The St. Joseph observer. [volume] (St. Joseph, Mo.) 1906-1932, 1917-02-10
in THE MUCK OF
PROSPERITY

Sary OF the ChamDer or Commerce OF
the state of New York. As it ap-
peared in the New York Tribune, Mr..
Aliens address follows "a French
man came over to this country SO
years ago and wrote a book about us.
This Frenchman discovered that Am
erica would never become a great
commercial nation. Said he, The
physical obstacles in the way are
insuperable. New Orleans is 1000
miles from Boston; Chicago is 1,2O0
miles from New York; and there is
nothing in between to make for COM
mercial unity All. 1 wish he could
come back; l do not suppose he could
get away. We gather the harvest of
zone today and make it the food
of another zone tomorrow. There are
no longer any distances upon the
earth, nor any heights that are not
scalable. nor any depths that are not
penetrable: there are no longer any
limitations to the power OF man in
the physical world which, by con-
quest, does not already lie prone and
powerless in victorious pathway of
his mighty march. The earth has
become mere neighborhood. We
feel everything at once and in COM
mon. l man stands at the telegraph
ic keyboard in Washington and he
sets chords vibrating to the same
tunes from ocean to ocean, single
pulse beat out beyond the 3tmile
limit or down across the cactus COW
cred reaches in Mexico; he will send
anger or grief of horror throbbing
the world. This instantaneousness
has its effect; this unanimity of
thought and action has deepened our
! sense of national consciousness. has
| intensified the power and the pur-
pose of popular emotion. And so
say that we have come at an hour
which demands of a man that he
shall have citizenship brood enuf to
be citizenship of the whole earth;
that we shall come to realization of
the fact that Pittsburgh, Pa, is no
longer west, but that that which lies
| beyond is potential and inviting and
vibrant with Americanism which en-
| lightens us all. You know some
times in this age we come to a feel
ing that America is losing the stride
in the step with which we march in
modern progress. 1 am hopeful at
this hour in American life, when we
are reaching out to grasp the values
we sometimes forget, that in the in
"A
there is a purpose; and men do not
realize what that purpose it. Men
are always seeking for political in
depreciation of events and we hear
the golden language of humanity;
| and to us 1t speaks in no larger terms
than the terms of politics. We hear
men talking of a minimum wage
wage scale, a prohibition of child
labor, an equal suffrage, and all the
| language that applies to golden
! program and we say 1t is politics.
And l man stands over here and he
says. That is Roosevelt's doctrine,
! and another man says, 1T is no such
thing. Bryan was talking about 1t
| before Roosevelt spoke And there
arises out in my country man with
an amplitude Of whiskers, and he says,
! They got 1t from me; l am the ORR
| ginal Populist, and | 1st spoke of
that And so far as the time feature
in the problem is concerned, you
| have TO give consideration to him
| and you have to go back and ask him.
| Who taught you this language of hu-
| manity?' And he will say to you, L
| told you when l came / was a firm
Lincoln Republican, a Thomas JEFF
| ferson Democrat And you can go
| back and say, Lincoln, Lincoln, thou
sainted American, who taught you to
put the man before the dollar? Who
taught you the language of human
| ity? And Lincoln would say, why,
that is what the fight has been about
from the beginning; this is what
| Washington prayed about at Valley
| Forge And you go on back and you
[ say, Washington, where did you get
that program? Who taught you the
language that puts the man above
| the dollar? Who taught you the Ian
| guage that breaths TO us in the great
democracy of the United States that
4, ideahsm and principle of humanity
| are above created wealth. And
| Washington would say, Why, this is
} what they fought for from the be-
J ginning; this is what we prayed about
at Valley Forge: this is what Miles
Standish talked about And you can
| go back and you can say, Miles
| Standish, where did you get this pro-
gram? Where did you get the in
| spiration that breaks forth now and
then in American life and leads us
above sordid prosperity and much
wealth that we might contemplate
humanityY And Miles Standish
would say. why. this is the battle
from the beginning; this is why Crom-
we'll fought his king; this is what
Luther meant when he nailed his thes-
| es to the door of Castle church; that
is why they burned Savonarola at the
stake And so you can go on bask
looking for its beginning. You can
pass the place where Cromwell fought
his king; you can pass the place where
Luther defied the government; you
can pass the place where they burned
Savonarola at the stake; you can pass
Runnymede, where Englishmen fore
ed laws upon a reluctant king; You
can pass John the Baptist, who was
preaching by the roadside in the Ro-
man province of Palestine; you can
pass Paul preaching on his way to
Damascus; you can pass 0ethsemanei
and then you come to Calvary, and
there where Jesus Christ gave His
life for a better manhood and bet.
ter erhood-there is where we
got the program. That is the lessor
of American enterprise; that Is this
lesson of American spirit; that is the
lesson Of America. And you grea'