resort to martial strife. But, it is a gratifying fact, that up to
this hour every struggle against outside foes has made American people
stronger from within, and every victory, in our long, unbroken line of
successful campaigns, has bred a warmer spirit of homogeneity and knit
us together in closer bonds as a national unit. Foreign foes offer our
country no danger to-day. Our army and navy are without peers upon the
globe, and, despite our marvelous sketch of coast line, we have
nothing to fear from foreign invasion.

The disease that threatens us _most_ is from within. If salvation be
needed, we must pray to be "saved from ourselves." To "make clean our
hearts"--to face in proper spirit the duty that lies before us--should
be the earnest supplication of every true American citizen. A spirit
of unity is our urgent need at the opening of the 20th century.

Thanks to the wise economic policies of those intrusted with the reins
of legislation and government, our country is enjoying a period of
unexampled commercial prosperity. Business is booming, money is easy,
crops are abundant and labor is receiving a fair return for energy
expended. But, in our mad rush for the material things of life are we
not forgetting the spiritual wants of the citizen, are we not
neglecting the moral qualities that make nations enduring and the
principles that must live when cities decay and dynasties cease to be?
In fine are we not veering too far from the altruism of our fathers,
in the apparent subordination of human rights to the acquisition of
power and of wealth? This dangerous ambition breeds in our midst
socialism and industrial unrest, exemplified in strikes and lockouts.
It fosters anarchy--a spirit of lawlessness, from which but a few
weeks ago the nation suffered the loss of a beloved chief magistrate.
It stirs up racial antagonisms, and defies the ameliorating influences