Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1901 — LIBERTY FREDOM [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LIBERTY FREDOM

Two words that belong to America. Two words that mean as much to-day as they did in 1776, whan the people threw off the bands that bound them and became free. There isn’t a man or woman er a child in all this great country who should not bo proud of America. Wo are a nation of all people of the earth, and for a wise purpose Providence has blessed America beyond our wildest dreams. On the Fourth of July, 1901, the flag that is a guarantee of Freedom and Liberty floats over countless school houses where education is free. It floats over countless churches where the rich and poor may worship Ood according to the dictates of their consciences, without let or hindrance. It floats over the homes of prosperous mechanics, farmers, laborers—homes that contain more comforts, more luxuries, more happy families than can be found in any other country on the globe. Old Glory floats over a happy, patriotic, united, sympathetic people, whose ears are quick to detect the cry of the suffering, whose hearts beat warm for the afflicted. Its folds envelop noble women who are the equals of men, and men who honor all women as they honor their mothers. It flutters to the winds of heaven and gives notice to kings and queens and emperors that a mighty nation has been founded on truth and honor and the equality of all men, and that its course has been up and up and is still upward until no human brain can conceive a limit to the glorious destiny of this great republic. It is good to be an American. It is a glorous privilege to live where the sun shines on a liberty-loving, contented people. We have taxes—and the ability to pay them. We have strikes, but wise men and wise counsels are every year bringing employe and employer nearer together. Wo havo trusts and great brains that will suggest and carry out measures that ijill make of the corporations servants, not masters. We have poverty, but our poor are better situated than the poor of Europe. Pessimists have said that our form of government could not last. They said it a hundred years ago, and to-day it is greater and grander than ever. Be thankful! Be glad that you have played a part in guiding this laud to the glorious position it occupies; that you and your children are a part of a government of the people and for the people. Praise God in His infinite kindness that the blessings are so many and that you have lived to enjoy them, and on this Fourth of July, 1901, the one hundred and twentyfifth anniversary of the nation's birth, sing with a chorus of 76,000,000 people: "My country, 'tis of thee, Sweet Land of Liberty.”