The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-08-02

era WHICH promises to lHe udIIOit and the world to +-the state which God
 must have meant flor those created in his own image" President Harding declared today, in an address at the Pilgrim tencentenary celebration.
 The President asserted the right of the free people of our race" to 1 leadership.
 '"The community of free people of our race has won Recognition" the President asserted. ''None questions either it's place or its right of leader ship.''
 "Our faith is firmer than wars cause may be ninimized, and over burdening armament may be largely diminished and without surrender of the nationality which has inspired, or the good conscience which has de- | fended," the President declared. 1 'fThe international prospect is more than promising and the distress and depression at home are symptomatic | of early recovery the President con- | tinues. ''So1vent financially, sound economically-the United States will carry on."
 The President called upon the ma tion to follow the example of courage ous independence set by the Pilgrim S | fathers. We must guard against the supreme centralization of power at | home," he declared, and the super | state for the world More, we must combat the menace in the growing I | port the people. The one outst anding danger of today is the tendency to turn to Washington for the things are the tasks or the duties of the forty | eight commonwealths. Having wrought the nation as the central l power of preservation and defense let us preserve it SOL
 | The text of Harding's address at the Plymouth tercentenary celebra- ton, was as follows:
 Governor Cox and fellow Ameri- cans: Though they seem compara- | lively meaSureleSS to us, three centur- | ies are little more than a moment in the chronicle of human history. | Christianity is now rounding out it's | twentieth century and there is no man ferment which went before Our actual national life is less than half the period of marvellous new world development, the tercentenary of which beginning we celebrate, but in that little while, the achievement is the most significant of all the cen turies- It is not too much to say that the three centuries which have passed since men of our race came here to found a new state, have been the most momentous and the most pregnant in all the progress of human kind
 '"They were more swiftly moving and seemingly more vital than the | 14ldSh IOASSI pSI1OuS OI Greek, or Roman civilizations with which we are familiar, and it is not impossible that the commanding po- tency of progress and material pos sessions may turn the significant be- l ginning at Plymouth into SurpaSsing 2 i influence in the making of human his- tory.
 | To this and the Virginia shore were transplanted the seeds of rep resentative democracy, the new ideals l of nationality through association and representation and there had de- veloped, seemingly, the most dependa- | ble form of popular government ever l witnessed in the world Perhaps this | larger achievement was not intended i by the heroes of colonization. They were seeking freedom and found na- | tionality essential to it's preservation | Destiny pointed the way and the hand of Divinity traced the course of | God-intended human advancement Here came the sturdy English mid l dle class of yeomanry, burghers and l squires, who chung to their ideals ot representative government At home they might have been crushed under the burdens which reaction was seek ing to impose. Here they could have free play and begin anew, and fashion the temple of freedom in a | new land and they began what we call republican institutions. These institutions are the agencies of high est freedom, which embody at once the centralized authority strong enough to hold together a great com. | munity and those essentials of de mocracy which insure dominance to
 the intelligent will of a free peo- pie
 Whether we reflect upon the re- | strains upon freedom which the ia theTs imposed, or measure the broad CT liberty under the law of today here began the reign of dependable public opinion which unfailingly i. Tho l3xU n hi1heSt eiH- One may not say whether the Puritans would at home have been able tc
 work out such a system if there had
 been no American colonies and the
 colonial influences to react upon the
 mother country. Doubtless the Eng.
 fish revolution which came soon af
 ter the settlement at Plymouth would
 have come even had there been nc settlement here, no Massachuset
 Bay colony, no Virginia plantation
 But 1t is easy to believe that in tht : long struggle after the restoration
 the fruits of the revolution, tht
 strengthened parIiam erdtary institu ; tions, and the restrictions on roya
 prerogative were helped by the in
 fiuenceS of colonial democracy.
 It is difficult task to single ou
 and measure the factors in politica
 and social progress The germ O
 progress is doubtless universal, bu
 development Conditions were ia vorable in the New World and thu
 Plymouth colony was destined to be fgin the surpassing story of thre, 1 centuries of arden, eager pursuit O
 human justice.
 No one will ever dispute the Iarg'
 part New England played in th, rearing of new standards of free : | dorn- The world choruSed today re Joicing in maintained democracy latuned it's chord to ths notes frs sounded here This development O
 liberty. this great conception of free
 dom took ever. former hold, until i , was held and voiced unceasingIv lby those who bore aloft its banners here And there was significant reflex ir
 the motherland. No EngliShman vii , do his country, full justice or vii
 quite understand it's human story
 who does not seek out and study the
 effects of this sympathy and inter-
 action between the seasoned ,age-oId l liberalism of the English country
 side and the new, eager oultreach- IDo aSDjro+io1 of +boco VII, =, ,--o-<