The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1897-07-30
STUDY RATHER THAN DESTROY.

In his address at Boston last Tuesday
evening Secretary Gage used the follow
ing striking language:
ION the financial side there is really no
pressing need for haste There is Ger
tainly no immediate occasion for anxiety.
With ample reserves in the public Treas
ury; with financial centers In a full sup
ply OF loanable funds. with interest in
willingly low; with crop prospects most
promising. and a good market favorably
assured. with new mineral resources COM
ing into view; with a territorial area SUI
ficient to carry its present population
many times multiplied; with people adj
yancing in the elements Of intelligence
and character. who dare indulge IN dole
ful forecasts? We need not ignore the
fact that there are many wounds TO be
cured, excited passions 20 be Gained, and
many misunderstanding 10 be composed.
Nor is 1t passing strange that this should
be 50. Within the limits of half life
time industrial methods and processes
have been revolutionized: combinations IN
labor. in trade, in manufactures have
superseded to degree the former pro-
cesses OF individual movement II is phil
osOphical to believe that they are all evo-
lutionary. tending to a final and a higher
general good. but in their immediate ef-
fects they produce incidental injury in
many directions Perceiving the injury,
the hurt cry out and cannot be pursuaded
that any good can come out OF so great
an evil. Time will do much 10 restore,
and the natural laws. everywhere operat-
ing. will bring in at last their compen-
sations.
I'm the mean time our statute laws
must learn not to repress the operation
of a natural law, but they must learn TO
Justly check and punish those who, grasp
ing the new elements of power, pervert
them into agencies OF injustice and op-
preston. The problems OF a Democratic
society rapidly developing in all direc-
tons are many and troublesome. They
must be met with patience. We must not
lose faith nor abate in courage. With
malice toward none. with charity for ALL
each unit In the mighty organism must
bring 10 their solution the best that is in
him Of virtue and intelligence. Upon
the wise and great the duty weighs with
corresponding force. but upon the hum
BILE and weak also It presses according TO
their measure OF the responsibility"
That passage is full Of good sense.
What he says OF the operation OF new
forces in the matter that more impera
lively calls for the attention OF the pub
lie than anything else now calling for
thought. Steam and electricity have rev.
olutionized the methods OF business and
have left far in the rear all those who
cannot accommodate themselves TO the
new methods and who insist upon holding
on 10 old plans that belonged to the age
Of stage coaches and OK carts. The great
Industrial combinations that We see form
ing all around us are the products OF that
evolution that steam, electricity and inn
proved machinery have made necessary
in order that competitors may put some
brakes upon destructive competition.
What IS more demanded now than any
thing else is that the public at large shall
study tho natural causes that have pro
duced these incidental combinations and
shall direct its attention to the proper
regulation Of them rather than to their
| destruction.