The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1904-05-27

speed. Inc matter should certainly b
looked up and steps, taken to proven
any accidents in Owosso at once. D.
not wait until some luckless citizen i
struck by one of the machines and Sc
verely injured, or killed.
One of the few. and one of the, mos
sacred American holidays occurs mex
Monday, the Both of May. The celebra
ton of the 4th of July, while made pos
sible by the splitting of the blood Of
thousands of our brave, liberty loving
ancestors is made an occasion of rejoic
ing. By the conflict of the years Of
revolutionary strife the freedom of the
nation was won, and on the anniversary
of the signing of that grand old instru
ment, the Declaration of Independence,
the thought is one of exultation-the
! prize of freedom, not the sacrifice it cost,
| is uppermost in the minds of all. Not
SO on Memorial Day. Really freedom
had been but partially won, but it did
not seem so. Distrust between North
and South made war necessary to bring
out a greater freedom. But while a
greater freedom than before was at
tanned, this time it was brother fighting
against brother to attain it. tall seems
so terrible now, because it seems that a
little less selfishness, little more con-
fidence and trust among brothers, would
have let this freedom come to the nation
also, without all the bloodshed which
seems so terrible even to-day as we
think of it. So Memorial Day, which
also must be day of rejoicing in the
attainment of the greater freedom, is
also day of sadness at the thought of
the hundreds of thousands of brave lives
it COST the hundreds of thousands of
other lives which came home to be lived
out in fewer days because in shattered
bodies. Rejoice then, Monday, rejoice
in the greater freedom, but be thought
full, you may be even saddened at the
thought, that it cost so much, and rev.
erently let the graves of those who lay.
down their lives that we might have the
greater freedom be decorated Monday.
And let all honor be paid to the brave
souls, the comrades of the men who lie
buried over on the hill-men who are
growing few and feeble. but who have
worked willingly on for the betterment
of the country they offered their lives to
save and for the still greater degree of
freedom for which they as truly sacri-
feed themselves as did their brothers
who for forty years and more have rest
ed from the strife. And one more
thought, and the "preachment" of THE
TIMES is through. freedom, the free
dom for which our revolutionary fore
fathers fought and died, Freedom, for
which our own fathers fought in the
great rebellion, we have not yet in full.
The working man or the business man
with his savings is not free from the
Of some trust no matter how
he may wish to invest it, nor is he free
from the dominance of united labor.
Nor is the laboring man selling his la
Dor in any better condition, He too
finds his freedom of action limited both
by the capitalist and by his own fellow
workers. Let the lesson of our great
and terrible wars for freedom not be
forgotten now. Freedom might at
some day in the future be obtained by
war, but let better way be found.
The citizens of our great American ma
ton need more confidence in each other.
Our country needs the capitalists,
and the combinations of tire CAPT.
talists which we call the trusts.
Our country needs the man who
labors hard all day with his hands,
it cannot get along without him, and
it needs the help which the associations,
or unions, of these men can give it.
There should.be no fierce selfish conflict
which gives no quarter between capital
and labor, or between capital and itself,
or labor and itself. Let all be honest,
sincere, thinking carefully of the rights
of each other, remembering well what
the terrible cost of freedom has been,
and newer, still better freedom will
be attained and attained without the
shedding of precious blood. Then re-
joice with the old veterans Monday that
freedom still is here and thank God
that there were men in those dark days
who would consent to die; be reverently
thoughtful for little space of time of
the many who had to die; but abovealf-
look forward to a greater freedom, and
to winning it side by side with every
citizen of this wonderful country--hut