.
The years rest lightly upon him, which
oSCiIo " llulCdtc lidl lie II plODdDIy
live to ripe old age. All of which
leads US up to today. and to the war
lord of TODAY.
tiftY-seven years ago today he was
born, not great but to a great place.
Greatness was not thrust upon HIM,
but he was thrust into place of great
ness, place of power. He studied,
he planned, he thought, he achieved.
He was not content to live in luxury
and tote title. He could have done so
and he could have lived fit, fed and fat
and wandered on his way without
worry. He had an empire, did this tiny
mite that entered the world fifty-seven
years ago today. But he was not con-
tent with merely the title of ruler he
wanted to rule and he rules. He
wanted to make his empire the nigh
test in the world and he is trying
to, Is Kaiser Bill. Today he is the
most prominent figure in the entire
world, the storm centre of the ma
tions, the most conspicuous person
atty that looms upon the horizon of
worlds events-he is Germany. What
one Louis of France once said of
himself, 81 am the state might well
today be actually applied to Wilhelm.
He is not only the Fatherland, but
the father of the Fatherland. Some
accuse him of setting the world
afiame with war. That's a question
that cannot be settled here. But
get this fixed in your ko-ke, Fritz:
No one man ever starts war. Wars
usually start themselves when men get
ready to fight. And remember this:
An argument has two sides, even a
small one, and an argument of the pro-
portions of the one in which Wilhelm
is engaged today on his 57th anniver-
sary, has to naturally have several
sides. But this is not an eulogy of
William the warrior, but a citation of
the vigorous work of William the man.
He could have lounged in luxury and
ooze out his life in secure throne rem
dered obscure by his own obscurity.