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226

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

the importance of the problem cannot be overestimated, and it deserves to receive the careful thought of all men such as those whom I am addressing to-night. There should be no yielding to wrong; but there should most certainly be not only desire to do right, but a willingness each to try to understand the viewpoint of his fellow, with whom, for weal or for woe, his own fortunes are indissolubly bound.

No patent remedy can be devised for the solution of these grave problems in the industrial world, but we may rest assured that they can be solved at all only if we bring to the solution certain old time virtues, and if we strive to keep out of the solution some of the most familiar and most undesirable of the traits to which mankind has owed untold degradation and suffering throughout the ages. Arrogance, suspicion, brutal envy of the well to do, brutal indifference toward those who are not well to do, the hard refusal to consider the rights of others, the foolish refusal to consider the limits of beneficent action, the base appeal to the spirit of selfish greed, whether it take the form of plunder of the fortunate or of oppression of the unfortunate-from these and from all kindred vices this nation must be kept free if it is to remain in its present position in the forefront of the peoples of mankind. On the other hand, good will come even out of the present evils, if we face them armed with the old homely virtues; if we show that we are fearless of soul, cool of head and kindly of heart; if, without betraying the weakness that cringes before wrong-doing, we yet show by deeds and words our knowledge that in such a government as ours each of us must be in very truth his brother's keeper..

The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight-that he shall not be a mere passenger, but shall do his share in the work that each generation of us finds ready to hand; and, furthermore, that in doing his work he shall show not only the capacity for sturdy self-help, but also self-respecting regard for the rights of others.

BOOK V.

The Distinguished Orators of Canada

TH

HE finer examples of oratory in the American countries have been confined to those inhabited by English-speaking peoples. No citizen of the Spanish-American republics seems to have won a world-wide reputation in this art. Though many of them may have breathed " have breathed "words that burn," their thoughts have not flamed high enough to be visible afar. In our selections, therefore, we are confined to the two commonwealths, the United States and Canada. While the history of the former has been marked by great exigencies that called forth noble efforts of oratorical art, the same may be said. of the latter. The history of the Dominion, indeed, has been wrought out with no such mighty conflicts as that of the slavery question, leading to civil war; but it has not passed without its conflicts, internal and external; its strenuous struggles, which were none the less vital from being confined to parliamentary halls, were fought out by able statesmen and orators instead of by the heroes of the tented field. Canada has its Union as has the United States, and it has had to withstand provincial feeling and threats of secession. It has had its bitterness of racial jealousy, its insurrectionary outbreaks, its religious heartburnings, its struggle between British and American tendencies and influences. Fortunately, the voice of the orator, the wise counsel of the statesman, have healed these dissensions without recourse to harsher measures. An author of the Dominion says: "Canada only needs to be known in order to be great," and foremost among those who have helped to make her great are her orators.

227

JOSEPH HOWE (1804-1873)

THE BRILLIANT ORATOR OF NOVA SCOTIA

F

OR many years the maritime province of Nova Scotia was the abiding place of an orator of striking ability and power. Of Joseph Howe it is justly said, "None could touch him in eloquence, logic of argument, force of invective, or brilliancy of rhetoric, and it is a question if the Dominion has ever produced his equal in these respects." His powers were most effectively shown in the merciless invective with which he assailed Sir Colin Campbell and Lord Falkland, two Governors of arbitrary methods-fairly driving them from the province. In 1863, after long legislative service, Howe was made Premier of Nova Scotia. In the subsequent Dominion confederation he led a movement of secession on the part of Nova Scotia, whose people claimed that they had been carried into the Union by a trick and had been given no opportunity to vote on the act of Union. A compromise, by which Nova Scotia benefited, settled the difficulty, and Howe afterward sat in the Dominion Parliament. In 1873, the year of his death, he was made Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia.

CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES

[As a favorable example of Howe's oratorical powers-not of the sarcasm and invective in which he excelled-we append the following eloquent extract, in which is clearly shown the essential unity of race and purpose between the Dominion of Canada and the United States.]

We are here to determine how best we can draw together, in the bonds of peace, friendship and commercial prosperity, the three great branches of the British family. In the presence of this great theme all petty interests should stand rebuked. We are not dealing with the concerns of a city, a province or a state, but with the future of our race in all time to come.

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