Bunker Hill bearing light to the world by their sacrifices? Are not the
men of to-day, the entire Nation of to-day, living in accordance with
the significance of that name, and by their service and sacrifice
redeeming mankind from the forces that make for everlasting destruction?
We seek no territory and no rewards. We give but do not take. We seek
for a victory of our ideas. Our arms are but the means. America follows
no such delusion as a place in the sun for the strong by the destruction
of the weak. America seeks rather, by giving of her strength for the
service of the weak, a place in eternity.




XVIII

FAIRHAVEN

JULY 4, 1918


We have met on this anniversary of American independence to assess the
dimensions of a kind deed. Nearly four score years ago the master of a
whaling vessel sailing from this port rescued from a barren rock in the
China Sea some Japanese fishermen. Among them was a young boy whom he
brought home with him to Fairhaven, where he was given the advantages of
New England life and sent to school with the boys and girls of the
neighborhood, where he excelled in his studies. But as he grew up he was
filled with a longing to see Japan and his aged mother. He knew that the
duty of filial piety lay upon him according to the teachings of his
race, and he was determined to meet that obligation. I think that is one