The call of the North. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1923-1924, 1923-08-03

to be believed, at the naval maneuver
not long since, these Japanese serv
ants were taken off of our war yes
sells. Why? Because we learned, i
TRANSFERRED that after the Russo
Japanese war, that many Of these
servants, these Japanese servant.
were really graduates of the nava
and technical schools of Japan, wht
had humbled themselves to serve the
empire by enlisting in the United
States navy in the most menia
capacity. Why? In order that they
might learn how America did things
on board the American men-of-war
And you know what great imitators
these Japanese are. They learned al
of our tricks, and they took them back
and used them, as the Gar of Russia
found out in the naval battles of the
Russo-Japanese war.
Now, want my American boy to
be as willing to serve the Republic
of the United States, as the graduate
of a naval or technical school OF
Japan is, to serve the emperor OF
Japan. I want him to 60 so far as
to feel that God made all labor, and
God never made any labor that is
degrading or disgraceful labor, so
long as it is honest labor. applause
Second Test-Toil.
May I apply the second test, in
plain simple language, because there
is not much time these days to cloud
ourselves. want my boy or girl
educated at public expense to know
how to toil,-t-o-i-l, work, labor, toll.
We often ask ourselves, what made
this American character Of ours.
Sometimes we say it was the richness
Of its virgin soil; sometimes, the
wealth of mineral treasures hid in
Mother Earth; the wealth of the great
forests. Others say, no it was the
governing impulse, that religious i'm
pulse that drove people upon the stern
and rockbound coast Of New England.
Granting all these, I wish to offer an
other suggestion, namely, that in the
very conquest of the new world, our
forefathers and our foremothers were
compelled to labor, to toll, to endure
privations, and in their labor and their
toll and their tasks, they laid the
foundations Of American greatness.
Back there in Illinois,-in Indiana
and Illinois, there was a lad who
danced with his bare feet on the
earthen floors of a cabin. When he
went to bed at night he climbed up
pegs set in the logs of the cabin, and
slept in the loft upon bed made of
hay and fodder: He endured the toll
and the tasks and the privations and
the hardships Of the American pioneer
of that time, and yet my friends, that
very toll and those tasks were fitting
the man for the future toll and the
tasks that he was to perform, they
were making that first great original
American, Abraham Lincoln of
Illinois.
Third Test-Obedience
Let me make one more test. An
other test is willingness on the part
of this product that comes out of our
great crucible,-a willingness to obey,
o. -e-y. Here, I may get intem-
perate. But if you had to put your
finger on the most dangerous spot in
American life today, would you not
say, it was a lack or respect for
authority, lack of obedience. Should
we train the man of fifty to obey the
law? We need to, but at the same
time we need to train the coming man
to obey. the law. And we are never
going to do it in the schools, my
friend, unless we can have that train
ing in the home also. It is impos-
sible. You don't get this citizen until
he is nearly six years old, so that his
habits are largely formed at that
time, and then you are expected in
one hour out of an average of about
fifteen in the different states, you are
expected between the age of six and
eighteen, in one hour out of an aver
age Of fifteen, to reform him and
make him a law-abiding citizen. You
can't do it. And yet we have got to
do it. We must do it some way.
We must have more respect for au-
thority in the class, in the home, in
the church, and on the street.
A Rebellion With q Vengeance
Let me illustrate once more, was
passing in the city of Chicago a few
years ago before I removed my re.
sidence to Pennsylvania, was pass.
ing a school house on the west side
Of town, and a crowd of boys and
girls were marching about the inside
Of the school yard, and marching
about the school house yelling, beat.
ing on tin pans and boxes, and any.
thing to make noise. i COULDN'T
imagine what they were celebrating
and my curiosity cost me five cents
! got off at the next corner and went
back, and on the road back met 9
policeman. And / said, "What ara
they celebrating over there at the
school?" And he said, ooh then
kids Is on a strike." The teache,
hadn't done what they wanted thu