The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-10-03

firmly believe is, as mucn a matter
OF pride and concern for every man
IN the rartnest interior of our coun-
try as for every man on the seacoast.
long ocean voyage is mighty good
training; and not the least good it will
do will be to show just the points
where our naval program needs
STRENGTHENING. incidentally I think
the voyage will have one good effect.
for. to Judge by their comments on
the movement, some excellent people
in my own section OF the country need
TO be reminded that the Pacific coast
is exactly as much a part or this ma
ton as the Atlantic coast
So much for foreign affairs. Now
for matter of domestic policy. Here
In this country we have founded a
great federal democratic republic. 1t
Is government by and for the peo-
pie and therefore genuine demo-
cracy; and the theory. of our con-
stitution is that each neighborhood
shall be left to deal, with, the things
that concern only itself and which it
can most readily deal with; so that
town, county, city and state have their
respective spheres of duty, while the
nation deals with. those matters which
concern all of u.s. all of the people,
no matter where we dwell. Our
democracy is based upon the belief
that each Individual ought to have
the largest measure of liberty COM
patible with securing the rights of
other individuals, that the average
citizen, the plain man whom we meet
IN daily life, is normally capable of
taking care of his own affairs, and
has no desire to wrong any one else;
and yet that in the interest of all
there shall be sufficient power lodged
somewhere to prevent wicked people
from trampling the weak under foot
for their own gain Our constant en-
deavor is to make a good working
compromise whereby we shall secure
the full benefit of individual initia-
tive and responsibility, while at the
function of a wise government under
modern conditions not merely to pro-
tect life and property, but to foster
the social development of the people
so far as this may be done by main
tanning and promoting justice, hon
esty, and equal rights.
A Real Democracy. t.
we believe in a real, not a sham,
democracy. We believe in democracy
as regards political rights, as regards
education, and, fnally.<as regards in
dustrial conditions. BY democracy we
understand securing, as far as it is
humanity possible to secure it, equality
of opportunity. equality of the condi-
tons under which each man is to
show. the stuff that is in him and
to achieve the measure of success to
which his own s. force of mind and
character entitle him. Religiously
this means that each man is to have
the right, unhindered by the state
to worship his Creator as his con-
science dictates, granting freely to
others the same freedom; which he
asks for himself. Politically we can
be said substantially to have worked
out our democratic ideals, and the
same is true, thanks to the common
schools, in educational matters. But
in industry there has not yet been the
growth necessary in or
der to meet the tremendous changes
brought about IN Industrial 'condi-
tons by steam and zelectrieity. 1t is
not in accordance, with our principles
that literally despotic power should
be put into the hands of a few men in
the affairs OF the industrial world. Our
effort must be for a just and effective
plan of action which, while scrupu-
lousy safeguatding the rights. of the
possibless Secure under the
law TO all men Equality of opportunity
to make a living. 1t is to; the interest
of all of US that the man of ex-
ceptional business capacity should be
with this in our in
that he shall not be guilty
of bribery or extortion, and that the
rights of the wageworker and of the
man of small means, who are them
selves honest and hard working. shall
for the exercise of modern
power are the great cor
porations which, though created by
the individual states, have grown far
beyond the control of those states and
transact their business throughout
large sections of the Union. These
corporations, like the industrial con-
ditions which have called them into
being, did not exist when the constitu-
ton was founded; but the wise fore
thoughts of the founders provided,
under the interstate commerce clause
of the constitution, for the very emer-
gency which has arisen. If only our
people as a whole will realize what
this emergency is; for if the people
thoroughly realize it, their govern
realize it also. The national govern
ment alone has sufficiently extensive
power and jurisdiction to exercise
adequate control over the great inter-
state corporations. While this
thorough supervision and control by
in the interest of the peo-
pie, it will also, / firmly believe, be to
the benefit of those corporations
which desire to be honest
and law-abiding.' IL ~
The Nation the Sovereign.
Only thus can we put over these
one competent and eff
cient soyereign-the nation-abIe
both to exact Justice from them and
to secure justice for them, so that
they may not be alternately pampered
and oppressed. The proposal need be
dreaded only by those corporations
which. do not wish to obey the law
or to be controlled in just fashion, but
prefer to take. their chances under the
present lack of all system and to court
the chance of getting improper favors
as offsetting the chance of being black
uad attifI1da randprQd 10
in the past by those corporations
which had thriven under certain cor
rupt and lawless city governments.
The first need is to exercise this
federal control in thoroughgoing and
efficient fashion over the rail-
roads, which, because of their peculiar
position, offer the most immediate and
urgent problem. The American peo-