Iditarod pioneer., 1917-02-10

Many attempts have been made to frame "the perfect tribute to Abraham LlncOln Woodrow Wilson pictures him as the nys- terIous but reassurng product of democ- racy The spiritual quality Of this portrait no less than the art displayed In the use of less than fifteen hundred words to paint It ton the log cabin birthplace of Lincoln on a farm near Hodgenvllle, Ky, has been in, closed fin an imposing granite memorial building as gift to the nation. President Wilson, called upon to accept the memorial, September i, gave this impressive lnterprc- tatlon of it.-Current opinion.
 No more significant memorial could have been presented to the nation than this, Ii expresses so much of what Is singular and noteworthy in the history of the country; t suggests so many of the things that we orize most highly in our life and in our system of government.
 How eloquent this little house within this shrine is of the vigor of democracy! There is nowhere in the land any home so remote, so humble, that 1t may not con tain the power of mind and heart and con science to which nations yield and history submits its processes.
 Nature pays no tribute 10 aristocracy, 3ubscribcs to no creed or caste, renders fealty to no mon0rch or master of any name or kind.
 Genius is no snob It does not run after titles or seek by preference the high circle If society It affects humble company a> well as great. It pays no special tribute to universities CT learned societies CT con ventionel standards of greatness, but SC renely chooses its own comrades, its own haunts, its own cr8dle even, and its own life of adventure and training.
 Here is proof of it. This little hut was the cradle of one of the great sons of men, ! man of singular, delightful, vital genius vho presently emerged upon the stage of the nations history gaunt, ungalnly, but dominant and majestic, naturtl ruler ot men, himself inevitably the central figure of the great plot.
 No man can explain this, but every man can see how it demonstrates the vlgor of democracy, where every door IS open Tn every hamlet and countryside in city and wilderness alike, for the ruer to emerge
 Acn he will and claim his leadership in the free life Such are the authentic proofs of
 ? validity and vitality of democracy
 Here no less, hides the mystery of de mocracy Who shall guess this secret of nature and Providence and free pohty?
 Whatever the vigor and vitality of the stock from which he sprang, its mere vl5or and soundneSs do not explain where this man got his great heart that seemed to omprehend all mankind in its catholic end benigrant sympathy, the mind that sat cnthroned behind those brooding melan- chCly eyes, whose vision swept many h0Tl- on which those about him dreamed not of at mind that comprehended what 1t haG never seen and understood the language ot affairs with the ready ease of one to the manner born-or that nature which seemed n its varied richness to be the familiar oi men in every way of life
 This is the sacred mystery of democracy that is richest fruits spring up out of soil, which no man has prepared and in clrcum- stances amid which they are the least ex- pected This is a place alike of mystery and of reassUrancc.
 It is hkey that in Q society ordered otherwise than OUT own Lincoln could not have found himself CT the path of fame an: power upon which he walkcd serenely to his death In this place it is right that we hould remind ourselves of the solid and .riking facts upon which our faith in de mocracy Is founded.
 Many another man besides Lincoln has served the nation in its highest places ot council and of action whose origins were as humble as his. Though the greatest exam
 le of the universal energy richness, stim- vation and force of democracy, he is only ne exemDle among many. The permeat- f fran which ch allenges us in America to make the most of every gift and power we possess, every page of our history serves to em- nhasize and illustrate. Standing here ID his place, it seems almost the whole ot he stirring story.
 Here Lincoln had his beginnings Here he end and consummation of that great life seem remote and bit incredible. And yet there was no break anywhere between the beginning and the end, no lack of natural sequence anywhere Nothing really incredi- ole happened Lincoln was unatfected.y as much at home in the White House as he was here.
 Do you share with me the feeling, l won der, that he was permanently at home no- where? It seems to me that in the case of a man-I would rather say of a spirit ike Lincoln the question where he was Is If little significance; that it is always what
 , was that really arrests our thoughts and takes bold of our imagination.
 It is the spirit always that IS sovereign. Lincoln, Ike the rest of us, was put through the discipline of the world-a very rough end exactng discipline for him, and in .spensable discipline for every man who would know WI at he is about in the midst of the worlds affairs; but his spirit got only its schooling there. It did not derive its character or its vision from the experl ences which brought 1t to its full revelation.
 The test of every American must always be- not where he is but what he IS. That also is of the essence of democracy, and is the moral of which this place is most gravely expressive
 We would like to think of men like Lin cJln and Washington as typical Americans put no man can be typical who IS so un-