A public reception was tendered Postmaster General Smith by Honorable Edward Rosewater at the Bee Building, on the evening of October 4th. At this reception, many prominent citizens of Omaha and visitors from all parts of the west, paid their respects to the representative of the government. Music was furnished, and short addresses were made.
The exercises for Pennsylvania Day were held at the Auditorium at 2:30 o'clock P.M., and consisted of the following program:
Music . . . Innes Band |  |
Post-Master General Smith spoke as follows:
This is Pennsylvania Day. It is dedicated to the friendly interests of the great commonwealth of the east in this splendid monument of the energy and public spirit of the west. Philadelphia is the mother of American Exposition. She has seen with pride how the Centennial of 1876 has been followed by a series of brilliant exhibitions and she has encouraged and supported them with the same patriotic zeal which prompted her own pioneer effort. She is here today through her representatives to congratulate you on this stately and impressive creation. On these dazzling scenes of beauty and activity, which typify the artistic achievements and the industrial progress of this mighty Trans-Mississippi region. Pennsylvania fills another interest in this imposing exhibition. To the sturdy, enlightened and enterprising citizenship which has created this noble commonwealth she has contributed an honorable share, her blood flows in the veins of this vigorous offspring of the adventurous spirit, and thrift of the older sections. Her children are among the pillars of your state. One of her sons was for years your distinguished and honored senator, and still adorns and illuminates your civic life. Pennsylvania blends in high degree the composite racial elements and the fruitful heritage of ancestral diversity which have enriched and strengthened the American people; and steadfast, stable and solid as she is, firm as the keystone of the arch she symbolizes, she has none the less joined in the onward march and infused something of her own characteristics in the upbuilding of this great empire of the west. We have moved during the last six months in the swift current of stupendous events which have recast the maps and spanned the whole horizon. We have just emerged triumphant from a short but crucial and momentous war, which has carried forward history and unveiled destiny. The halo it has shed on American arms and the glory with which it has exalted the American name, fill us with just pride and exaltation. Reluctantly accepted by the president only under the supreme mandate of humanity and justice, once undertaken yet the unerring seriousness of its aim, the unfaltering vigor of its direction and the unbroken sweep of its success, stands unmatched on the pages of war. The renown of the American navy, always brilliant, and never equaled, man for man and gun for gun, was sustained and enhanced in every clash of the struggle. An army of 250,000 men was summoned from the ranks of citizenship, organized, equipped and made ready for action. Every soldier who fought was transported beyond the deep. The whole scene of the war was on foreign soil and in a tropical clime, under burning skies and drenching torrents, with the blight of fever and the danger of pestilence. In the face of such difficulties, what a swift and unerring triumph.
With our monumental victory, we face a new epoch in the history of the republic. We come into a broader outlook, whose deep import it is well for us to consider. The world knows our ampler reach and our larger destiny and we feel it. No true American can be insensible to the increased respect for our country and the higher conception of its mission which the marvelous revelations of this war have inspired in all lands. The embattled farmers at Lexington "fired the shot heard around the world", and not less distinctly and significantly did the opening shot of this war under the glittering constellations of the Orient resound in every capital of the globe and awaken a new understanding of America's onward movement.
It is recognized that the United States advances to its place as one of the great world powers, and whatever may be our wise policy, whatever may be the measure of our just restraint or our legitimate condition, no American can fail to feel an honorable pride in the new distinction and the new consideration never before approached, which American heroism and American statesmanship have brought to our republic. The world's acknowledged tribute is the measure of its estimate of the potency of our new position. Our use of that position will be the measure of our wisdom and rulership. Equal to every crisis in the past, we shall deal with this emergency in the true American spirit. It makes us responsible for Cuba. It gives us Porto Rico. It plants our outposts on the further side of the globe. Whatever we hold, whether it be more or less, will be held, not for territorial aggrandizement, but solely in acceptance of responsibilities which Providence has laid upon us. Men like to talk of "imperialism". Our imperialism is not territorial lust, but benignant trade expansion and civilizing influence, and our flag is at Manila, not in any spirit of spoliation, not in either the greed or the glory of conquest, but let it be reverently said under the controlling force of a Deity or of a providential guidance, at the ripe hour in the development and requirements of our national growth.
It is treated in many quarters, simply as a question of territorial expansion, but that is a secondary and incidental consideration. The great and overshadowing question is one of commercial openings. The heart of the issue is not mere territory but trade necessities and facilities. Beyond and behind and beneath this departure lies the broad problem of America's destiny in the commerce and civilization of the world. If we are to fulfill that destiny we must have commercial expansion, and it is a profoundly significant fact which shows a guiding hand that overrules the will of man that this war should have come just as this great necessity begins to be realized. The opportunity matches the need.
The universal acceptance of its obligation to stretch forth its civilizing hand where the fat of war has carried it, a fortunate possession of an established emporium on the very theater of the world's seeking, have brought the occasion and the duty together. Is it not for enlightened American statesmanship, watchful of American interests, to use the opportunity, not in territorial avarice, but for commercial extension and civilizing influence in the Orient with the base and bulwark that are needed for its support? Shall we be worthy of this high mission? I have full faith in my countrymen. I believe in the spirit and capacity of the American people. This war and its tremendous question has given us a new elevation and dignity and purpose. How it has dwarfed and diminished our domestic differences and our petty contentions! How it has kindled the patriotic fire and quickened the true national instinct! How it has lifted us to a higher plane of public consciousness and to a broader view of national greatness! In the large work before us of governing and developing our new possessions, of ameliorating and advancing the condition of the new people who have been brought under the protecting folds of our flag, and of achieving the fullness of the possibilities within our grasp, there is call for all that is best in our American courage and statesmanship and character.
There is call for thoughtful, conscientious and patriotic devotion on the part of the people. Dealing with these great questions which the future of our country and its relations to the world make necessary/ calls for no narrow partisanship. Let us leave our partisanship to domestic issues; let us limit our family contests to the family circle; let us with patriotic spirit end them at our own shores, and when we come to confront foreign countries and nations involving our honor, our dignity and our interests before the world, let us stand united as one people, forgetting that we are republicans or democrats, and remembering only that we are all Americans together.
With single purpose and with unerring wisdom our executive has called his
aides
and associates in the great work from all parties and all sections, and
through
all the conflicts and all the settlement his sole thought has been the
welfare
and glory of his country. It was for the American people to meet these new
questions in the same lofty spirit of patriotism, with open eyes for the
broader career before us and open hands for the higher duty and destiny
of the
republic.
