Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-10-01

to the lazy. the thriftless. the weal.
and the vicious. the reward that be
longs to. and in the long run can only
come to, the hard working, the thrifty,
the resOlute, and the honest. But We
do wish to see that the necessary strug-
gle in life shall be carried on under
genuinely democratic conditions: that.
so far as human action can safely pro
vide it, there shall be an approXimate,y
fair start; that there shall be no op-
preston of the weak, and that no man
shall be permitted to acquire or to use
a vast fortune by methods or in ways
that are tOrtuous and dishonest.
People Must BE Alive.
therefore we need wise laws, and
we need to have them resolutely admin
istered. We can get such laws and
such administration only if the people
are alive to their interests. The other
day | listened to an admirable sermon
by Bishop Johnston, of western Texas.
His theme was that the vital element il.
Judging any man should be his con-
duct, and neither his position nor his
pretensiOns; and, furthermore, that
freedom could only stay with a people
which has the habit of self-masterr.
AS he said, the price of liberty is not
only eternal vigilance, but eternal viz
tue; and | may add, eternal common
sense. Each man here knows that he
himself has been able to use his free.
dom to advantage only provided that
| he could master himself, that he could
control his own passions and direct
his own faculties.
Each of you fathers and mothers
here knows that if your sons are to dc
well in the world they must know how
to master themselves. Every man must
have a master; if he is not his own
master, then somebody else will be
This is just as true of public life as 2i
private life. If we can not master our
selves, control ourselves, then sooner
, or later we shall have to submit to out
side control; for there must be con
troll somewhere.
| "Intcrcsts' Have SqucaIed.
| "One way of exercising such contra
is through the laws of the land Ours
is a government of liberty. but it is g
government of that orderly liberty
which comes by and through the honest
| enforcement of and obedience to the
law. At intervals during the last few
months the appeal has been made tC
me not to enforce the law against Ger
tain wrongdOers of great wealth be
cause to do so would interfere witt
the business prosperity of the country
Under the effects of that fright whicl
when sufficiently acute We call panic
this appeal has been made to me evel
by men who ordinarily behave as de
cent citizens.
One newspaper which has itsei
strongly advanced this view gav'
prominence to the statement of a cer
tain man of great wealth to the effer
that the so-called financial weakness
was due entirely to the admitted II
tention of President Roosevelt to pun
ish the large moHeyed interests whic
had transgressed the laws" | do No
admit that this has been the mali
, CbuSS vi amy DuSlH6SS troubles we nav
had; but it is possible that it has bee
a contributory cause. If So friends, a
far as | am concerned it must be a;
cepted as a disagreeable but unavoi.
able feature in a course of polio
which as long as | am president wi
not be changed. In any great NOV,
ment for righteousness, where til
forces of evil are strongly intrenche.
, 1t is unfortunately inevitable that som
| unoffending people should suffer i
, company with the real offenders. Thi
/ Is not our fault 1t is the fault of thos
to whose deceptive action these inn;
! cent people owe their false position.
DO Everything but Wrong.
1 "a year or two ago certain repr,
e sentatives of labor called upon me an
r and in the course of very pleasaT
r conversation told me that they regart
). ed me as the friend of labor
II answered that l certainly was, an
{ that | would do everything in my POI
/ er for the laboring man except an
i thing that was wrong. I have the sam
3 answer to make to the business ma