The Cordova daily times., 1923-02-22
WASHINGTON

Set in the forefront of the nation $ history, the figure of Washington loses none of It's majestic proportions as the years recedc. Rather, is our perception of him clearer, as when moving out from the city streets into the distance of perspective we realize the grandeur of noble edfice Moreover, the recent international conferences have done more to bring to the front the full purpose of his utterances and his personality. Wash ington was a great soldier; one of the four or five greatest that the English speaking race has produced-and probably the foremost of them al Yet perhaps even greater was the genius which he showed in surviving de- feats that the political anarchy of the colonies made inevitable, and keeping together an array under conditions in which any other chieftain must have given way to despair.
 In making a new nation out of the jarrlng states, Washington's political sagacity was as vital as his military skill in the war. He was as great an administrator as he had been a soldier; and in the beginning he was the one man whom all factions trusted. When he retired to private life, eight years later, the nations credit was high, sectional differ ences had begun to die away, and attempts at rebellion had been crushed. The new Govern ment was going concern. One may doubt II anyone save Washington could have accom- plished such results
 But military and political gifts alike would have been of less permanent value to hls country had they not been guided by lofty patriotism for which no words are adequate. And it was out of that patriotism and tie purity of it's ideals that vision almost pro- phetic was his The words with which he counselled the nation in his farewell address might have been spoken this very day, so pertinent and timely are they:
 ''Tt appears as clear to me as ever tie
 sun did in it's meridian brightness, that America never stood in more eminent need
 of the wise, patriotic. and spirited exer-
 tions of her sons, than at this period. And
 if it is not a sufficient cause for general
 lamentation, my misconception of the mat
 ter impresses it too strongly upon me
 that the States, separately, are too much
 engaged in their local concerns, and have
 too many of their ablest men withdrawn
 from the General Council, for the good of
 the common veal
 Thus does he warn against the dangers of indifference and political ineffcacy at home not the least of whose menaces he foresees in the present dsrespect for the nations traditions and constituted authority.
 "Toward the preservation of your Gov
 ernment, and the permanency of your pres
 ent happy state, it is requisite, not only
 that you steadily discountenance irregular
 propositions to its acknowledged authority,
 but also that you resist with care the
 spirit of innovation upon it's principles,
 however spacious the pretexts.
 "One method of assault may be to ef
 feet, in the forms of the Constitution, al
 terations, which will impair the energy
 of the system, and thus to undermine what
 cannot be directly overthrown."
 Outlining the policy that should govern our foreign relations the Father of His Coun- try might have been speaking at this very moment
 "The madness of the European powers,