The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-08-20


national government stand abreast of
| the foremost state governments.
| nave spoken of but one or two laws
i Whlcn, In my judgment, 1t is advisa Die
| 20 enact as part OF the general scheme
| Ior making the interference of the ma
| tlonal government more effective in Sc
| curing justice and fair dealing as be-
tween man and man here in the United
States. Let me add, however, that
Wh1le it is necessary to have leg1slatlon
| when conditions arise where we can
| only cope with evils through the joint
action of all of US, yet that We can
never afford to forget that in the last
analysis the all-important factor for
each of us must be his own individual
character. 1t is a necessary thing to
have good laws, good institutions; but
the most necessary of all things is to
have a high quality of individual citt-
zenship. This does not mean that we
can afford to neglect legislation. 1t will
be highly disastrous If we permit our
selves to be nlisled by the pleas of those
who see in an unrestricted individual
ism the all-sufficient panacea for social
evils; but it will be even more disas-
trous to adopt the opposite panacea of
any socialistic system which would des-
troy all individualism which would root
out the fiber of our whole citizenship. In
any great movement, such as that in
which we are engaged, nothing is more
necessary than sanity, than the refusal
to be led into extremes by the advocates
of the Ultra course on either side. Those
professed friends of liberty who cham
pioc license are the worst foes of liberty
and tend by the reaction their violence
causes to throw the government back
into the hands of the men who cham
pion corruption and tyranny in the name
of order. So it is with this movement
for securing justice toward all men, anu
equality of opportunity so far as it can
be secured by governmental action. The
rich man who with hard arrogance de-
clines to consider the rights and the
needs Of those who are less well off, and
the poor man who excites or INDUCES
in envy and hatred of those who are
better off, are alike alien to the spirit
of our national life. Each of them should
learn to appreciate the baseness and
degradation of his point of view, as evil
in the one case as in the other. There |
exists no more sordid and unlovely type
of social development than plutocracy, |
for there is a peculiar unwholesomene5S |
in a social and governmental ideal where |
wealth by and of itself is held up as the |
greatest good.
The materialism of such a view, |
whether it finds it's expression in the |
life of man who accumulates a vast |
fortune in ways that are repugnant to |
every instinct of generosity and of |
fair dealing, or whether it finds its |
expression in the vapidly useless and |
self-indulgent life of the inheritor of |
that fortune, is contemplate in the |
lofty feeling. Where the power of the |
law can be wisely used to prevent or |
to minimize the acquisition or bust |
ness employment of such wealth and |
to make it pay by income or inherit |
ance tax it's proper share of the bur-
den of government, 1 would invoke |
that power without a moments hesi-
tation.
thing by legislation, legislation can
than a
no more than a small part, in the gen.
crude or vindictive legislation may at
any time bring such progress to a
halt. Certain socialistic leaders pro-
pose to redistribute the worlds goods
by refusing to thrift and energy and
industry their proper superiority over |
folly and idleness and sullen envy /
Such legislation would merely, in the
words of the president of Columbia
ficiency for the purpose of redistribut- |
ing the worlds discomfort" We /
should all of US work heart and soul
ment which will lift our democratic
civilization TO higher level of safety
and usefulness. Such betterment can
come only by the slow, steady growth
of the spirit which metes a generous,
but not a sentimental. justice to each
man on his merits as man. and
which recognizes the fact that the |
highest and deepest happiness for the
in service