The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1927-07-07
Especial to The News)


Fourth of July address at the Mid
land Empire fairgrounds Monday af
ternoon in connection with the celebra
tion here, Scott Leavitt, congressman
from the second Montana districe, EN-
phasized the idea that the same spiri
of the frontier that caused the faith
ers of the nation to proclaim the nev
and untried ideals of the Declaration
of Independence animated the front
iersman in the march to the west 0.
which the founding of Billings was j;
part.
"It is indeed fitting that we cele
brate together the founding Of oul
nation and the founding of this Bill
lings community which is an integra
and characteristic part of it" the con
gresham said.
There are pioneers of ideas just as
there are pioneers of new countries
Sometimes the two are identical, anG
out of that fact has come in large
measure the greatness of America
"Those who signed the Declaration
of Independence were the pioneers of
new and untried theory of govern
ment. 1t was conceived, as Lincoln
later said, in liberty and dedicated to
the proposition that all men are Great
ed equal. 1t was conception of gov
ernment rooted and nurtured in the
souls of a pioneer race which had
faced and subdued a wilderness, and
into the foundation of the new re-
public the hearthstones of a frontier
people were cemented with their blood,
their labor and their tears.
"The signers of the Declaration of
independence and of the constitution
came from forbears who had faced
the sea, the wilderness, the cold of
winter and the grip of hunger to
build their homes at the outposts of
the world, and they themselves like
wise manned the outposts of civiliza-
ton. Their heritage was that of in
trepid souls to whom liberty was the
breath of life, and in whom freedom
of conscience and of mind were linked
with that spirit which dares to carry
the will of its ideals through to ac-
complishment.
"The founding fathers in turn be-
queathed the spirit of the pioneer, both
Of ideas and new lands, as the heri-
tage Of those who have followed after.
With the revolution won and liberty
achieved, the young and hardy race,
schooled in hardship and trained to
self reliance, the blazing of it's west
ward trails. By mountain pass and
waterway, by trail and trackless
prairie, the pioneers advanced, devoted
women and dauntless men. 1t was
march Of destiny, preceded by the
adventurer whose bonds often marked
the way, and secured and made perma-
ment by the builders of homes and
the founders of new commonwealths
to be added to the Union.
''It was a part of this westward
march which founded the community
whose beginning we mark on this oc-
casion in conjunction with Independ-
ence day. 1t is the coming into this
valley As years ago Of those institu-
tions from which America derives it's
strength-the home, the school, the
church and the individual response
bilities Of citizenship, which we COM
memorate together with, because typi-
cal Of the founding of the nation.
"The entire history Of America is
that Of the pioneer. From Columbus
venturing across uncharted seas and
the Pilgrims divinely guided toi
plymouth Rock to Lindbergh launch
ing into space and conquering at once
the air and the imagination Of the
world, there has been a continuous
Of shackles and an inspired
daring which has faced and subdued
whatever existed to bar the march of
progress.
Progress, as Victor Hugo said, is
the stride of God, who takes no stride |
backward. 1t is the God of Nations
who has led onward, with the pioneer
ever venturing forward, into new
paths of government as they have
ventured into new lands. Here those
principles Of freedom of thought and
and action which are funda-
mental under the Declaration of In
dependence and the constitution have
had opportunity to strike root and
grow, and to become native to our
soil.
Under form Of government which
gives liberty and freedom of action to
and to mind, it has been