Omaha daily bee., 1903-04-07

the Orient and the rice crop IL now prac-
tically equal to our needs IL, this country,
whereas a few years ago It supplied bu:
of our farm products is the grass crop;
and to show whar has been done with
change made in the entire west by the eX-
tended use OF alfalfa.
Moreover, the department has taken the
ton Of the, country, Where there are for
ests we seek to preserve them, and on the
once treeIeSs plains sand the p~raIries we
are doing our best to foster the habit of
tree planting among our people. In my own
slifetime have Iseen wonderful changes
your own state and in the states immedi-
ately around 1t.
There are a number of important ques-
lions, such as that of good roads, with
which the states alone can deal, and where
all that the national government can do is
to cooperate with them. The same is true
A number of the states have themselves
started to help in this work and the De-
amount which is in the proper sense of the
word educational, and educational in the
most practical way.
advance has been made in the direction OF
finding ways by which the government can
help the farmer to help himself-the only
kind of help which a self-respecting man
will accept, or, 1 may add, which will in the
end do him any good. Much has been
done in these ways, and farm life and farm
ter. The farmer himself still retains, be-
cause of his SURROUNDINGS and the nature of
his work, to- a preleminent degree the quail
tiles which we like to think of as distinctly
American in considering our early history.
The man who tills his own farm, whether
who grows what we eat and the raw ma
terial which is worked up into what we
wear, still exists more nearly under the con-
ditions which obtained when the ''embat-
tied farmers" OF '6 made this country a
nation than is true of any others of our
people.
cities Face Changed Conditions.
But the wage workers In our cities, like
the capitalists in our cities, face totally
machinery and the extraordinary change IN
business conditions have rendered the em-
ployment OF capital and of persons in large
aggregations not merely profitable, but
often necessary for success, and have
specialized the labor of the wage worker
at the same time that they have brought
gether. More and more in our great In
dustrial. centers men have come to realize
| one another as In the old days was the case
everything, and as is now the case In the
country districts.
yet find that the chief factor In determining
his success or failure in life is the sum OF
AFFORD to lose his individual initiative, his
individual will and power; but he can best
use that power If for certain objects he
| unlleS Win MS ICllOhss MuCn Cdn D6 uOHt
by organization, combination. union among
the wage workers; finally something can be
done by the direct action OF the state. 1t il
not possible empirically to- declare when
the interference of the state should be
deemed legitimate and when illegitlmate
The line of demarcation between un.
healthy overinterference and unhealthy
lack OF regulation is not always
we'll defined and shifts with the change In
our Industrial needs. Most certainly we
should never invoke the interference Of ths
state OF nation unless 1t Is absolutely
necessary; but II is equally true that when
confident of it's necessity we should not
on academic grounds refuse IL, Wise
factory laws, laws to forbid the employ
ment of child labor and to safeguard the
employees against the effects of culpable
negligence by the employer are necessary
not merely in the interest Of the wage
worker, but in the interest of the honest
and humane emrloyer, who should not be
psnalized for his honesty and humanity by
/ being exposed t. unchecked competition
with an INSCRIPTIONS rival. 1t Is far more
dif1cult to deaf with the greed that work;
through cunning than with the greed thai