ve not spoken explicitly, Gentlemen, of the platform adopted at St.
Louis; but it has been implicit in all that I have said. I have sought
to interpret its spirit and meaning. The people of the United States do
not need to be assured now that that platform is a definite pledge, a
practical program. We have proved to them that our promises are made to
be kept.

We hold very definite ideals. We believe that the energy and initiative
of our people have been too narrowly coached and superintended; that
they should be set free, as we have set them free, to disperse
themselves throughout the nation; that they should not be concentrated
in the hands of a few powerful guides and guardians, as our opponents
have again and again, in effect if not in purpose, sought to concentrate
them. We believe, moreover,--who that looks about him now with
comprehending eye can fail to believe?--that the day of Little
Americanism, with its narrow horizons, when methods of "protection" and
industrial nursing were the chief study of our provincial statesmen, are
past and gone and that a day of enterprise has at last dawned for the
United States whose field is the wide world.

We hope to see the stimulus of that new day draw all America, the
republics of both continents, on to a new life and energy and initiative
in the great affairs of peace. We are Americans for Big America, and
rejoice to look forward to the days in which America shall strive to
stir the world without irritating it or drawing it on to new
antagonisms, when the nations with which we deal shall at last come to
see upon what deep foundations of humanity and justice our passion for
peace rests, and when all mankind shall look upon our great people with
a new sentiment of admiration, friendly rivalry and real affection, as
upon a people who, though keen to succeed, seeks always to be at once
generous and just and to whom humanity is dearer than profit or selfish
power.

Upon this record and in the faith of this purpose we go to the country.

LINCOLN'S BEGINNINGS

[Address delivered September 4, 1916, on the acceptance of a deed of
gift to the Nation, by the Lincoln Farm Association, of the Lincoln
Birthplace Farm, at Hodgenville, Kentucky.]

No more significant memorial could have been presented to the nation
than this. It expresses so much of what is singular and noteworthy in
the history of the country; it suggests so many of the things that we
prize most highly in