St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1916-07-26

| been like if all this energy and in
telligence had been kept at home
Some loss there might have been.
Some never would have come to their
full stature here for lack of oppor-
tunity And here at home struggle
for survival, Yankee against Yankee,
would have been fierce indeed. But
when all allowances have been made,
who can doubt that we should have
seen here a development to challenge
the attention of the world? Some
thing like that is what we dream of
for the future. The cry is no longer,
Westward Ho! but Vermont for Yer
| monters. Earnest men are saying
Here between the Bay State and the
Province. between the long bright
river and azure lake we will build a
| Greater Vermont"
How Shall We Be Great?
Greater in what? That is the
question to be asked and answered
| whenever we are met as we are now
| Greater, of course, in a fuller devel-
| opment of all her natural resources.
| We mean that every mine should give
up its treasure, every quarry open it's
! primeval corridors to the sun; that
every sleeping giant in our unused
water courses shall be wakened and
put to work; our forests shall be
| Tended; our fields shall be fed, thar
| they in turn may feed the coming
generations. We mean to be hus-
bands and not ravishers of the land,
that her fruitful womb may never
know steriIity. And we mean to
make this labor so attractive that the
children will not be lured away, as
the fathers were, but turn with eager
| eyes and hands to the realm around
| their doors.
We mean to knit and lace the state
together with the best roadways in the
world,-roads that feel like velvet and
stand like adamant, and look like a
rich brown ribbon in the shade and
sun. And over these shall come seek
ers of health and beauty, drinking in
from many landscapes the enchanted
draught that makes the gazer rest.
less until he can return.
We mean to guard with jealous
care the nobility and freshness of our
scenery. Here is that beauty thai
may be a joy forever. Here is that
wealth that can never be spent but
by our own stupidity.
We mean to do all that can be done
to make our public school plan per-
feet, from the lowest to the highest
TOunO,-d laOQeT whose IOOI snail
rest on the door-sill of the humblest
cottage, while its top is in the uni
versity.
Government By the People.
And, better still, we mean to put
the whole community to school by a
new application of the old principle
of democracy, a more complete full
fllment of the fathers purpose-gov-
eminent by the people. We mean
that every neighborhood shall be a
civic center, every school house a
forum where men and women shall
gather for the discussion of the pub
lie needs. That is the idea that has
taken hold-almost a religious hold
upon the minds of progressive men
through all the mighty West.
make wide the doorway of the school
Around whose sill the millions wait,
The cradle of the common rule,
The forum Of a stronger state.
Make broad the bar, and bid appear
The questions clamorous to be tried;
And let the final judges hear,
Themselves the causes they decide
Whatever channels lead apart
The currents Of the lives of men,
The blood that left the Common Heart
Shall leap with common pulse
again."
Freedom and Unity.
It has been well said that for the
first hundred years of our history the
emphasis was laid on freedom-here-
after it shall be laid on unity. And
so freedom and Unity the great
legend on our shield, is both history
| and prophecy. We shall be united in
| the years to come as we never were
before; and out Of common counsels
shall come better law, and better ad-
ministration of the law. We want the
| best wherever we can find or borrow
it. In our courts we want the sim
plest forms of procedure consistent
with the preservation of legal rights
the speediest trials that fairness can
permit, and the promptest decisions,
provided only and always that they be
well weighed. We hope to put an emo
to frivolous appeals and to the grant
ing of new trials where the result was
right before. We mean to make it
| possible for the poorest sutton to have
his case tried by competent counsel,
even if in such cases, the state must
/ provide a public prosecutor; and we
mean to make it impossible for the
richest litigant to tire his adversary
out and rob him by delay.
To do all this we must have our
| ablest men in office, not only to make
but also to interpret and execute the
laws. And we shall send to Wash
ington not necessarily those who wish
| to go, but those the nation will have
need of in the trying days at hand.
For what Vermont needs is not that
also what the nation needs? And this
above all, a reawakening of our old
| ideals of courage, self-denial and he
roic fortitudeI Lowell was right:
'That is best blood that has most
/ iron in it."
And, if America is to be saved out
of the thickening perils that surround
her, it will be because, in spite of all
i appearances, she does still carry in her
bosom the spirit of Vermont.
The spirit of Vermont is the spirit
of the mountains, hardy, bold and
free. Another state might be painted