Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1906-12-07

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the belief "that the State and Fed.
eral governments should provide the
machinery for what may be called ths
compulsory investigation Of eoitro;;
VERSES btween employers and
employees when they arise
Withdrawal of Coal Lands.
It is not wise that the Nation
should ALLEVIATE Its remaining coal
lands. | have temporarily withdrawn
from settlement all the lands Which
the Geological Survey has indicated
as containing, or in all probability
containing, coal. The question, how
ever, can be properly settled only bS
legislation, which in my judgment
should provide for the withdrawal OF
these lands from sale or from entry,
save in certain especial circumstances.
The ownership would then remain III
the United States, which should not,
however, attempt to work them, but
permit them to be worked by private
individuals under a royalty system,
the Government keeping such control
as to permit it to see that no exees
sive price was charged consumers:
Corporations.
The present Congress has taken
long strides in the direction Of secur~
ing proper supervision and control
| by the National Government over
corporations engaged i'll interstate
brsiness-and the enormous majority
Of corporations of any size are engag
ed in interstate business The pas
sage of the railway rate bill, and only
to less degree the passage of the
pure food bill, and the provision for
increasing and rendering more effee
tive national control over the beef
packing industry, mark an important
advance in the proper direction. In
the short session it will perhaps BE-
difficult to do much further along this
line; and it may be best to wait unit
the laws have been in operation for
number of months before endeavoring
to increase their scope, because only
operation will show with exactness
their merits and their shortcomings
ard thus give opportunity to define
what further REMEDIAL legislation is
needed. Yet in my judgment it will
in the end be advisable in connection
with the packing house inspection law
to provide for putting a date on the
label and for charging the cost Of in
spection to the packers. All these
laws have already justified their en-
aetment.
Agriculture.
The only other persons whose well
fare is as vital to the welfare of the
whole country as is the welfare of til
wageworkers are the tillers of thu
sell, the farmers. 1t is mere truism
to say that no growth of cities, no,
growth of wealth, no industrial de-
velopment can atone for any falling
off in the character and standing of
the farming population. During the
last few decades this fact has been
recognized with ever-increasing clear
ness. There is no longer any failure
to realize that farming, at least in
certain branches, must become a tech
meal and scientific profession. This
means that there must be open to
farmers the chance for technical and
scientific training, not theoretical
merely but of the most severely prac-
teal type. The farmer represents a
peculiarly high type of American
citizenship, and he must have the
same chance to rise and develop as
other American citizens have. More
over, it is exactly as true of the far
mer, as it is of the business man and
the wageworker, that the ultimate
success of the Nation of which he
forms a part must be founded not
alone on material prosperity but upon
high moral, mental, and physical de-
yelopment. This education of the
flrmer-self-education by preference,
but also education from the outside,
as with all other mems peculiarly
necessary here in the United States,
where the frontier conditions even in
the newest States have now vanished,
where there must be substitution of
more intensive system of cultiva-
ton for the old wasteful farm man.
asement, and where there must be
better business organization among
the farmers themselves.
Marriage and Divorce.
l am well aware of how difficult it
is to pass a constitutional amendment.
Nevertheless in my judgment the
whole question of marriage and di-
vorce should be relegated to the au.
thority of the National Congress. At
present the wide difference in the
laws of the different States on this
subject result in scandals and abuses;
and surely there is nothing so vitality
essential to the welfare of the nation,
nothing around which the nation
should so bend itself to throw every
safeguard, as the home life of the
average citizen. The change would
be good from every standpoint. In
particular it would be good because
it would confer on the Congress the
power at once to deal radically and
efficiently with polygamy; and this
should be done whether or not mar
riage and divorce are dealt with. It
is neither safe nor proper to leave
the question of polygamy to be dealt
with by the several States. Power to
deal with it should be conferred on
the National Government.
When home ties are loosened; when
men and women cease to regard
worthy family life, with all its du-
ties fully performed, and all its re-
sponsibilities lived up to, as the life
best worth living; then evil days for
the commonwealth are at hand. There
are regions in our land, and classes
of our population, where the birth
rate has sunk below the death rate.
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