A great Englishman, visiting this country some time ago, in speaking of the impressions which were made upon his mind, said he was constantly asked as he travelled through the country whether he was not amazed at its territorial extent. He said while this, of course, was a notable incident of travel, he wondered that we did not forget all our bigness of territory in a contemplation of the great spectacle we presented as a free people in organized and peaceful community. He regarded this side of our country and her institutions as much more important than its material development or its territorial extent, and he was right in that judgment.
My fellow-citizens, the pride of America, that which should attract the admiration and has attracted the imagination of many people upon the face of the earth, is our system of government. [Applause.] I am glad to know, and to have expressed my satisfaction before, that here in this State of Texas you are giving attention to education; that you have been able to erect a school fund, the interest upon which promises a most magnificent endowment for your common schools. These schools are the pride and safety of your State. They gather into them upon a common level with us, and I hope with you, the children of the rich and poor. In the State in which I dwell everybody's children attend the common schools.
This lesson of equality, the perfect system which has been developed by this method of instruction, is training a valued class of citizens to take up the responsibilities of government when we shall lay them down. [Applause.] I hope every one of your communities, even your scattered rural communities, will pursue this good work. I am sure this hope is shared by my honored host, Governor Hogg, who sits beside me [applause], and who, in the discharge of his public duties, can influence the progress of this great measure. No material greatness, no wealth, no accumulation of splendor, is to be compared with those humble and homely virtues which have generally characterized our American homes.
The safety of the State, the good order of the community—all that is good—the capacity, indeed, to produce material wealth, is dependent upon intelligence and social order. [Applause.] Wealth and commerce are timid creatures; they must be assured that the nest will be safe before they build. So it is always in those communities where the most perfect order is maintained, where intelligence is protected, where the Church of God and the institutions of religion are revered and respected, that we find the largest development in material wealth. [Applause.]
Thanking you for your cordial greeting, thanking all your people, and especially the Governor of your State, for courtesies which have been unfailing, for a cordiality and friendliness that has not found any stint or repression in the fact that we are of different political opinions [great cheering], I beg to thank you for this special manifestation of respect, and to ask you to excuse me from further speech. I shall follow such arrangements as your committee have made, and shall be glad if in those arrangements there is some provision by which I may meet as many of you as possible individually. [Prolonged cheering.]
[DEL RIO, TEXAS, APRIL 21.]
The chief incident of the long run from San Antonio to El Paso was the enthusiastic reception tendered the President by the residents of the thriving frontier town of Del Rio, county seat of Val Verde County. The town was handsomely decorated, and the following Reception Committee welcomed the President and party: Judge W. K. Jones, C. S. Brodbent, Zeno Fielder, J. A. Price, H. D. Bonnett, E. L. Dignowity, Paul Flato, Clyde Woods, Thomas Cunningham, W. C. Easterling, J. C. Clarkson, E. G. Nicholson, C. G. Leighton, and R. J. Felder.
Rev. Dr. H. S. Thrall, the veteran historian of Texas, delivered the address of welcome. The President, responding, said: