Remarks in Lincoln, Illinois

It is a great pleasure to have the chance of coming before you and saying a word of greeting to you today. I am now closing a trip that has lasted two months. I have gone across the continent from one ocean to the other, and am now well on my return; and of all things on that trip the thing that has impressed me most is the essential unity of our people. Wherever I have been, on the Atlantic seaboard, in this great Mississippi valley, on the high plains and among the mountains to the westward, and further westward still by the shore of the Pacific, the people whom I have seen are substantially one.

Everywhere I have stopped throughout this State, I have noticed your schools, and mighty good they are; but what has impressed me most are the evidences of your wonderful industrial progress. I hope it will continue, and it lies with you to make it continue. Go on showing the industry you have shown in the past; that industry which is the basis of individual success, for the success of the individual is the success of the nation; and you will make this State, this nation, more glorious, more prosperous in the future than ever it was in the past; glorious and prosperous as that past has been.

Now I must say good-bye, and I greet you all. I want to say a special word of greeting to the fathers and mothers who come down here carrying small children. I believe in children and I like your stock; I am glad it is being kept up.