Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1906 — GOOD REASON FOR GIVING THANKS. [ARTICLE]

GOOD REASON FOR GIVING THANKS.

NEVER have the people of America come to the season for returning thanks to the Giver of all bounties with more profound cause for rejoicing than in this year of grace one thousand nine hundred-and six. We think first, perhaps, of the material benefits the twelve month has secured to us/ The crops in every section of tho country have been such as to guard us against want and to enable us to aid in the great work of supplying the world's needs. Upon the farm our prosperity in America still chiefly depends. Nor have we forgotten that the institution of Thanksgiving arose through the Providential supplying of hungry mouths. North ami south, east and west, the fact of bountiful harvests has guaranteed us prosperity in efiery walk of life. The busy mills of the manufacturers, the thronging shops of merchants, the enormous business of railways and steamship companies, the sound of hammer and pick in countless mines of every sort, all testify td the material blessings awarded to us, far more according to our necessities thaiJK to our just deserts. ~=. We must not forget, either, tjiat we remain at peace with the world. For this blessing we cannot be too thankful. But chiefly let us prtrise the Almighty fop having granted the people of America the final blessing of liberty ~and independence. When we look upon Russia, storm tossed -and almost Wrecked in the mighty travail that may yet bring such liberty as we have always known to every dweller under the flag of the Czar,, we realize at last that the air of freedom from tyranny and oppression which has been the breath of our nostrils from birth is the.true reason for peace, for our happiness, for our growth and material prosperity, even as the human soul animates the body. In this year, too, do not let us forget that there has been a tremendous searching of the souls of men in high places, and such a condemnation of evildoers as strengthens the hands of every good and righteous cause. Dishonesty, self-seeking, lustful greed, false stewardships in private and public life, corruptlon. In high places and low, these have all been condemned with a heartiness that the country has never known In its prcvloushtstory. Thanksgixing-day -itself, -too long, given over to mere pastlme aiid enjoyment, takes on a newer and more sacred aspect as the years roll on. It is a day for the devout returning of thanks to Almighty God for the countless blessings secured to our fathers and to us, their-descendants. It is a day for humble supplication that such liberties and privileges as we ourselves'enjoy may be handed down, undimmed and unblemished, to posterity. So shall we, our families united all over this land of ours, join and be as one with the _ mighty hosts of the past, the still greater throngs of the future, of those who praise God for Afiierlca on this national holy day.—Wallace Rice