u food for sober thought in the parallel
he has drawn of the marvelous activity and resourcefulness of the
Latin-American republics. Possibly I may be permitted at this time to
inject a suggestion that, despite the remarks of the previous speaker
about Boston as the modern Athens and the seat of universal learning,
"Modern Athens" has nothing in common with the memories aroused by
contemplation of the events which we celebrate today. It may be well to
tell our friends from New England that before the so-called Anglo-Saxon
had set foot as a colonist upon the American soil, the followers of
Columbus had penetrated into the heart of Kansas and gone down as far as
Buenos Ayres. I want to lay stress upon the fact that we have not noted
too emphatically today that it was the great Spanish race, with its
strong and sterling faith, which accomplished this wonderful mission of
civilization. Too long have we endured the stress of so-called history
written by Prescott and others, some of whom ought to have been put in
the Ananias club before they were born. For nearly three centuries
the Spanish race, with its indomitable faith, pursued almost alone its
mission of civilization and evangelization of the aborigines of America.
Before the Pilgrim Fathers had landed on Plymouth Rock, the Catholic
Spaniard had acquired a knowledge of the Indian language sufficient to
enable him to translate the Bible into the Aztec Indian language, so
that the new Indian neophyte could read the story of "God's greatest
Book" in his mother tongue."

The Courage of Catholic Spain

I wish to advise those of you who speak now of a burden of four days and
nights in luxurious Pullman cars to step out on the soil of California
as though you had performed a deed of heroism, that a Spanish soldier,
Cabeza de Vaca, with the courage of primitive Christianity, walked from
Florida to the Gulf of California, though it took him seven years to
accomplish his task; and the wonderfully brave Friar Marcos de Niza
pioneered his way on foot thirteen hundred miles into the heart of
Arizona through deserts and hordes of Apaches, in his efforts to plant
the cross of civilization among the children of the new world. Nay, the
Grand Canyon of Arizona, now one of the greatest natural wonders of the
world, was seen by a young Spanish lieutenant and his twenty soldiers
three hundred years before the Anglo-Saxon took a glimpse at its
wonderful and awe-inspiring beauty. These