man. He is free! No more for him shall slavery's
54 WINNING ORATIONS
chains be forged or whips be woven out of thongs.
The index finger of history, on its every page, has
pointed to his coming. Upon the richest and fairest
continent of the whole world God kept "the time-
lock of providence" until he came. And here, on
this broad theater, he is to play his part. If he
plays well, it means the sunrise of freedom to the
world, and the twentieth century may witness the
complete enfranchisement of humankind. But if
he fails, it means the coming on of night, in whose
rayless darkness not one star of hope shall shine.
But, for weal or woe, his will is sovereign now.
Henceforth the destiny of the world is in his hands.
He has tasted of the sweets of life and has found
them good. He will take possession of his own.
It is in vain for men to say that this Caliban, this
"Titan of the mud-sills," should now be contented
with his lot. 'Tis enough that he is not contented,
and will not be. He has become a different sort of
a man. The horizon of his desires has widened
with his freedom, and his growing wants are push-
ing him ever more and more into the conflict of
life. In that conflict, by means either foul or fair,
he is sure to win. That he may carry peace upon
his banners, that his victory may be a noble one,
must be our aim and prayer.
The revolution of the sixteenth century resulted
in freedom of conscience religious liberty. With
the eighteenth century came equality of rights
civil liberty. Here, on American soil, these prin-
ciples have had their freest and largest growth.
SOUTH DAKOTA 55
Of their abundant fruitage time has made us the
favored heirs. But an equally important work re-
mains the preservation of liberty through the ad-
justment of the industrial and social relations of
man to man. This work must be accomplished, as
Milton wrote of glory.
Without ambition, war. or violence.
By deeds of peace, by wisdom eminent.
By patience, temperance.
But we are great as well as free. America is
great in all things; great in wealth and in com-
mercial importance, great in her victories won in
war and in nobler victories of peace. But she is
notably great among other nations in extent of ter-
ritory. Including Alaska, her area almost equals
that of the entire continent of Europe. She is
bounded only by the limits which God has fixed
the oceans and the zones. But history teaches this
lesson, that the successful administration of govern-
ment is difficult in proportion to the extent of a
nation's territory. In order that a free government
may exist in prosperity and peace the people who
live under it must be essentially a unit. Wide di-
versities of race, religion, or material interest, must
prove a menace to the security of any people.
In all cases in which the strong hand of arbi-
trary power has bound together tribes and people
hostile to each other the law of disintegration has
annulled the work. Alexander went forth in con-
quest. Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, fell under
his sway. Rome pushed out the highways of her
power, and over them her legions marched to bind
all nations under the yoke of the Caesars. Out from
the chaos of the Middle Ages, evoked by the master
genius of Charlemagne, even from her own ruins,
the spirit of imperial Rome came forth to rule again.
But not one of these gigantic systems was strong
56 WINNING ORATIONS
enough to give it permanence. And America! What
of her? Her people are substantially of one race
and of one political faith. But this is not enough.
The instinct of self-interest is that which men every-
where most constantly obey. In this country com-
mercial interests are supreme. The pursuit of
wealth is the all-absorbing master passion of our
time. It moulds the opinions of men. It warps
the decrees of justice, and supplants with jarring
discords the harmony of peace. As once it raised
the standards of treason in the South, so today
it is marshalling under defiant banners the hosts of
toil. It has already, upon at least one vital issue,
arrayed the East and West against each other.
Capacity for self-government is the marked
characteristic of the Saxon race. In the twentieth
century, whose dawn is breaking even now, it will
meet in this country its decisive test. As our popu-
lation multiplies, as the circle of our material inter-
ests widens, the unseen power which binds the
whole must have a corresponding growth, and the
essence of that power shall be the nation's love of
liberty and its respect for law. May these two
forces be welded into one. Then shall the union
stand, between the tides that swell upon its shores,
as the world's defense for freedom and for free-
dom's law, the fulfillment of Homer's vision as he
saw it mirrored in Achilles' shield:
Now, the broad shield complete, the Artist crowned,
With his last hand, and poured the ocean round ;
In living silver seemed the waves to roll,
And beat the buckler's verge, and bound the whole.
EIGHTH CONTEST (1895)
ROBERT BURNS
(A. B. ROWELL, YANKTON COLLEGE)
The man within whose breast there burns the
flame of genius, can never die, can never be for-
gotten. His own age may treat him with indiffer-
ence, may even scourge him with the stinging lash
of censure; but a later age will lift him high above
the common mass and pay him rightful homage.
When his soul^ freed from its earthly wrappings,
is laid bare in its simplicity, then men see aright
and understand the mighty passions, the world-
wide thoughts that have throbbed within him.
When the mists of time have gathered 'round him,
and have softened the stern outline, and concealed
eccentricities and faults, then appears nothing but
grandeur, is felt nothing but awe. Many a genius
has toiled on in poverty and reproach and dropped
into a lowly grave, only to be reverenced in after
years. Not even the divine Christ could receive
from his fellowmen more in return for his love than
the cross and the crown of thorns. Among the
saddest of these personal histories is the story of
the life of Robert Burns, sad, because it tells of a
soul that soared to the loftiest heights and then
sank beneath a burden of poverty and bitter deg-
radation.
A century has passed since this greatest of
Scotland's bards laid down his lyre, a century of
change, of tumult and confusion. The millions of
the oppressed have proclaimed the dignity of man;
have risen in their might and burst asunder the
bonds that held them; minds groping for the light,
have pushed through the restraining barriers of
58 WINNING ORATIONS
dogmas and tradition, out into the broader realm of
freedom and of truth. Among the first to sound
the notes of progress in this vast upheaval, was the
simple poet, Robert Burns, and even to this day his
voice still rings for larger freedom and is heard
where'er true men are found. He draws to him
with gentlest tones those souls that plead for sym-
pathy. He holds within his grasp, to do with them
as he will, the hearts of men. Whether it be in the
humble cottage of the peasant or in the palace of
the rich, there are found his friends.
At the time when he first poured forth his
heart in song, Scottish patriotism was almost dead.
The men who led in literature and in art, turned
their eyes away from the possibilities of their native
land and sought to ape the work of others. Poor
imitators, unfitted by their very training to strike
out in unknown paths, disdaining the simple and
lowly life of their countrymen, they were unable
to awaken one single spark of national pride. There
was still need of someone who could call to life
again those sturdy peasants, who, under William
Wallace, had fought so bravely for their liberty
and their homes. Without warning, to the surprise
of all, this new leader came from the common people.
Nothing but a ploughboy, nothing but a rustic
youth courting country maidens, nothing but a lowly
poet, he so touched with coals of genius the hearts
of Scotland's stalwart men, that they flamed with
patriotic fire. Once again Scotland shook from her
wrists the chains of foreign customs; once again the
eyes of her people were turned with reverence toward
one great guide, and at the present time, there is no
one dearer to her; no one of whom she is more
proud than the rustic poet, Robert Burns.
In the understanding of ordinary men the
leader in business, in politics or in war, may rise
SOUTH DAKOTA 59
from the lower ranks, but a leader in thought or in
literature, never. Environment may usually make
the man, but in the case of Burns this law is broken,
and a noble soul rises to its true level of greatness
in spite of hindrances, seemingly all powerful. As
we contemplate the sterile soil out of which Burns'
genius sprang and the hard physical conditions
under which it throve, our minds are filled with
wonder and admiration. Born in a hut so poor that
the storms of winter tore from above his head the
sheltering roof, denied in his youth the advantages
of education and contact with learned minds, forced
to gain his livelihood among the vulgar and im-
moral, struggling year after year with grim poverty
and gaunt hunger, in spite of this, he was yet
able to fulfill the missions intrusted to him by God.
It was not as a philosopher; it was not as a
rhetorician nor a commander that he was able to
mould the thoughts of others. None of these char-
acteristics were needed to make up his power. His
might lay in the fact that he was a man, and more
than that, a brother of other men. No veneering
of social customs covered the beatings of his heart.
No desire of gain urged him to play falsely before
his fellows. Deceit aroused within him all the force
of righteous indignation, and at hypocrisy he hurled
the bitterest shafts of denunciation and contempt.
Born in a place where
"Ayr gurgling kissed his pebbled shore,
O'erhung with wild woods thick'ninj? grreen."
reared in the midst of hills, now green with grass,
now purple with the heather, under a sky worthy to
belo^r to the poet's ideal home, there sunk into his
soul lessons which only nature could have given.
Around him he saw a simple people, open-hearted
as himself. He watched them toiling for their daily
bread. He saw their pleasures and their pains, their
60 WINNING ORATIONS
loving and their hating, their praying and their
jesting, and in so doing he saw enacted the whole
great drama of life. He might have wandered from
land to land throughout the earth, and nowhere
would he have found more true life than in his
country home. Human nature, unfettered, was be-
fore him, and without restraint he laid bare his
heart, quivering to receive the faintest impress, that
he might take it and send it forth in a swell of
wondrous song.
The poor and the grieving stretch forth their
hands for sympathy, and with gentlest touch he
smooths away their sorrows. The smitten and the
oppressed call to him for aid, and he bursts forth
in fierce invectives against the strong and mighty.
Now he is filled to overflowing with joy and hope;
now there are drawn from his heart-strings notes
of sadness and of pain. Wild emotions course madly
through his veins, sweeping all before them, only to
be followed by the quiet, peaceful calm. One mo-
ment he is held in admiration of all that is noble and
beautiful in man; the next with scoff and sneer he
is bringing the haughty low. Uniting so within
himself the two extremes of mortal man, he awakens
to the sense of human brotherhood, and reaches out
far beyond the confines of his beloved Scotia until
the universal man comes beneath his magic touch
and feels the power of his song.
Thus stands the poet, the greatest of the
eighteenth century, crowned among the immortals
of his art.
Would that the same praise, the same honor
might be given to the man himself, but alas, it
cannot be. No life more sad, more wretched in its
poverty, more fraught with mournful lessons in its
sins than that of Burns, has ever been witnessed by
the eyes of men. Within his breast opposing forces
SOUTH DAKOTA 61
struggled for the mastery. On the one side stood a
noble nature, filled with pure and holy thoughts,
endowed with the keenest sense of right and wrong,
reverential in its tone; on the other, passions, dark
and turbulent, fierce in their intensity, irresistible
in their might; between the two a will, irresolute,
powerless to curb the mighty forces that should
have moved in harmony at its command. Once touch
the kindling spark and a roaring flame of passion
surges through the heart, licking up in its raging
course all the good and noble to be found. With
brain seething and writhing in mad frenzy, with
pulse leaping and throbbing, the laws of God and
man are broken down and trodden under foot.
Reason is dethroned, madness has full sway. On,
on and on the soul is carried on the crest of the
sinful wave, until lust reigns triumphant, until the
beast has conquered the man. After all is over, too
late, come the bitter tears of anguish, the stinging
pangs of shame. The man has fallen.
Burns, thus swayed by passion, drifted aimless
on the sea of life. His heart was stirred by no am-
bition. No great purpose forced him on. Prudence
and wisdom were thrown aside for thoughtless
follies and hare-brained fancies. Had the mighty
powers at his command been taught to move in
unison to work out the details of some great plan,
had the streams of passion been ever pure and holy,
how matchless would have been the result, how per-
fect the man!
When we consider that men ever see the outer
man alone, can we wonder that his fellow-men con-
demned him? He gave them the wealth of his
genius, and they returned him poverty. He poured
out to them the warm life-blood of his bleeding
heart and received naught but coldness. He
stretched forth his hands to them, pleading for
62 WINNING ORATIONS
sympathy, and they beat him back with sternness.
Stung by their indifference, wounded by their
taunts, he rushed headlong into revelry, in the vain
endeavor to stifle his cares and his sorrows.
At last the life so full of misery and pain, of
remorse and anguish, draws to an early close. With
head whitened by sorrow, with body wasted by dis-
ease and sin, with heart filled with bitterness toward
his countrymen, the man lies down to die. Even in
his last hours there comes to him no peace, no quiet,
and the troubled spirit, racked with anguish and
despair, passes to the presence of its Maker.
Thus his life is ended. As he lies stretched in
death, the awful pathos, the sombre tragedy of his
life presses upon his countrymen until they turn
to him with pity and with love. Forgetting the
stains upon his honor, the scenes of debauch and
sin, the dark hours in which passion dragged him
from the path of right, they remember nothing ex-
cept that a noble soul, filled with gentleness and
kindness, has departed from them forever. With
eyes filled with tears of compassion, with lips mur-
muring prayers for pardon, they tenderly and rever-
ently lay him in his grave.
"Sweet mercy ! to the gates of heaven
This minstrel lead, his sins forgiven ;
The rueful conflict, the heart riven
With vain endeavor
And memory of earth's bitter leaven,
Effaced forever."
It is not for us to judge. It is for the God of
heaven, the God of love.
NINTH CONTEST (1897)
INDIVIDUALISM
(W. F. EWERT, YANKTON COLLEGE)
The absolute worth of the individual is the
basis of true democracy. Upon the recognition of
this vital truth hinges the success or failure of self-
government, the hope and happiness of mankind.
The progress of society is dependent upon the un-
folding of those principles that seek the highest
development of the individual. Freedom to think
and act and share in the responsibilities of govern-
ment is a necessary condition of individual advance-
ment
This political liberty has been eagerly sought
for in all ages; it has often been purchased with
blood. It was not obtained by a single struggle,
but its progress has been slow and painful, step by
step.
The Magna Charta laid the foundation for mo-
dern political freedom; the Reformation swept away
the pall of religious superstition, destroyed papal
tyranny, and made man accountable for his sins to
God alone; the Petition of Rights destroyed the
theory of the "Divine Right of Kings" and estab-
lished the belief in the inalienable rights of man;
the American Constitution embodied the principles
of representative government.
Political freedom has struck the shackles from
imprisoned thought, and has given birth to the in-
dividual. Its growth has always revealed a health-
ful condition of society; its decline has been the
harbinger of decay.
Two centuries ago the spirit of the age was
voiced by the declaration of Louis XIV., "I am the
State;" today representative government boldly
64 WINNING ORATIONS
proclaims as a principle of modern social philosophy
that "the state is made for man, not man for the
state."
The state is but the means; the happiness and
welfare of the individual the end. Wherever states
have pushed forward, over-riding the privileges of
the common man, ruin has inevitably followed in
their wake. The great empires founded by Alexan-
der and Caesar perished because their greatness was
but the greatness of a single man. With them the
state represented by a central power was the ab-
solute authority to which the individual was com-
pelled to submit. Their national greatness centered
in a single idea; now the energies of man enter into
widely diversified avenues of life; tremendous are
the forces of modern civilization; magnificent are
its possibilities. Back of all progress lies individual
effort; back of individual effort is the incentive of
final reward. This has been the silent force that has
wrought the mighty changes in our social and in-
dustrial life. It has sent men in search of the
precious metals in the depths of the earth; it has
bound localities together with a network of steel;
it has called into being countless workshops and
factories, given wings to commerce, and converted
arid wastes into fields of waving grain. It has done
all this, but it has brought with it threatening
dangers.
In a representative government opportunities
are presented for an abnormal development of the
individual. Man uses this freedom from restraint
for his own selfish ends, in place of the common
good of all. As a result, democracy has become
perverted and individualism is once more in danger.
Gigantic trusts and illegal combinations cannot
long conduce to national greatness, for they are
SOUTH DAKOTA 65
opposed to the development of individualism. They
are the result of misdirected energy and tend toward
a centralization of power. The mere fact that to-
day millions of human beings are rising in their
might and with stern determination are demand-
ing the abolition of industrial tyranny, is sufficient
evidence that the purposes of government have be-
come diverted, and that the improvement of the
condition of the masses has not been commensurate
with the gigantic increase in the productive power
of modern civilization.
Representative government may guarantee
equal rights to all citizens, but vice and avarice are
certain to rob the individual of his worth, and the
state of its perpetuity. The lessons of the hour
are plain. Large aggregations of capital, controlled
by single men, which have sprung up in the last
quarter of a century, are crushing out free com-
petition, the life of trade, and destroying the op-
portunities for the development of the individual
man. The entire social fabric has been shaken, class
is being arrayed against class. Men who have al-
ways been peaceful and useful members of society
are now tramps and outcasts, and capital itself has
disappeared in the universal lowering of values.
The true conception of government and the
secret of its success are being lost sight of in man's
struggle for gain. The magnificent triumphs of the
human mind should be but the agencies to lighten
the burdens of man. Never should they be used
for the oppression of the weak. The advancement
of the individual should keep pace with the march
of civilization. Man in his primitive state, though
not always happy, was comparatively free. Unless
the forces that have built up modern civilization
have proportionately bettered the condition of those
66 WINNING ORATIONS
who toil, industrial progress amounts to naught,
government is a farce, and civilization itself is a
failure.
As searchers after the truth, we cannot turn away
from the destitution to be seen on every hand.
Strange, is it not, that with the productive power
of the world increased a hundred, aye, a thousand-
fold, there should be no greater improvement in the
condition of the individual: strange that with a
single loom doing the work of a hundred men; a
single machine producing a thousand pair of shoes
where one was made before; with the magnificent
engine spending tons of energy with every pulsa-
tion of its iron heart; with mansions outshining
in splendid the magic palace of Aladdin, and boule-
vards eclipsing the famous roads of Rome strange,
I say, that thousands should be shoeless and home-
less and penniless, that life for a large portion of
mankind should be a dismal failure.
What does this condition of things betoken?
It means that those sacred principles fought for at
Runnymede and Marston Moor, baptized in the
blood of martyred heroes at Lexington and Bunker
Hill and Valley Forge, consecrated by the lives of
thousands upon our country's altar at Shiloh and
Gettysburg and Spottsylvania, are being trampled
under the usurping feet of might, that greed is in-
vading the rights of individuality, that personality
may soon become the helpless slave of corporate
selfishness.
How can this centralization of power be
checked, the individuality of the citizen preserved,
and the perpetuity of the state insured? Man must
see in the mighty power of organized labor and
capital, not a means to enslave some and to enthrone
others, but to promote the general welfare and to
secure the common blessings of liberty. Instead
SOUTH DAKOTA 67
of being appalled by the sight of a hundred hovels
standing over against the millionaire's palace, he
must remember that the political power of the one
is a hundredfold greater than that of the other. The
outlook is not altogether dark. With a gradually
improved system of voting whereby the voter may
express his own will and not that of the "boss," with
a civil service on whose banner is gradually being
unfolded the motto "opportunity for all and privi-
lege for none," with the newspapers and magazines
flying through the land like the shuttle of a mighty
loom weaving into the woof of the common people
a sense of their privileges and duties with these
things already at hand, there opens in the face of
our danger, a brighter prospect for the future. In
the disruption of political parties, in the awakening
of the individual to the dangers of the state, there
is hope for better things. In the future men may
write of a "Triumphant Democracy," but they will
not be classed among the nation's patriots when
they defraud their country by the sale of bogus
"Armour Plates." Political parties will no longer
be considered martyrs to principles when their
principles are established by the million dollar con-
tribution of the sugar trust. Out of the present
chaos there will spring a new and better dispensa-
tion in which the individual will come to his own.
The spurious individualism of selfishness must be
rejected, and in its place must be substituted the
true individualism based upon the sacred treasures
of character rather than upon material possessions.
No longer must Mammon be allowed to crush be-
neath his Juggernaut wheels the lives of helpless
men, women and children. More clearly must be
recognized the Christian principle of the worth of
man as man. True individualism must manifest it-
68 WINNING ORATIONS
self more strongly. Men must be more firm in their
convictions of duty to themselves and the state.
It is not always wise to follow the wishes of
the majority, for there are times when the majority
is clearly in the wrong. Every great reform must
be wrought against strong opposition. This is the
supreme test of the individual. The hero of the
hour must rise above the clamor of the multitude
and in the face of persecution and ridicule lead the
way. True, from the dawn of history those who
have sought to better the condition of the individual