The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-07-13

catalogue of like activities were indus
trial develOpment-yet even these
things were done in an eager, hasty,
| wasteful way, with greed the ruling
passion.
But, no matter how we turn it, every
phase OF the whole American indus
trial phenomenon from the end of the
decade succeeding the civil war until
now has been material. Up to within
almost the present hour we have been
growing more practically commercial
every day. For the last four decades
the question that we have been asking
concerning our neighbOrs has been:
How much money is he nlaking?"
The measure of our success in life
came to be the dollar
And so, more and more. as the years
went on, the honestly, genuinely,
thoroughly representative men of the
times have been those great masters
OF business-those properly STYLED
captains of industry and the coun-
sellers of these over-lords OF wealth.
whose genius in their line was not
whit less than that of Hamilton and
Jefferson in theirs, OF Webster, Clay
and Calhoun in theirs, of Sumner and
Seward in their theirs. of Morton and
Conkling in theirs And SO, If there
mas been change In our public life,
and especially in the members of the
United States senate, It has renre-
sented, as in the days of old, the ma
tional ideal of the time.
So, beginning with the second de-
cade after the civil war, an increasing
number of business men began to come
to the senate until. as has been noted
nearly one-third Of the present senate
are business men. Also a. steadily
increasing number of very wealthy
men, whose successful business lives
prove their capacity, have been coming
to the upper house OF conaress-in-
deed to both houses of congress. Pos
sibly neither of these facts is perhaps,
discredit to the men themselves or to
the nation. They are notable only as
illustrating national conditions and
ideals.
But this ideal is slowly changing and
with it the senate is beginning to
change.
The while world now sees that the
period of American commercialism, in
the sense that the materialstic ideal
rules the American people. is passing
away, and that a new ideal, equal in
its nobility to that which inspired the
founders of the republic, is rapidly
establishing its sway over the Ameri-
can mind and heart. The problems,
the solution of which this new ideal
will determine, are the economic prob
lems-a more careful guardianship of
the interests and rights OF the people
in the mass, which merely means the
nation; and. therefore, fewer unpur-
chased privileges given to individuals
and corporations; better public service
with fidelity to the people its ruling
spirit rather than the temporary sue
cess of political parties; and, in gen.
eral, a settlement of all questions from
the viewpoint of conscience as we'll as
! intelligence.
This new period. and the ideal which
marks it, distinct from the meaning
and purpose Of the periods and ideals
that have gone before it will produce
is producing-its reflection in Amer
lean public life. The American peo-
pie are beginning to think justice as
we'll as dividends. They are beginning
to think Righteousness as we'll as profit.
A type and result of this new and glo-
rious period is Theodore Roosevelt
yes, and may we not also say one of
its causes?- OR. rather. are not he and
his work both cause and result?
The time for Theodore Roosevelt
was ripe: the people were weary OF
the money ideal alone, with its million
comforts and it's million cruelties. it's
million luxuries and its million in
justices, it's incessant ministry to the
flesh and its perpetual weakening OF
the spirit. And SO when this young
prophet of the new faith. which was
yet the ancient faith, went back and
forth among the people proclaiming
righteousness throughout the land, the
people heard him. and. hearing him.
made him the first conspicuous rep
resentative of the ideal he proclaimed
To this new period American public
life is responding notwithstanding
with a rapidity that is incredible con-
sidering the extent of our dominion
and the scores of our millions.
So If it be said that the senate has
been representative of business Gin
terests." the answer is that business
interests" have. for the last three de-
cades until now. constituted the ideal
of the American people.
If the American citizen wants to see
a change, let him stop envying and
worshtping mere wealth in the mass:
let him stop regarding huge railroad
systems. or vast organizations like the
beef trust. as things so big and adj
mirable that the people ought to serve
them, rather than that they ought to
serve the people; let him quit his idol
airy of the golden calf and stop think
ing that man is wise and good simply
because he owns copper mine In
some distant mountains: let him aban-
don the base attitude of lifting his hat
to the man who has acquired millions
merely because he has those millions:
let the average American quit all these
prostrations Of the soul and he will
find American public life responding
to his own altered attitude.
What the Senate Represents.
So we see that the membership Of
the senate is faithful picture OF uni
versal conditions and Of national
ideals from time to time. Let us see
what are its functions in legislation;
how 1t acts and what il represents. not
In the character and occupation of its
members. but in it's method of working.
The senate is the organized distrust
of the first violent and crude demands
OF popular passion and the organized
trust in the peoples final opinion
which comes when passion cools. The
house is the instantaneous expression
of popular feeling: the senate is the
deliberate expression of popular judg-
ment. So, when the country is fer
menting with new ideals. growing out
of changed conditions which the old
lo NC do not 81 MO l,ani. th1,no idons