c than in any civilized land beneath the sky. Yet in face of
all these unsettled questions, with advancement along all social,
moral, intellectual and religious lines I have faith to believe this
twentieth century American citizenship will prove itself sufficiently
thoughtful, testful and tactful to deal with all national issues as
one by one they come within reach of practical politics, and that this
country is big enough, brave enough, wise enough and just enough to
solve every problem vexing us today.

Some have not this faith. They see an army of three hundred thousand
tramps eating bread by the sweat of other men's brows; the slums of
great cities, cradles of infamy where children are trained to sin; the
"fire-damp of combination trusts" stifling the working world; gambling
brokers cornering the markets in the necessaries of life; the wages of
working girls being such as to lead many from life's Eden of purity; a
great battle on between labor and capital and in this combination of
threatening dangers they see the overthrow of free government.

If these pessimists would take a view from the nether standpoint and
see what we have come through as a country their fears would be
dispelled.

Look backward fifty years from today and see the republic wrapped in
the throes of civil strife; the soil of our Southland soaked with
blood and tears; the nation overwhelmed with debt; four million
negroes turned loose penniless in the South to beg bread at the white
man's door, and he already on "Poverty row;" Abraham Lincoln dead in
the White House, shot down by an assassin; the Secretary of War
bleeding from three stab wounds the same night; and Columbia reeling
on her throne.

Now see the harmonious association of all sections; a firmer
establishment of this "government of the people, by the people and for
the people" than was ever known. Look over the ocean and see Turkey's
massacre of the Armenians, Russia with her Siberian horrors, Spain
with her cruelty to the Moors and Jews; or look closer home over the
Mexican border and see the government torn to tatters and public men
shot down like dogs. Then turn and note our country's magnanimous
dealings with Cuba; her teachers schooling Filipinos into nobler life;
our President leading the armies of Russia and Japan out of the rivers
of blood; slavery gone, lottery gone, polygamy outlawed, the saloon
iniquity tottering to its fall; hospitals nestled in shadows of
bereavement, h