The midland journal., 1906-12-07

| him, to seek to mislead and infiame
to madness honest men whose lives
are hard and who have not the kind
of mental training which will permit
them to appreciate the danger in the
doctrines preached-all this is to com
NIT crime against the body polite
and to be false to every worthy prln-
ciple and tradition of American nat
ional life. Moreover, while such
rreaching and such agitation may
give livelihood and certain noto-
riety to some of those who take part
in it, and may result in the tempor-
ary political success of othres, in the
long run every such movement will
either fail or else will provoke vio-
lent reaction, which will itself result
not merely in undoing the mischief
wrought by the demagog and the agi-
tator, but also in undoing the good
that the honest reformer, the true
upholder of popular rights, has pain
fully and laboriously achieved. Cor
ruption is never so rife as in COM
munities where the demogog and the
agitator bear full sway, because in
such communities all moral
bands become loosened, and hys-
terra and sensationalism replace the
spirit Of sound judgment and fair
dealing as between man and man. In
sheer revolt against the squalid anar-
chy thus produced men are sure In
the end to run toward any leader who
can restore order, and then their re-
lief at being free from the intoler-
able burdens Of class hatred, violence,
and demogogy is such that they can
not for some time be aroused to in
dignation against masdeeds by men of
wealth; SO that they permit new
growth of the very abuses which were
i'll part responsible for the original
outbreak. The one hope for success
for our people lies in a resolute and
fearless, but sane and coel-headed,
advance along the path marked out
last year by this Congress. There
must be stern refusal to be misled
into following either that base crea-
ture who appears and panders to the
lowest instincts and passions In order
to arouse one set of Americans
against their fellows, or that other
creature, equally base but no baser,
who in a spirit Of greed, or to accu-
mulate or add to an already huge
fortune, seeks to exploit his fellow
Americans with callous disregard to
their welfare of soul and body. The
man who debauches others in order to
obtain high Office stands ON an evil
equality of corruption with the man
who debauches other for financial
profit; and when hatred is sown the
crop which springs up can only be
evil.
The plain people who think-the
mechanics, farmers, merchants, work
ers with head or hand, the men to
whom America traditions are dear,
who love their country and try to
act decently by their neighbors, owe
| it to themselves to remember that the
most damaging blow that can be
! given popular government is to elect
an unworthy and sinister agitator on
a platform Of violence and hypocrisy.
Whenever such an issue is raised in
this country nothing can be gained
by finching from it, for in such cas-.
democracy is iteself on trial. The
triumph of the mob is just as evil a
thing as the triumph of the pluto
cracy, and to have escaped one danger
avails nothing whatever if we sue
eumb to the other.
Railroad Employees Honrs and Eight
Hour Law.
call your attention to the need of
passing bill limiting the number Of
hours of employment Of railroad en-
ployees. The measure is a very mod
crate one and I can conceive of NO
serious objection to it. Indeed, so
far as it is in our power, it should be
our aim steadily to reduce the num-
ber of hours of labor, with as a goal
the general introduction of an eight
hour day. There are industries III
which it is not possible that the hours
of labor should be reduced; just as
there are communities not far enough
advanced for such a movement to be
for their good, or, if in the Tropics,
so situated that there is no analogy
between their needs and ours in this
matter. On the Isthmus of Panama,
for instance, the conditions are in
every way so different from what
they are here that an eight-hour day
would be absurd; just as it is absurd,
so far as the Isthmus is concerned,
where white labor can not be employ
led, to bother as to whether the neces-
sary work is done by alien black men
or by alien yellow men. But the
wageworkers of the United States are
of so high grade that alike from
the merely industrial standpoint and
from the civic standpoint it should
be our object to do what we can in
| fla % zaa,,-s,.,.