The rich is level with the poor, The weak is strong to-day; And sleekest broadcloth counts no more "To-day let pomp and vain pretence I set a plain man's common sense The power in my right hand!” 73. Forefathers' Day - December 22. The twenty-second day of December is observed by New Englanders as the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. These men left England in order that they might find freedom in matters of religion and government. The significance of "Forefathers' Day" lies not so much in the mere anniversary that it celebrates as in the fact that from 1620 until the present time men have been finding a refuge in our country from oppression in foreign lands. Those who are coming to America to-day will become the forefathers of other generations; they must see to it that the blessings of political and religious liberty are permanently preserved. (Refer to ¶¶ 44 and 52.) (Read Mrs. Hemans's The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers.) 74. National and Racial Holidays. New Americans enjoy telling about the customs of their native countries; and it is of advantage to all races to know something of the history and the heroes of other lands. As a means of interesting the people of one country in those of another, and as a starting point for conversation in the classroom, the United States Bureau of Education has prepared the following list of the most generally recognized holidays of each of the principal nationalities and races represented in the United States. T V. OUR COUNTRY'S HERITAGE 75. Sayings of Abraham Lincoln. (Refer to ¶¶ 49, 89.) Learn the laws and obey them. Revolutionize through the ballot box. No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. It has been said of the world's history hitherto that "might makes right"; it is for us and for our times to reverse the maxim, and to show that right makes might. This government is expressly charged with the duty of providing for the general welfare. Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion can change the government. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. This country, with all its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Workingmen are the basis of all governments. Whatever is calculated to improve the condition of the honest, struggling, laboring man, I am for that thing. No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty none less inclined to take, or touch aught which they have not honestly earned. You can fool some of the people all of the time, or all of the people some of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. 76. A great citizen. Next after Washington and Lincoln, the great American citizen whom new American citizens should know best, is Benjamin Franklin. (Refer to ¶ 78.) Like Lincoln he illustrates what it is possible for a man in America to make of himself without any of the advantages of birth. Lincoln may well have had Franklin in mind when he remarked, “Gold is good in its place, but brave and patriotic men are better than gold." Washington wrote Franklin a letter in which he said: "If to be venerated for benevolence, if to be admired for talent, if to be esteemed for patriotism, if to be beloved for philanthropy, can gratify the human mind, you must have the pleasing consolation to know that you have not lived in vain." As a patriot, none surpassed Franklin. He lived at the time of the American Revolution. He was active in uniting the colonies for the war, arranged the treaty of alliance with France (without which we could hardly have won independence), served on the commission that arranged our treaty of peace with England, and helped draft the Constitution of the United States. His spirit of patriotism arose from his love of the people. Like Lincoln, who was born about one hundred years after him, Franklin was himself one of the "plain people." Born in Boston, he went as a young man to Philadelphia where he arrived with only a dollar in his pocket; but six years later he owned his own printing office and newspaper. From the fortune that he made in later years, he set aside money to establish the Franklin Institute in Boston, which exists to this day and where any one may learn the electrical trade. Because of his habits of thrift, many banks have found it appropriate to take the name "The Franklin Bank." "Franklin's inborn ambition was the noblest of all ambitions: to be of practical use to the multitude of men. The chief motive of his life was to promote the welfare of mankind. Every moment which he could snatch from enforced occupations was devoted to doing, devising, or suggesting something advantageous more or less generally to men. His desire was to see the community prosperous, comfortable, happy, advancing in the accumulation of money and of all physical goods, but not to the point of luxury; it was by no means the pile of dollars which was his end, and he did not care to see many men rich, but rather to see all men well to do."- Bancroft. Here are a few of Franklin's wise sayings: The use of money is all the advantage there is in having money. For $6 a year you may have use of $100, if you are a man of known prudence and honesty. He that spends a dime a day idly, spends idly above $30 a year, which is the price of using $500. He that wastes idly a dime's worth of his time per day, one day with another, wastes the privilege of using $500 each day. He that idly loses a dollar's worth of time, loses a dollar, and might as prudently throw a dollar into the river. He that loses a dollar, not only loses that sum, but all the other advantage that might be made by turning it in dealing, which, by the time a young man becomes old, amounts to a comfortable bag of money. Again, he that sells upon credit, asks a price for what he sells equivalent to the principal and interest of his money for the time he is like to be kept out of it; therefore, He that buys upon credit pays interest for what he buys, And he that pays ready money, might let that money out to use; so that He that possesses any thing he has bought, pays interest for the use of it. Consider then, when you are tempted to buy any unnecessary household stuff, or any superfluous thing, whether you will be willing to pay interest, and interest upon interest for it as long as you live, and more if it grows worse by using it. Yet, in buying goods, 't is best to pay ready money, because, He that sells upon credit, expects to lose 5 per cent by bad debts; therefore he charges on all he sells upon credit, an advance that shall make up that deficiency. Those who pay for what they buy upon credit, pay their share of this advance. He that pays ready money, escapes, or may escape, that charge. The Art of getting Riches consists very much in THRIFT. All Men are not equally qualified for getting Money, but it is in the Power of everyone alike to practise this Virtue. . . . Beware of little Expenses, a small leak will sink a great ship. 1 Franklin's expression of money values has been modernized in this version. |