Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-05-02

to develop on behalf of the people CO.
herent and powerful movement, a genuine
and representative nationality.
Two generations passed before the sec
ond great crisis in our history had TO be
faced. Then came the Civil War. terrible
and bitter in itself and in its aftermath,
but struggle from which the nation
finally emerged. united in fact as well as
name, united forever. Oh, my hearers. my
fellow countrymen. great indeed has been
our good fortune. for as time clears away
the mist that once shrouded brother from
brother and made each look las through a
glass darkly" at the other we can all feel
the same pride in the valor, the devotion
and the fealty. toward the right as it
given to each to see the right, shown alike
by the men who wore the blue and by the
men who wore the gray.
'Prcpare to Meet War"
We cannot afford to forget the maxim
that Washington insisted upon. that the
surest way to avert war is to be prepared
to meet it. Nevertheless the duties that
most concern of this generation are not
military but social and industrial Each
community must always dread the evils
which spring up as attendant upon the
very qualities which give it success. We
of this mighty western Republic have to
grapple with the dangers that spring from
popular self-gOvernment tried on a scale
incomparably vaster than ever before in the
history of mankind. and from AN Astounding
material prosperity greater also than any
thing which the world has hitherto seen.
At the moment. the greatest problem
before us is how to exercise such control
over the business use of vast wealth. in
dividual, but especially corporate, as will
insure it not being used against the inter
est of the public, while yet permitting
such ample legitimate profits as will en-
courage individual initiative. 1t is our bust
ness to put a stop to abuses and to pre-
vent their recurrence. without showing
spirit of mere vindictiveness for what has
been done in the past.
This is tie exact spirit in which this
country should move to the reform of cor
porate wealth. The wrong -doer. the man
who swindles and cheats, whether on a big
scale or a little one. shall receive at our
hands mercy as scant as if he committed
crimes of violence or brutality. We are
unalterably determined to prevent wrong
doing in the future, but we have no inten-
tion of trying to wreak such an indiscrimi-
nate vengeance for wrongs done in the past
as would confound the innocent with the
guilty. Our purpose is to build up rather
than to tear down. We show ourselves
the truest friends of property when we
make it evident that we will not tolerate
the abuses of property.
We are steadily bent on preserving the
institution of private property, we combat
every tendency towards reducing the peO-
pie to economic servitude, and we care
not whether the tendency is due to a SIMS
ter agitation directed against all property.
or whether it is due to the actions Of those
members OI the PREDATORY GLASSES WHOSE
anti-social power is UNNECESSARILY increased
because of the very fact that they possess
wealth.
"Deeds Not Professions"
We base our regard for each man on the
essentials. not the accident. We judge him
not by his professions. but by his deeds. by
his conduct not by what he has acquired
of this worlds goods. Other republics have
fallen because the citizens gradually grew
to consider the interests of a class before
the interests of the whole, for when such
was the case it mattered little whether it
was the poor who plundered the rich or the
rich who exploited the poor; in either event
the end of the republic at hand.
We are resOute in our purpose not to
fall into such a pit. This great republic
of ours shall never become the government
of a mob