The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1932-07-07
Bruce Barton Pays Fine
Tribute to North Star State
Author of Nobody Knows
Where" in His Parade of
State" Eulogizes MINI.

Bruce Baron, author OF The
Man Nobody Knows" and
regular contributor of The
Sentinel, has written this tri-
butte to Minnesota for thes"Pa-
rade of the States" Monday
night programs of the General
Motors Corporation, part of an
educational plan to make the
country as whole better &C
quainted with the individual
states-their history, scenic
beauty, industries and people.
A tired plane and tired young
man dropped gently out of the
darkness above LIE Bourget in
France. A prayer of thanksgiving
echoed around the world. And ma
tions rose as one to honor a new
hero-Charles A. Lindbergh.
Fitting enough this lone scout of
the air should hail from Minnesota,
ever a land of pioneers.
Before Columbus was born, the
hardy Norsemen may have found
Minnesota. Centuries later came a
new race of men-French trappers,
traders, explorers. They exchang-
ed the white mans trinkets for the
Indians store of pelts. But it re-
manned for the Puritans of two
continents, from New England and
Scandinavia, to clear and pillow and
occupy the land.
Sternly they labored. Royalty
the land repaid them. Today sky
scrapers cut the air where the cab
ms clustered about a trading post
less than century ago. Today au-
tomobiles stream down broad
highways where yesterday the red
man stalked the wary deer.
Today Minnesota goes to market
with bumper crops of wheat and
corn and rye, with oats and fax
and potatoes. It is our biggest
bread basket, our richest butter
churn. Ore from its widespread
iron mines feeds the steel mills of
the nation.
It's forests yield lumber for the
houses we build the chairs we sit
on, the books we read. It boasts
our largest inland port. The vast
streams of power of Minnesota's
miles of rushing waterways quick
en- great and worthy industries in
the twin cities, Minneapolis and st.
Paul, in Duluth and Faribault, in a
score of prospering cities.
And Minnesota's children have
done her signal honor. Sinclair
Lewis has brought to America a
coveted Nobel prize. The stirring
harmonies of st. Olaf's choir have
reused the music lovers of two
continents. The nations critics
pay tribute to Minneapolis SYM
phony Orchestra. Two young sur
geons, the dauntless brothers Mayo,
pitched their practice in Minneso-
ia and the world has made a beat
en- track to their door.
And nowhere in America is there
more natural beauty than in this
Land of the Sky Blue Water. Here
are ten thousand lakes, great sheets
of water ploughed by sea-going
boats, quiet pools where the brown
bear brings her cubs to drink.
Here are miles of rolling, dipping,
curving prairie. Here are tumbled
hills, unbroken woodlands, the falls
of Minnehaha, laughing maiden of
the forest.
Come to Minnesota, to the sky
tinted waters. Come in the spring
time to pluck pink moccasin, that
rare and lovely orchid Minnesota
calls her own. Come in the sum-
mer to match your wits in combat
with a wise old trout. Come in the
autumn when the deer is fleet, in
the winter with your skis and
snowshoes. Here you can trace the
mighty Mississippi to the pool of
it's birth, here follow the course of
rivers that flow east into the At
lantic, south to the Gulf, north into
Hudson Bay.