Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-02-13

Anglo-Saxon way of enforcing law,
should be abandoned?
To Catch Voter.
"a crusade to catch the voter-to |
obtain lease of political power at the |
approaching elections? | am one OF |
those who believe that an appeal to |
the sober, common sense and love of |
justice of the American people, will be |
infinitely more effective than any at |
tempt to hurry them pell-mell into |
some other strange program that they'll
do not comprehend. AS statesmen, |
Washington and Lincoln are still our
Xemplars-Peter, the Hermit and |
Richard, the Lion Hearted, are only |
traditions. /
For two score years and more, |
ever since the close of the Civil war,
a new great industrial domain has
been building. Through its channels,
American manufactures and commerce
are reaching every corner of the earth.
Through the markets it established,
and the bushes activity it has crea-
ted, the American farmer has been get
ting prices that have made him the
money lender of the land, and the
American working mans wages. that
have made him the highest paid work
ing man of all lands. But for the rise
and growth of this great domain we
would not now be in the worlds lead
as an industrial people; we would be
back among the people whose farms
harvest just enough to keep them alive
from year to. year, and those working
men have no prospect beyond the
bread that is necessary to sustain
life. And this great domain strange
as it may seem, in the presence of
what is being constantly said against
the American corporation, is almost
altogether an incorporated domain
Indeed, what government is to man
kind politically organized, the cOrpor
alton has become to modern industry
organized.
IdenI of Lincoln.
The ideal of Lincoln was govern
ment of the people, by the people, and
for the people. Lincoln believed in
he capacity and integrity of Ameri-
ca and the American-the American
| farmer, the American business man,
| the American working man. American
| character. The ideal of Mckinley was
the prosperity of this cOuntry-a pros
IpeTity of the people. by the people and
| for the peOple-a prosperity shared in
| by every individual who was ready
with hand or brain to take part in it;
and Mckinley lived long enough to
see, not through any program of indis
| criminate denunciation, but through
| legislation, both practical and effective
his ideal realized.
Reconstruct Corporation.
| eve have come, | believe to a time
which within the nations heart there
stirs a new ideal as deep and true
as LincOln's-an ideal that will event
ually quicken the new great industrial
domain in to something that will make
that domain also a possession of the
Ipeople, by the people and for the peo-
lple-the Lincoln ideal enlarged. the
Mckinley ideal broadened. But there
will be no real beginning toward the
retaliation of this ideal, until the re
formative energy of the nation crap
pies with the work, not merely in
Icurbing the corporation as the corpor-
alton is now allowed to construct it.
self or of enfol lng the law as the
law now stands, but of so reconstruct
ing the corporation, from the ground
up, through national and state law
that it will become in truth and in
fact, trustworthy agent for the
welding of the nations energy, and
a trustworthy medium through which
to work out the American instinct tC
have some individual proprietary
share i'll the great new domain to
which each individual American has
contributed his energies. Between the
engineer and other railway employees
and the great steel corporations, be
tween the working man generally, and
the corporation for which he works
between the man whose thrift has pu
savings in to the bank and the cor
, porations that have borrowed then
=
, reform is achieved, be no room fol
these feelings of antagonism tina
\ give rise to a crusade for when rea
. corporation reform is accomplished
o when the broadened ideal is on it
p way to realization-the great new in
corporated domain, as a field for tn
requirement of an enduring individ
h ual possession, will be open to tn
t working man, as well as to the capital
o list and to the man who has saving
, to put in the bank, as well as to tn
q men who are now borrowing them ou
g RooseveIt's Responsibility.
: "And the greatest responsibility tina
e confronts President Roosevelt, what
II ever maybe the provocation or tn
( temptation that befall him, it is t
lsee to it that the reformative energie
II of the nation that he has been so il
( strumental in arousing, are not use
y up In storms and counterstorms c
lnt. Ir1air Mi