"
He laughed and nodded at them.
"There wasn't one of you that knew I wasn't a Frenchman. That's in my
favour. If I know the French language as I do, and can talk to you in
French as I've done, do you think I don't understand the French people,
and what you want and how you feel? I'm one of the few men in the West
that can talk your language. I learned it when I was a boy, so that I
might know my French fellow-countrymen under the same flag, with the same
King and the same national hope. As for your religion, God knows, I wish
I was as good a Protestant as lots of you are good Catholics. And I tell
you this, I'd be glad to have a minister that I could follow and respect
and love as I respect and love Monseigneur Lourde of Manitou. I want to
bring these two towns together, to make them a sign of what this country
is, and what it can do; to make hundreds like ourselves in Manitou and
Lebanon work together towards health, wealth, comfort and happiness.
Can't you see, my friends, what I'm driving at? I'm for peace and work
and wealth and power--not power for myself alone, but power that belongs
to all of us. If I can show I'm a good man at my job, maybe better than
others, then I have a right to ask you to follow me. If I can't, then
throw me out.
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