appointments and promotions the merit system has been
his invariable guide, declining to be influenced by
considerations of person, politics, religion or color. He
has been instrumental in enrolling more Afro-Americans upon
the governmental roster than any other Negro living.

Mr. Cheatham is a positive race man and is a foremost
champion of the idea that the Negro's best development must
come along natural lines, and that material progress is as
much the result of sensible and persistent individual effort
as of legislation and adventitious aid. He believes in
practical education for the masses, technical education for
the captains of professional thought and industrial
leadership. He is unusually effective upon the "stump," and
has been heard with pleasure and profit in many states
during national campaigns.

Prosperity to a nation is most secure when all elements and classes of
that nation are at peace, one with the other. Christianity reaches the
height of its sacred mission when the spirit of co-operation and
brotherly love is most conspicuously in evidence. National prestige
and the influence of a people in the councils of the world are
invincible when the contributing forces of the land are happy and
united. The problems of civilization are solved when wars are silenced
and "rumors of wars" are heard no more.

America, as we have come to call the land of our birth, has not grown
to her present proud proportions upon "flowery beds of ease." Her
strong place among the powers of the earth has not been gained without
resort to martial strife. But, it is a gratifying fact, that up to
this hour every struggle against outside foes has made American people
stronger from within, and every victory, in our long, unbroken line of
successful campaigns, has bred a warmer spirit of homogeneity and knit
us together in closer bonds as a national unit. Foreign foes offer our
country no danger to-day. Our army and navy are without peers upon the
globe, and, despite our marvelous sketch of coast line, we have
nothing to fear from foreign invasion.

The disease that threatens us _most_ is from within. If salvation be
needed, we must pray to be "saved from ourselves." To "make clean our
hearts"--to face in proper spirit the duty that lies before us--should
be the earnest supplication of every true American citizen. A spirit
of unity is our urgent need at the ope