Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-12-03

very urgent neeu mat PUBIC opinion
should be just as severe in condemna-
ton of the vice which hides itself be-
hind class or professional loyalty or
which denies that it is vice if it can es-
cape conviction in the courts. The pub
lie and the representatives of the pub
lie, the high officials, whether on the
bench or in executive or legislative po
sitioLS, need to remember that often
the most dangerous criminals, so far as
the life of the nation is concerned. are
not those who commit the crimes
known to and condemned by the popu-
lar conscience for centuries, but those
who commit crimes only rendered pos
sible by the complex conditions of our
modern industrial life. 1t makes not q
particle of difference whether these
crimes are committed by capitalist or
by Il laborer, by leading banker or
manufacturer or railroad man or by
leading representative of a labor union.
Swindling in stocks, corrupting legis-
latures. making fortunes by the infla-
ton of securities, by wrecking railroads.
| by destroying competitors through re-
| bateS-these forms of wrongdoing in
| the capitalist are far more infamous
than any other form of embezzlement or
| forgery, yet it is a matter of extreme
difficulty to secure the punishment of
the men most guilty of them. most re-
| sponsible for them The business man
who condoneS such conduct stands on
level with the labor man who de-
| liberately supports q corrupt dema-
gogue and agitator, whether head of a
| union or head of some municipality.
| because he is said to have stood by
the union" The members of the bust
ness community, the educators or
clergymen who cOndone and encourage
the first kind of wrongdoing are no
more dangerous to the community, but
| are morally even worse, than the labor
men who are guilty of the second type
Of wrongdoing, because less is to be
pardoned those who have no such eX-
cuse as is furnished either by igao-
rance or by dire need.
Farmers and Waeeworkers.
When the department of agricul.
ture was founded there was much
sneering as to its usefulness. No de
partment of the government, however,
has more emphatically indicated its
usefulness, and none save the post
office department comes so continually
and intimately into touch with the PEG.
pie. The two citizens whose welfare
is in the aggregate most vital to the
welfare of the nation and therefore
to the welfare of ally other citizens are
the wageworker who does manual Ia
Dor and the tiller of the soil, the farm
err There are of course kinds of Labor
where the work must be purely men
tai, aud there are other kinds of labor
where under existing conditions yer!
little demand indeed is made upon tn,
mind, though | am glad to say thai
the proportion of men engaged in this
kind of work is diminishing. But il
any community with the solid, healthy
qualities which make up a really grea
nation the bulk of the people should dc
/ work which calls for the exercise o.
both body and mind. Progress cannO
. permanently exist in the abandonment
of physical labor, but in the develop
ment of physical labor, so that it shall
! represent more and more the work o
the trained mind in the trained body
Our school system is gravely defective
: in so far as it puts a premium upoi
mere literary training and tends, there
: fore, to train the boy away from tn
t farm and the workshop. Nothing i
more needed than the best type of in
duStrial school, the school for mechan
zeal industries in tho city, the schoo
for practically teaching agriculture i
l the country. The calling of the Skille
t tiller of the soil, the calling of tn
skilled mechanic. should alike be recog
nized as professions just as emphatic
2 ally as the calling of lawyer. doctor
: merchant or clerk. The schools shoul
: recognize this fact, and it shout
: equally be recognized In popular opiT
e ion. The young man who has the fal
sghtedness and courage to recogniz
it and to get over the idea that
makes a difference whether what
/. earns is called salary or wages an
who refuses to enter the crowded fiel
;. of the so called professions and take
to constructive Industries instead
reasonably sure of an ample reward |
earnings, in health, in opportunity
$ marry early and to establish Il HON
l. with a fair amount of freedom froI
e worry. 1t should be one of our prin
S objects to put both the farmer and til
mechanic on a higher plane of ed
y cheney and reward, so as to increas
e their effectiveness in the econom
= world and therefore the dignity, til
+ remuneration and the power of the
e positions in the social world.
n No growth of cities, no growth {
y wealth, can make up for any loss
l. either the number or the character
the farming population. We of I'll
9 United States should realize this aboy
l. almost all other peoples. We bega
d our existence as a nation of farmer
o and in every great crisis of the past
n peculiar dependence has had to
q placed upon the farming population
g and this dependence has hither
q been justified. But it cannot be just
n fed in the future If agriculture is pc
% ct, l.,