The morning journal-courier., 1908-02-27
AWAKENING SENSE OF DUTY.


 AWAKENING SENSE OF DUTY.
 Observation extending over a con- siderable period strengthens the inl- pressioa that this city is second to none in it's care Of it's own people who are in need. The civic efforts to over come the effects Nof the present dis tress due to the slowing of industry give added confirmation. There is a general awakening to the feeling that there is a duty to be performed on the part of those who have toward those who have not. From the churches to one of the Nicolets; from a polo rink to the mayors office, be- side number of other organizations, which have not received prominent mention, there is manifested this spe- cial purpose to help worthy people who are in need of work or sus- tenance
 The decision reached at the Mayors conference Tuesday night to investI- gate the situation and to provide work as far as possible rather than aims was well taken. There is nothing that lowers so much the self-respect of a worthy man as to be obliged to de- pend on charity, or even to beg a Sob. Such a man out of employment has the natural feeling that he has a right to the opportunity to work. It is not always his fault that he finds himself out of work. He was not in charge Of the industrial affairs of the nation and had no part in producing a financial panic, though he is feeling the results more heavily than others. There are thousands of workers whose margin of saving, after meet ing expenses from the daily wage, is a very narrow one. When there comes the shutting-down of the shops and mills this margin is soon gone. It is not therefore charity that the worthy man needs but work with a wage that will enable him to provide for emer- gencies and maintain his family in comfort. A low wage anywhere indi- cates a lessened buying-power and saving power. To investigate, there fore, the actual condition produced by the present financial stress, to d..,cov- CT the worthy and to provide work is Q wise decision. To do all possible to preserve and to strengthen the .clf- respect of worthy people, who for the time are in need of employment, means much for the moral character Of the community, aside from the ac- tua' money value of the good thas is done
 The great question alter all that has been asked before, bu. rot vet answered, Is: What is 10 be done to prevent these recurring periods ot financial distress? There Is something wrong somepser" in our industrial sysren. The disease is g constitutional oGe. The heal of the nation neels to be built up from the beginning. Pal Natives only relieve the pain f,r sea- son There are many doctors who are offering all sorts of remedies. but as soon as 8 people are in earnest in fnd- | Ing the right remedy it will bA f ;rth- coming. Senator Owen af Oklahoma now appears and afirms that his cur rercy measure of 1900, on lines sin,i- | lar to the Aldrich measure, woud have prevented the recent panic. Whst | Is to be said of the obtuseness of our to fail to foresee the panic | Of 1907 and prepare in 1900 for 1t? i If Mfr. Owens measure was some what similar" to the Aldrich bill, it is exceedingly doubtful that it would
  prevent panic even little bit
 Too many Of the efforts of congress 70 prevent panic have been quite su- ,erAcial. The remedy must be sucl. as reaches 10 the root cause of those re- turing disturbances. If industrial are wrong, then better ones 'are to be discovered and employed There Is g growing impotence or the part of considerable portion of the people with the slowness in studying the causes Of parics and T effecting such an industrial organ zat!on as will prevent them or reduce hen, to 9 minimum. The cause lies leeper than flexible or ineexible our- ency. The question sooner or later must ,e taken hold Of vigorously. '"To ao- k .it that because things have gone |: vrong t is impossible to make them 70 right is most fatal doctrine, aid John RusEin In the last half entu-y g new spirit has been taking iossessior Of the thinking Of men he idea has become gradually adopt { [ that . people acting collectively { .-.os-. .s governmental fl-.oI.o-s i