The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1908-07-31

The Is well-balanced, and ulscrlmln'
ates between the peculiar iniquities
Of the trust and ordinary business
depravity. He aims to correct abuses
that controvert right principles OF
public policy, that unjustly hamper
Individual initiative and enterprise
and that eventually would precipitate
the struggle Bismarck foresaw.
Seeing these evils and the extent OF
them, Roosevelt has proceeded to
eradicate them without permanently
injuring business or restricting trade;
and II the policies he has outlined
are carried to completion the coun-
try eventually will be free from
these evils and its credit unimpaired.
We must not be to impatient for a
cure. The disease is OF long standing
and steady growth. The cure must
be gradual, only taking care that We
follow right principles.
In the 40's and SOS a party was in
power that looked askance at every
exercise OF authority by the general
government and believed in the un-
restrained freedom of individual &C
ton. In those days continent.
practically uninhabited, stretched to
the westward. The mountains were
covered with virgin forest and full
Of untouched ore and coal, and grass
on the vast plains grew rank and
went to seed and rotted, untrod by
the hoofs of domestic cattle. Land
was the cheapest thing in the world.
AS the nation spread out over this
western territory, there was a de-
mand for transportation facilities
and railroads were given miles and
miles of standing timber and unmined
fuel as Inducements to extend their
tracks. Men seized upon the fairest
land and no one objected; for every
bodyelse was doing the same thing.
We grew up as a nation that way,
reckless and extravagant and wink
ing at the greed and shrewdness OF
others Now we find the country
filling up. cities almost over balanc-
ing the rural population, and prices
mounting alarmingly. We are &C
customed TO regard the evils Of our
present system as something new,
and the evil-doers as a class forign
to our way of living: but they are
all part and parcel of the undiscip-
lined growth Of a young Democracy
and our fathers waste is to blame
for much of our civic and industrial
trouble.
IL required little acumen to see the
visible result of reckless methods;
but it required the information OF
a scholar and the mind OF states
man to ascertain the cause, and dis
eliminating Judgment Of the highest
order to distinguish the evil from
the good. A demagogue would have
eradicate the evil that he saw. de
stroying with II all that has beer
accomplished in the 1872 years of our
history. Roosevelt chose rather with
the caution and nicely OF surgeon
to cut away what was bad, where
that could be done without perman'
ent injury to the country. and adopt
a course of treatment that will hea
the vital parts OF our Commercial
system that have been affected. Blu
the surgery OF II is not all. Not only
must the hindrances to the freedom
of commerce be removed, but slim
ulous must be applied. We mus
have plentiful ore and timber, cheaI
fuel. cheap and accessible and suffi.
cieent transportation facilities, more
grazing land, and a greater area Of
under cultivation. Waste and ex.
trayagance must be curtailed. Wher
the Panama canal is completed, link
ing the oceans, and our South Amer
lean and Oriental trade built III
Through the diplomacy of Root ant
the encouragement of the merchan
marine, our great inland valley mus
be made seacoast by canalizing tn
rivers; the timber and grazing Liant
must be withheld from land thieves
the fuel and ore must be preserve,
for time of need and the arid land
irrigated and the swamp drained.
| Diligent prosecution of the cours
lof treatment outlined, careful apple
u ton OF right principles, not turtle
whacking at our vital interests
\ craftsmanship, not demagogism-
are needed during the next fou
years to give this country the great
est impulse she has ever enjoyed |
the right direction and put us safel
over the crisis that apparently is in
lpending.