Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1907-07-17
PRESENT.DAY PROBLEMS.

ing American needs more than now to
think clearly and fundamentally on
political questions, says the Chicago
Evening Post. BY the thinking
American is meant one who is inclin-
ed to approach public problems from
point of view not wholly directed
by his personal interests or by his
social class, but on the contrary to as
nature will permit broadly disinter-
ested frame of mind concerning itself
humanity at least with the welfare of
the whole body polite. 1t may seem
narrow and supercilious to assume
that there is difference amongsts us
on this point, yet it is true that there
is. Thinking Americans and un-
thinking Americans exsit in every
section and class, and upon the former
today, as in all times OF trial. the re-
public must depend for it's balance
and safety. The thinking banker, the
thinking farmer, the thinking lawyer
and mechanic and clerk form a body
with no apparent solidarity-more' s
the pity-but acting generally with a
certain eventual harmony upon which
the nation must depend for its stabil-
ity and it's we'll l-being.
The problems facing the nation to-
day are as profound and reaching
as any with which the American
democracy has had to deal. They in
vulve-many of them-theories and
principles which go to the root Of our
polity. 1t follows that the citizen
must deal with them freely, funda-
mentally. seeking the spirit and not
the letter, moving not rashly but
courageousy forward, neither led
astray by remote and probably i'm
practical ideals nor obstructed by out
worn if once serviceable theories.
Hardly day goes by that does not
include some utterance by public
man touching seriously upon problems
of vital and sweeping Importance to
the nation. The advanced progressive
or radical is contrasted sharply with
the conservative or reactionary. On
one day we hear from Mr.. Bryan on
the next from Judge Gray. Side by
side in our morning or evening papers
we find expressed by men of leader
ship views irreconcilable and violent.
ly conflicting upon the very founda-
tions of our political system.
Still another palpable and import
ant phase of our situation is that, in
the main, we are left to do our own
thinking. We cannot think by party.
as in the days when we were Republi-
cans or Democrats by heredity, pre-
judice or private interest. For neither
of the great parties has crystallized
it's doctrines in regard to the new
questions, and even il our later criti-
cal habit permitted us to think ex.
clusively in platforms, we would to-
day fail to get help from party utter
noes. Republicans are as radical as
Democrats and Democrats as conserv-
ative as Republicans, If one excludes
the extremists and takes account of
the mass.
That this fact is fortunate will
hardly be denied by the disinterested.
There is thereby release of the gen.
eral mind which will inevitably
bring about the best results No one
who has studied our political system
and its history will deny the import
ance. the necessity of parties. but that
there should be in formative periods
an absence of dogmatism and relaxa-
tion of conventionalized authority in
theory is surely desirable.
In other words, the problems OF the
present are in fair way to be worked
out more freely, more broadly. more
fundamentally for being presented, as
it were. upon their own terms. to the
common sense of the individual.