Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1902-12-04

To the Senate and House of Representa-
tives: We still continue. in period of
unbounded prosperity. This prosperity. is
not the creature of law, but undoubtedly
the laws under which we work have been
Instrumental in creating the conditions
which made it possible and by .unwise leg
1t. There will undoubtedly be periods of
depression. The wave will recede; but the
tide will advance. This nation is seated on
q continent fianked by two great oceans:
1t is composed of men the descendants of
pioneers, or in a sense, pioneers them
selves; of men winnowed out from among
boldness, and love of adventure found in
their own eager hearts. Such a nation, SO
placed, will surely wrest success from 1or-
tune.
AS a people we have played a large part
In the world, and we are bent upon making
our future even larger than the past In
have definitely decided that, for woe or
for veal, our place must be great among
the nations. we may either fail greatly
the enGeavor from which either great fail
ure or great success must come. Even II
We would, we cannot play a small part part.
would be that we should play a large part
ignobly and shamefully.
Causes of Prosperity.
No country has ever occupied a higher
plane of material well-being than ours
at the present moment. This well-being
is due to no sudden or accidental causes,
but to the play of the economic forces
In this country for over century; TO
our laws, our sustained and continuous
policies; above all, to the high individ--
ual average of our citizenship. Great
fortunes have been won. by. those who
have taken the lead in this phenomenal
industrial development, and most of these
fortunes have been won not by, doing
evil, but as an incident to action which
has benefited the community as whole.
Never before has material Well-be1ng
been so widely diffused among our peo-
Pile. Great fortunes have been accum-
ulated, and yet in. the. aggregate these
pared to the wealth of the people as
whole The plain people are better off
than they have ever been before. The
tically mutual benefit societies-especial-
ly helpful to men of moderate means
represent accumulations of capital which
are among the largest in this country.
There are more deposits in the savings
banks, more owners Of farms, more we'll
paid wage workers in this country. now
than ever before in our history OF course,
when the conditions have favored the
growth of so much that was good, they
have also favored somewhat the growth
of what was evil. It is eminently neces-
sary that we should endeavor to cut out
this evil, but let us keep a due sense of
proportion; let us not in fixing our gaze
upon the lesser evil forget the greater
them are menacing, but they are the
outgrowth, not of misery or decadence,
but of prosperity-of the progress OF our
gigantic industrial DEVELOPMENT ms us
checked. but side by side with it should
go such progressive regulation as will
diminish the evils We should fail in
our duty if we die. not tryeto remedy the
evils, but we shall succeed only if we
proceed patiently, with practical common
sense az we'll as resolution. separating
the good from the bad and holding on to
the former while endeavoring to get rid
of the latter. - "s