The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-04-26

grave evils 1t is our duty to try to
cut out these evils without at the
same time destroying our well being
itself. This is an era of combination
alike in the world of capital and Ia
the world of labor. Each kind of COM
bination can do good. and yet each
however powerful, must be opposed
when it does ill. At the moment the
greatest problem before us is how to
exercise such control over the business
use of vast wealth. individual, but es-
pecially corporate. as will insure its
not being used against the interest
Of the public while yet permitting such
ample legitimate profits as will encour-
age individual initiative. 1t is our
business to put a stop to abuses and
to prevent their recurrence, without
showing a spirit of mere vindictlve-
ness for what has been done in the
past. In John Morley's brilliant sketch
of Burke he lays especial stress upon
the fact that Burke more than almost
any other thinker or politician Of his
time realized the profound lesson that
in politics we are concerned not with
barren rights but with duties: not
with abstract truth, but with practical
morality He especially eulogizes the
way in which in his efforts for eco
nomic reform. Burke combined unsnak-
able resolution in pressing the reform
with a profound temperatures OF
spirit which made him, while bent on
the extirpation of the evil system, re-
fuse to cherish an unreasoning and
yindictive i'll toward the men who had
benefited by 1t. Said Burke. III !
can not reform with equity. 1 vii!
not reform at all (There Isl
a state to preserve as we'll as state
to reform"
This is the exact spirit in which this
country should move to the reform OF
abuses of corporate 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; we have
no intention of trying to wreak such
an indiscriminate vengeance for wrongs
done in the past as would confound
the innocent with the guilty. Our pur-
pose is to build up rather than to tear
down. We show ourselves the truest
friends OF property when We make ii
evident that we will not tolerate the
abuses Of property. We are steadily
bent on preserving the institution OF
rrivate property; we combat every
hn
to economic servitudc: and We care
not whether the tendency is due 10 a
sinister agitation directed against all
property, or whether it Is due to the
actions of those members OF the pre-
datorv classes whose antf-social power
is UNNECESSARILY increased because OF
the very fact that they possess wealth.
Above all, We insist that while fac
ing changed conditions and new PROP
lens, we must face them in the spirit
which our forefathers showed when
they founded and preserved this re-
public The cornerstone OF the repuD-
lie lies in our treating each man on
his worth as a man, paying no heed
to his creed, his birthplace. or his
occupation. asking not whether he Is
head or hand: asking only whether he
acts decently and honorably IN the
various relations of his life, whether
he behaves we'll to his family, to ms
to the state. We base our
regard for each man on the eSSentlais
and not the accidents. We judge NM
not by his profession, but by his deeds;
by his conduct not by what he has
acquired of the worlds goods. Other
REPUBLICS have fallen, because the cltl-
zens gradually grew to consider tho
interests of class before the inter-
ests of the whole: for when such was
the case it mattered little whether II
was the poor who plundered the rich
or the rici, who exploited the poor;
IN either event the end of the republic
was at hand. We are resolute in our
purpose not to fall into such pit.
This great republic Of ours shall never
become the government OF pluto
cracy, and it shall never become the
government Of a mob. God willing, it
shall remain what our fathers who
founded it meant it to be-a govern
ment in which each man stands on his
worth as a man. where each is given
the largest personal liberty consistent
with securing the we'll being of the
whole. and where. SO far as in US lies
we strive continually to secure for
each man such equality of Opportun-
ity that in the strife of life he may
have a fair chance to show the stuff
that is in him. We are proud or our
schools and of the trained Intelligence
they give our children the opportunity
to acquire. But what we care for most
is the character of the average man;
for we believe that If the average of
character in the individual citizen Is
sufficiently high. if he possesses those
qualities which make him worthy of
respect in his family life and in his
work outside. as we'll as the qualities
which fit him for success in the hare
struggle Of actual eXistence-that IL
such is the character of our individ-
ual citizenship. there is literally no
height of triumph unattainable i'll this
vast experiment of government by, OF.
and for free people.
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