Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1907-05-22
ROOT ADVANCES
HIGHER IDEALS
Says the People Are Awak-
ening to Need For
Better Things

NEW HAVEN, Conn, May 22.-Sec-
rotary of State Elihu Root, taking an
his topic, 1.-THE Outlook" delivered the
fourth and last in the series of Dodge
lectures at Yale last night on "Tha
Responsibilities of citizenship
Secretary Taft, who is president OF
the Yale corporation meeting, was an
interested spectator. Mr. Root said:
TN the whole field of popular govern
ment, am convinced that one of tia
plainest duties of citizenship Is hope-
fulness and that pessimism is q crinl~
inal weakness The Objectionable rail.
road practices which are now SO wide.
ly and justly condemned and which
furnish so fertile source of political
discussion, are not now practiced; they
are old practices. which formerly pass
ed subsistence The railroad rebates
which are now forbidden by law ana
for which great corporations are beina
indicted and convicted, are merely 4
form of discriminatory rates which
Increase privileges 1t is by giving
special rates that railroad companies
induced people to build factories and
1 R~N~Aih6 hOdSCo anu ctGNdtOTS ana "a.
great variety OF other business estab-
lishments along the lines Of their
roads; that was the way they built M
their business.
Demand Square Deal.
I'm recent years. however. the peo-
pie Of the country have come to an
appreciation of the idea that these
great public agencies can not give spe-
cial rates to some men without doing
injustice to others and that the conn
mon right Of the people demands
equality of facility and Of cost in
transportation. which the railroads ara
bound to furnish, and condemns spe-
cial privileges to one as against the
other. The lesson Of all this Is that
the prosecutions and convictions for
violations Of the anti-rebate law ara
not evidence that we are growing
worse, but evidence that we are grow
ing better; that our government il an
i plying a higher standard OF justice In
the control of public utilities. The
same is true Of the management Of tha
corporations and the manipulation or
] securities. to which attention has been
) called sharply by the testimony before
the interstate commerce commission In
j regard to the organization OF the CHA
cago and Alton railroad.
B Advance Moral Standards.
The prosecutions which the depart
: ments of the interior and justice have
a been conducting against the land
thieves in the West have awakened in-
!. tense indignation among the defend
i ants and their friends because the
q wrong was so inveterate that they had
. come to look upon It as right. When
the officers Of the law presented and
n effected the novel idea that It was a
e dishonest to deprive the governmeni
lof Its land Illegally as to deprive an
individual Of his land. II seemed Z
cruel injustice. There was simply I
little advance Of the moral STANDARD
ef which gave the life to laws that had
Ibeen dead before.
"All of these things are but incl
1e dents OF the process OF adjustment q
ae the division Of the new wealth. oui
" government Is dealing the more as
siduously by awakened public opinion
gradually crystalized into laws to mes
ha the new conditional