The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1903-09-25

had our unstinted praise and support.
And at the present day, good men of all
parties unite in their support of every
effort of the president of the United
States, to crush out dangerous trusts,
and to purify the public service. All
these things are complimentary of our
common patriotism.
The American citizen should be law
abiding;-and this whether the law to
be abided by, suits him OF not. In this
age, and in our country, the will of the
majority must prevail, and no man must
be a law unto himself. In the olden
{ time, the castle of the great and mighty,
was guarded by trench and bar and mail
ed knights upon the parapet. But the
poor and weak were the helpless victims
Of friend and foe alike. The ancient
castle with moat and trench,-with
bristling parapet and crested knight, are
gone, and in place of all, stands the maj
esty of the law, as our defense. Only
by obeying its mandates, can we be good
citizens,-and only by compelling obed-
fence to its laws, can a nation or state
be respected. Every violation of the law,
tends to debase our community and in
lure u citizenship. If a law is bad, re-
peal or modify it,-but respect it while
it stands. For each man to be allowed
to set at defiance any law he dislikes,
must lead to anarchy.
Men may urge the laws delays and in
equalities as excuses for its violation;
but there is little in such excuses. In
communities where negroes are most fire.
quently lynched, who ever heard of the
law being tardy in the punishment of
the black mans crime? What is there
in our laws and their execution to Just
ify the illegal sale of liquor,Cthe de-
bauching of the young and innocent
the stealing of property, or the doing of
personal injury to another? But, says
one, the law does not deal Justly be-
tween capital and labor. Do 1 justify
the grinding down the poor by the rich?
Well, if the law does not secure to every
man his just rights, it should be amend
| ed, not defied. Every method to better
the condition of a man or class of men,
should be lawful and peaceable.
| trust that laws may soon be enacted,
! that shall govern the trust and corpor-
alton, and provide a just system of arbi-
t%ration, which will settle the differences
between capitol and labor, And if labor
gets a little the best of such settlements,
may we all say Amen.
The American citizen should be intelli-
gent. There once evXisted a theory, adj
hered to by many good people, that if
a boy was going to be a farmer or a
blacksmith, all he needed to learn, was
something about farming or the black
smith trade,-and that most of that, he
, ought to learn from his father, however
much of a failure the father might be.
Times have changed, and broader ideas
prevail. But still many a boy is denied
the opportunities for education and en-
lightment, he should enjoy. Especially
is this so in the country. Too many
boys miss part of the Spring term of
school to assist in planting the crop, and
part of the Fall term, in order to gather
it in. This is one great reason why the
girl graduates of our high schools, Nor
mails and colleges outnumber the boys
about two to one. In town, too, the
burden of poverty, in the form of labor,
falls upon the boy earlier than the girl.
! Farmer, merchant, mechanic, go home to-
night, and look upon that boy of yours.
Look upon his tawny hair, his sunburn-
ed face, his feet, perhaps bare and brown.
Look upon him, and realize the bundle
of possibilities which you behold. No
man can tell what that boy may become,
if given a chance. He may be a states
man, a scholar or a philosopher. But"
says one, "Look at Lincoln and Garfield.
How little they went to school, and how
great they became" True, they were
great and able. But Garfield made up
in later life, many of the lost opportuni-
ties of early youth. And Lincoln was