Time rolls unceasingly onward, gliding with unwavering precision past the milestones of history, disappearing in the mysterious ocean of darkness and dreams. Every fleeting year is a rolling wave of time, moving us incessantly nearer to the great unknown where generation after generation is apparently lost on the silent shore of eternity. In the past year, millions of human beings have been born, while other millions have vanished forever from the arena of strife and struggle. Since we have met today to review the past, and prepare for the tests and trials of the future, it is perfectly proper to glance at our former meetings; for by so doing we may learn a lesson that 2may be useful to all of us as a reminder of the uncertainty of human life.

The first time I was called upon to address the reunion of the Old Settlers, our meeting convened on the old Meltivedt homestead. Mr. West, who was the first child of Norwegian parentage to be born here, was one of the speakers. David Vinje, of Nebraska, and Mr. B. Wick, of Iowa, came in as orators in proper order, and I made up the tail end of the procession. During the exercises, a poem by good old Eli Botnen, or Blind Eli as we generally called her, was to be read by Attorney David Vinje, whose stepfather, Mr. Mons K. Vinje, was Blind Eli's brother. It was a touching poem, dealing with her life and the trials and struggles for existence, founded on the serious infirmity that had been her sad fate since early childhood. David Vinje started to read the poem, but he had not read very far when his tender emotions overcame him, and he broke down, giving up the attempt to proceed while tears trickled down his cheeks. Finally, my friend Nils Thompson called upon me to read the poem, and I did. I did not break down that day; but, ladies and gentlemen, when I recall the scene today, remembering that Blind Eli, David Vinje, Mr. West, and Knute Meltvedt have all gone to the "happy hunting 3grounds," the recollections of the past and my own experience since that meeting are almost too much for my feelings.

I have on three previous occasions been called upon to address an audience of the pioneer settlers, and today is the fourth time I have had the honor of standing before a fine gathering of the farmers and businessmen who have by industry, energy, and ability made this section famous for beauty and prosperity. Having met today to renew old acquaintances and to enjoy a pleasant and social gathering of friends from everywhere, it behooves us to remember with love and respect those friends who have recently vanished from our mortal view and entered the bright mansions of the Great Beyond.

Just one year ago, your beloved friend, David Vinje, was with us as one of the speakers at the reunion; but his health and energy was gone; his voice was weak and trembling; and as I watched him closely while listening to his speech I could see plainly that his race was run and he was tottering on the brink of the grave. He was a good, honest lawyer and a kind tenderhearted man, and we honor his memory today.

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At a reunion of this character, however, it must be the aim and object of an invited speaker to notice the particular points of progress and improvements that have made your surroundings so famous as a community. I can only imagine how the landscape looked to the pioneer Norwegians who came here to make their homes sixty--yes, in some cases, seventy--years ago.

To follow the different stages of progress through more than half a century of faithful and successful labor would be quite a lesson in evolution. The pioneers certainly did not rush over the roads in glittering automobiles as you do--sounding warnings to poor people with "standpat" horses and old rattletraps to get out of the way or take their chances in the ditch. No, your grandfathers commenced the great battle of life with hope and faith in the future, entering the arena of honest labor with undaunted courage, determined energy, and perseverance.

The landscape of this part of the country did not look quite so grand and inviting as it does today; but the pioneer settlers chose their ground and went bravely to work, stirring the virgin soil of Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, 5and Minnesota, and turning a wilderness into golden fields of grain, blooming gardens, and teeming cities. We celebrate the triumph of labor, and to the earliest settlers of this prosperous community belongs the greatest honor for the beauty and fertility of your cities and farms. The pioneer settlers of our grand farming communities raised the noble standards of honest labor; and you, their descendants, are reaping a bountiful harvest of prosperity and happiness today.

By the eternal wisdom of Providence, labor is, humanely speaking, the salvation of mankind; it is not a curse, but a blessing to a fallen race. God did not originally create man for toil and trouble; but in some way man fell from his high position and ideals in the order of creation; and on account of his disobedience our original parents were, according to the Bible story, turned out of the wonderful fairyland, the Garden of Eden, while an angel with flaming sword was placed there to guard the gate. "Go out into the world and cultivate the soil!" was then the great command to all the generations, and through all the progress and advancement of ages labor has overcome all obstacles, turning sandy deserts into gardens; and has built cities in 6the forests and on the prairies, raising an empire in the wilderness.

And thus it is that the cultivation of the soil is the real foundation of all prosperity, all ranks and stations in society, and is far superior to all other trades, occupations, and professions. Society without labor means stagnation and decay, for without life and motion the fountains of political, social, intellectual, and moral life turn to corruption. You, the descendants of the pioneer settlers, must be congratulated for the part you have played in the progress and prosperity of your community. You stood faithfully by your fathers or grandfathers in all the tests and trials of the early settlers. Consequently, it cannot be said of you that your farms, your property, your fortunes fell into your hands without any exertion or struggle on your part. And very lucky for you it is that you were taught the value of the nobility of labor; for if you had simply inherited your fortunes, you would, in all probability, have been a set of good-for-nothing parasites in society. Of course, you don't count your money by the millions; but you have sufficient funds to raise the dust by automobiles as well as the best of them; and you are independent and can do as you please and be content.

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The idle triflers of the money powers are frequently at a loss how to invent new games of sin and Satan in their reckless life of infernal passions and sensuality. All the floodgates of immorality and corruption are thrown wide open by the autocratic money magnates, and the whole country is threatened with Hell's pollution. Wherever those pampered pirates of the money power appear, a disgusting stench of immorality follows their trail, and it would take all the icy blasts of the polar regions to air them out. With their fast automobiles and still faster women they rush in fearful clouds of smoke over the land, crusing everything in their way, leaving corpses and cripples as evidence of their brutality and speed.

Never before in the world's history has the overbearing despotism of the money power been so intolerably cruel and oppressive. It defies all the codes of Christian morality and violates all the laws of God and man. When the delirious dance of immorality and corruption has scandalized the land, the infernal gang of money magnates transfer their grand and glittering harems out on the ocean, where their floating hells of "high-toned" prostitution are an infernal insult to the winds and the waves.

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With the invention and introduction of the automobile the arrogant power and prestige of the money despots were increased to the disadvantage of, and the danger to, the plain and common people who are now actually driven from the public highways by a howling and hissing procession of murderous automobiles. Death in front and destruction behind is now the pleasant situation of a poor man who may be jogging and jolting over the road in a rattlebox drawn by the skeleton of a horse old enough to vote the standpat ticket--endorsing Carrie Nation as president of the "women's clubs".

But I ought to apologize to you farmers and businessmen; you have automobiles, too, and you can afford it. You don't have to mortgage your homes for this extra luxury, and you did not get your money by gambling and graft, but by the sweat of your brow. You can with honest, noble pride meet those other fellows on their own ground, and you do not have to take a back seat for anybody. I wish you abundant joy and comfort with your speeding autos; but I would suggest that some of you automobile scorchers swing into space in an attempt to overtake Halley's comet and bring it back for more reliable inspection. Astronomers were rather badly taken in by that mysterious and 9distant wanderer of the heavens, and if some of you expert speeders could catch it by the tail and tie it to your automobile, it would not only be fine fun for the ladies, but you would do a great favor for astronomical science and research. Some of the aristocratic scorchers who infest certain highways should undertake the job of racing with the comet, for they and their ladies balance their important heads in such a lofty position that they come dangerously close to a collision with stars and comets; in passing, they raise wind and dust enough to blow out the sun.

Automobiles are all right in their proper place when used with care by sensible parties who stand firmly for their own rights and respect those of other people as well; but when the arrogant and autocratic money magnates display their impudence and brutality by driving like demons over the public highways, disregarding the lives and safety of the common people, then the automobile has become a curse to the country.

Whose country is this anyway? Is it the home of a great free, and independent American people--demanding equal rights and justice for all--or is it the 10sole property of the money aristocracy, whose tyranny and brutality is far more cruel and oppressive than that of oriental despots? Since the automobile has become the emblem of the money powers with all their intolerable arrogance, criminal carelessness, and reckless brutality, these speeding monsters of the highways must be considered an unmitigated evil and a scourge.

What rights have the common people and the workers in a state of society where the concentrated power of the cruel corporations and trusts conspire to rob the workers of their wages and the farmers of their well-earned profits? You farmers and workers can stand the loss of some of your gain, for your rich soil, your industry and ability at agriculture, your knowledge of trades and crafts, have raised you to such an independent position that you can defy the combinations. But it is, nevertheless, a stubborn fact that the trusts rob you of a great deal of your earnings, and that they will some day outmaneuver you.

What would be the consequences if the standpat politicians were allowed to 11continue in power for an indefinite period? The last developments and disclosures in the dark and mysterious conclaves of political gamblers have brought to light a state of graft and corruption that must make a free, intelligent, powerful, and independent people boil with indignation. It is a glaring disgrace and a national scandal, and the infernal business of graft and gambling should be laid at the door of the money barons and the standpat politicians who make the laws in favor of the few, to the injury and ruin of the many. Such a state of political affairs will not be tolerated very much longer. The American people seem to be slow and patient in dealing with their corrupt politicians, but they will rise in noble indignation at the outrageous conspiracy of the combined money powers, and the evils of gambling and corruption will be swept from the political arena.

This is the greatest and best country of ancient and modern times, and it is for the American people to guard the treasures of liberty, justice, equality, and Christian morality. This noble land of ours has been and ought to be the "poor man's country"; but a disreputable gang of political grafters are trying hard to make it a land for the rich only. The real greatness of a 12state or nation is not measured by the number of her millionaires, but by the standard of free, happy, and independent homes. The American nation is so great and powerful that only God is its superior, and He has given us a noble mission in the world of thought and action. We are not destined to be standpatters, but progressives in the eternal march of advancement and the higher ideals of Christian civilization.

There is no denying the fact that the money power of the present day is responsible for the greatest moral as well as political corruption of modern society. Marriage has been turned into a monstrous caricature; the divorce business has become a flourishing institution, and the harems exchange masters according to the most approved methods of "love's" locomotion. "Race suicide" is one branch of the business, and "half"-married "ladies" of the Cleopatra and Jezebel stamp carry their infernal puppies or poodle dogs in their loving arms to church where "mama's sweet little darlings" may learn from the lips of a "popular" preacher how awfully nice it is to marry, get a divorce, and marry again.

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What society needs is a political and moral house cleaning of far-reaching effect. We need leaders in a battle royal for social and political reform, and we have some noble champions who are tried and trusted in the gladiatorial arena. The greatest of all Americans of the present time is Theodore Roosevelt, a man of commanding personality, nobility of character, and invincible moral courage. He is the model and perfection of noble manhood--a social, political, and moral reformer of tremendous force. Both physically and intellectually he is a giant among the political pigmies, and two hemispheres do homage to his mental powers and his moral character. When Theodore Roosevelt takes the field for justice and humanity, the money bosses and their hired tools tremble in their dark corners, for when the lion roars all the other animals are silent.

As citizens of this great and noble nation, it is our duty and our privilege to take an active part in all the important issues that confront the body politic. The sovereignty of the people must be maintained by the power of the ballot box, and every loyal citizen should enter the political arena for the right.

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But we have to choose our leaders among the different groups of politicians. Now the question is: Who is to lead us out of Egypt into the promised land of political and moral reform? Is the triumvirate composed of Aldrich, Payne, and Joe Cannon going to do the job, or shall we cast our political fortunes with Roosevelt, Cummins, and Dolliver?

I think that you farmers, workers, and businessmen have taken your stand long ago. You are progressives of long standing; but you are not standing pat. When you stand for the right, for justice, and morality, you are progressives. No nation, however prosperous and powerful, can stand the shock of ages and evolutions without the moral progress and patriotism of her citizens. Great nations arose to tremendous power and prominence in ages past; but on account of brutal despotism, cruel injustice, immorality, and degeneration, they were doomed to destruction and decay. The Chaldean, the Assyrian, the Babylonian, the Persian, the Greek Macedonian, and the towering Roman Colossus--where are those mighty empires of antiquity? In the dust and debris of ages. What are they now? Graves and grinning skeletons. The grand and magnificent cities of the Orient, with towers, temples, columns, and 15colonnades, appear above the smoldering ruins of antiquity like the giant remains of crushed empires. Only those nations that can work in the light of the Lord may defy the shock of the century billows and sail majestically on toward the distant, shining goal of eternity.

Let us show our unwavering loyalty and patriotism by standing faithfully on the line for right and justice in this great land of the free. As citizens of these United States of America, it is our duty to stand firm and loyal for her prosperity, her national honor, and her flag.