Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Transportation Building Dedication Addresses [PAGE 63]

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of great wealth - undertook their ohief constructive work// they placed absolute oonfidenoe in the honor of the American people, in the integrity of their government, and in the stability of their institutions — whether these

institutions be public, quasi-public or private, they did not stop to consider. They scarcely could have hoped for adequate financial returns within the narrowing scope of their declining years, but they were farseeing men. With the memories of bloody battle-fields still fresh in their minds - men fighting valiantly for the cause of their country - they saw their duty and neither luxuriant ease nor the threatening dangers of their large undertakings could swerve them from it. Have we in so short a space of time forgotten our legacy and all that it represents! Have we forgotten that we ourselves have certain imperative duties to perform in preserving the honor of our country which our forefathers defended with their lives! Have our splendid public schools, our colleges and our universities, already defeated the very ends for which they were created" When we stop to consider the precarious situation of the railroads - the very values which underlie our government bonds themselves, the endowment values upon which have been constructed publio institutions without number, the foundation and the buttress of our national strength and our national greatness, serious doubt arises.