The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-08-24
THE WEEKLY JOURNAL,
qHE aospE1 oT REPosN.

We have been living under the gos- pei of unrest long enough. From every quarter of the country comes mature and timely demand for the substitution of the gospel of repose, not in any fancied belief that eternal vigilance has ceased to be the price of profitable progress but in the broader belief that after such a prolonged sea- son of "muck raking," of violent de- nunciation and of official investigation the country needs time to recover from its education. There is limit to the nations powers of endurance just as there is limit to the endurance of the individual The arm of the strong man lowers in fatigue after excessive indulgence. The nation droops before repeated attacks upon it's integrity. Convalescence is needed.
 This is plainly the interpretation to be put upon the various and varying estimates of President Rooseyelts
 
 Provincetown speech. No one is so blind to the actual condition of things as to rejoice in that speech, Those who regret it, like those who resent it, realize that in so far as a severe edu- cational process was perhaps neces. sary to awaken the better nature of the American citizen the process has been enforced and the time has come for the patient to digest the powerful medicine given him. Our readers will remember the successful explana- tion of J. Pierpont Morgan, who said that the trouble with the market at that time was "undigested securities. More bonds and stocks, common and preferred, had been thrown at the in- vesting public than the investing pub lie could digest. It may be said now saAusf ~tiie- present aft1iction that 1t is a case of "undigested scoldings" They have come so thick and fast from un- suspected sources and have been &C., companied by such relentless fulmin- ations of official wrath that the stom- ach refuses to operate and the patient must have rest. That this is not more commonly understood accounts for the unwillingness of those striking the blows to cease from their labors The appeals that are being made directly and indirectly to President Roosevelt to let up bit in his crusade against the evildoers are not based upon a sudden confidence in habits which have been exposed but in the mani- fest need there is for the healthy di- gestion of the lessons learned. It Is feared by the wiser physicians that an overdose of the drastic medicine will produce a result as bad if not worse than the original disease.
 We shall have to admit at the same time that as a nation we have been behaving pretty badly. Phenomenal prosperity has not only turned our heads but for the moment weakened our moral sense. The love of money as well as the love Of the joyous things money brings have artlfcially made il- legitimate commercial conduct excus- able. The end has been accepted as a justification of the means used. All along the line the blindness has been practically universal All have ridden on the flying horses of fate with un- thinking exhilaration. The corporation has lost its head and it's balance of things and has carried with 1t the man on horseback and the man afoot. The revelations of the insurance world, which were never intended to be rev. citations at all but which had their origin in the determination of one set of men to wrest from another set of men the care and employment of the millions entrusted to the giant conn., pauies. told us the whole story Unsat- ist1ed with that voluntary instruction the railroads added their mountain of confession. Politics felt the stimu- lant of revelation and gave it's meas urement of the common folly. From there it was simple task to trace the effect to the lowest and the humblest ending in a market which shrank ir value over three billion in that num- Der of weeks This was all pretty bad conduct and it warranted the severest condemnation but not the condemns ton which destroys and dries up tn, nations supply of the iron whicl makes for progress. The courts, excep in the case of homicide, proceed upor the principle that the patient treated possesses still the germs of regenera tion. The doctrine of everlasting damnation is no longer held by req
 0ing people. Hope springs eterna