Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1917-11-22

THE NATIONS
THANKSGIVING

The people of the United States cele-
brate Thanksgiving day with more and
more accord every year. Indeed, n
might say they w more and more
reason. The fathers of New England,
hemlaed in between a wilderness and
the sea, watched their doubtful crops
in anxious memories Of other years of
famine. When they found that once
more there was fish enough and pork
enough and corn M beans and pump
klns and squashes and turnips enough
to carry them through the winter they
met to thank God, knowing full well
how many hazards they a passed
through, for those days as compared
with oday We're days OF pinching pow
erty. The New England historian, DR..
Palfrey, says, with a certain dryness,
which shows probably some personal
preferences, Baked beans point to the
time when lit was desirable to make
the most of the vegetable
by flavoring it with the flesh of the
commonest animal"
All this is happily changed. For he
world, indeed, the old peril of famine
is we'll nigh forgotten. And why? h
American of today gives hanks that
famine is well nigh impossible.
First of all, he remembers that he is
no longer dependent on the crops Of a
few hundred square miles or the fish
ing voyage Of a single summer. Thanks
to the providence Of God as it has
worked in history and to the work of
brave men who believed they We're chill
dren of God, the petty colonies which
We're thus described are now one nation.
OF that nation the meanest citizen, the
most foolish, the weakest and the poor
est has every right n privilege before
the law which belongs to the strongest,
the richest and the wisest, though he
were born in the purple Of luxury. To
the widows son of the poorest citizen
Of that nation, then, there will come his
daily bread in answer to his daily
prayer, though it come from the milling
of California wheat or be the salmon
caught at the falls of the Spokane, with
out let or hindrance from any w on
earth. If there is food in plenty in one
region, as by the fall of an avalanche
down a mountain, it will certainly seek
consumption in another region. And
this the American boy and girl owe to
the good Providence and to the a
men who made his country one and
have kept it one.
1t is too much the blindness of our
time to speak as If such q simple bust
ness as daily food came to us as a mat
: less habit in which Americans otter
speak, as if, because they are Ameri
cans, they have everything without sc
much as asking for it. Fourth of July
orators and street corner DfaSSafts
l alike talk of the natural products Of
this country almost in the tone of the
: emigrantS who expect to pick up {
doubloon upon the sidewalk. One is
tempted to ask such ~braggarts why The
country did not produce such wealth
! 100 years ago or 200 years ago. Wh!
5 was Dakota then a desert? Why Wert
the hills OF Alabama only a hiding
{ place for a few thousand Creek In
: dams? Why did they not forge the iror
5 under their feet? Why did not the Io
uuois in western New York pick from
> their trees the peaches and the pear
> such as have been growing there thii
" autumn?
T. The answer is this: All the wealth o
: America ONE to her from the work o
her men and The victor.
which Yields it is their victory. 1t i
!, the victory Of spirit c~onquering matter
1t comes in the daily miracle Of dali.
g life, where children Of God, led by God
), taught by God, alive in his life and fel
o low Workmen with him, carry out hi
4 designs and subdue the earth. 1t j
n neither sensible nor grateful to speak O
teeming %granaries, of increasing trade
of new mines, Of oil, of iron or Of ga
4 as if these things were wealth in them
e selves. They are only wealth whe
man strikes the rock and it's water
flow. And this man must be not tn
: savage man who cares only for his ow
personal appetite. 1t must be a tn
q child of God. seeking a future bette
d thar today, determined to bring in
It nobler age han that which he lives il