The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1920-01-30
DRIVE FOR NEAR EAST
1T WILL BE STARTED IN
FEW DAYS
Dr.. Crawford Grays Will Deliver
Lecture On Subject Fri
day Evening
The drive in the interest of tn

The drive in the interest of the
people of the Near East will
come in a few days. There
will be a public meeting at the
Mankato theatre on Friday evening
next at eight o'clock. The speaker
is man of much more than ordin-
airy ability-one Of Minnesota's best
DR.. Crawford Grays of Minneapolis.
There will be no admission fee, no
collection, and no subscriptions taken
You are invited and urged to list to
one of the men in intimate touch
with the many interesting and i'm
portant problems of Armenia, Syria,
and Persia.
The Near East.
Foresight has not been one of the
greater gifts of the American people.
We admire it greatly in men like the
late President Roosevelt in which it
was conspicuous. There is a growing
need for us to learn to think not only
in terms of the conditions and needs
of our own flreside and community
but of all the world. A self govern
ing people must train its judgment
since it is constantly called upon to
use it in problems varying in COM
plexity from local relations to that of
international Importance. There is
no escape from this resp possibility. If
we are to share ever more and more
in government it must be SO or we
shall fail.
Prices no longer depend upon con-
ditions in one locality. Crop condi-
lions in Argentine, Australia, Russia,
Egypt, and South Africa have large
share in determining the price of
wheat in this country. The war in
South Africa brought a rise in the
prices of horses and mules in the
Mississippi valley. The war between
Japan and Russia had much to do
with the prices Of -four and other
produce here and it was not our war
either. The recent war furnishes
many illustrations of similar ma
ture.
The hygienic conditions in the sea-
port of Ecuador in South America
became matter of much government
tai concern at Washington. We can
not sit unmoved when plague
breaks out in any part of the world.
Not only may it appear next in this
country but it always causes an i'm
ysense loss of business. Never was
there yellow fever epidemic in Ha-
vana but it came to us in both of
these ways. Business losses of this
kind ran into the hundred millions.
We have insisted on the privileges
Of travel at our pleasure, investing
our money where VIC pleased and in
what we pleased, business, manufac-
turing or foreign commerce, and the
rights Of residence where we could
pay the price-all OF these and yet
we are in so many instances unwill-
ing to accept the obligations and du-
ties that go with the privileges.
The American sympathises with
the under dog. Especially is this true
when the dog is attacked by band
of wolves. Three hundred Spartans
held a pass for days against an entire
army and persisted to a man, but the
world still is thrilled by that story.
The first Minnesota was all but ex-
terminated in checking an entire con-
federate division at Gettysburg. The
north still applauds the sacrifice.
The Near East-Armenia, Syria,
Persia-are calling for our help now.
They very much deserve it because
of our world interest; because of our
obligations for privileges long en-!
joyed the world over; because of
own self protection; and because of
our admiration for a weaker peo-
pie fighting for some hundreds of
years against fearful odds as the
Greeks did and as the men of Min