Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1923-08-15
HARDING MEMORIAL.
Brief Services Held in Ellsworth
All Stores Closed.

All Stores Closed.
Friday was observed in Ellsworth
as a memorial day for President
Harding. All stores were closed
throughout the day. Inappropriate
ly, many observed the day merely as
a holiday, and the attendance at the
memorial exercises at Hancock hall
in the afternoon was much smaller
than it should have been.
The exercises were simple yet i'm
pressive. Rev. Clarence Emery pre-
sided, and Revs. j. A. German G. S.
Brookes and T. Andrews assisted in
the service. The principal address
of the afternoon was by T. j. Aber-
nethy, principal of the Ellsworth
high school, and is printed in full
below. FIR. German also spoke feel
ingly of the dead President, draw
ing from his life the lesson of love
for God and love for man as the
greatest need of every community
and the nation to-day.
Miss Erva Giles sang with deep
| expression two of the late Presi-
dents favorite hymns, Lead Kindly
Light" and "Abide With Me-"
MIR. ABERNETHY'S ADDRESS.
Mr.. Chairman, Fellow citizens of the
American Republic:
Peace claims it's victims as well as
war. We have been accustomed to
glorify the deeds of the men who give
their lives for their country on the
field of battle, and to pass over in si-
lence, or even with criticism, the deeds
of those who literally wear out their
lives in the peace time service of the
nation. We have been taught to-day
a striking lesson in patriotism and
duty. We have had held up before us
the shining example of a man, drafted
as it We're, to the most responsible po-
sition in the whole world, givin g
his very life to the fulfllment of the
duties of that position as he saw them.
The position of President of the
United States is no light task. The
government of the United STATES is the
biggest business in the world. 1t is a
business that had, at the last census,
more than one hundred and ten mil
lions of stockholders, and is still
growing. Its income mounts into bill
lions of dollars each year, and the
spending of this income lies in the
hands of the directors, under the guild
ance of the President. 1t undertakes
a wide variety of duties and directly
and indirectly, touches the life of
every one of us at some point The
policies of this enormous business or
ganization affect the whole civilized
world, and the decision of our Presi-
dent bears fruit in many corners of the
globe.
To administer the duties of this Of
flee successfully is an almost hercu-
lean task. 1t requires great physical,
as well as mental strength. 1t is
twenty four-hours-a day job, combin-
ing firing service with crushing
responsibility. The task becomes
greater every day. OF the last two
Presidents of the United States, one
has retired from public life, broken in
health, and the other lies in his grave
to-day a martyr to the responsibility
of the office. When President of the
United States to-day takes his oath of
office he is entering upon stupendous
tasks. Our new President realizes
this, and since the death of President
Harding he has taken the attitude so
we'll expressed by the recently elected
Prime Minister of England, when he
said to his friends Il need your pray
ers, not your congratulations"
Let us see how Warren Harding
met the responsibilities of his office.
When elected there were many who
wondered what his course of action
would be. There were many who
feared for his policies, who remem-
bered that he came from that most
of all conservative bodies,
the United States Senate. There were
even those who called him a re-
dictionary But his very first presi-
Dental acts gave the lie to his critics.
He was a conservative, undoubtedly,
but a radical conservative. Or, to put
it more accurately, conservative
radical. That is to say, he was a man
of vision, tempered by moderation and
good sound common sense. He could
see far beyond the range of most of us.
His aim was so high that many of us
could scarcely follow him. Yet at the
same time, he was not so engrossed in
his vision of the future that he could
not see the little stumbling blocks that