The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1908-06-17

nomic conditions have, in turn, AFFECT
ed profoundly society and politics.
They have led, among other things, to
combinations OF capital and labor on a
scale and with a power never before
witnessed. They have opened the way
to accumulations of wealth in masses
beyond the dreams of avarice and
never before contemplated by men.
Great individual fortunes and rich
men are, it is true, as old as recorded
history. Nearly two thousand years
ago the tax trainers Of Rome formed
trust for their own profit and protec-
ton: the English people, three cen
turtles ago. revolted against the pat
ents and monopOlies granted by Eliza
beth and James TO their aolrtiers and
m0n0pOliSts. Forestallers and sDecu-
latOrs in the necessities Of life were a
curse in OFT revolution and bitterly
denounced by Washington Yet 1t is
none the less true that the same things
today present questions different in
kind as we'll as in degree from their
predecessors.
ut IS the huge size of private for
tunes, the vast extent and power of
modern combinations Of capital, made
possible by present conditions, which
have brought upon us, in these later
years, problems portentous in their
possibilities and threatening not only
our social and political welfare, but
even our personal freedom, if they are
not boldly met and wisely solved.
THE great body of the American
people, neither very rich nor very poor,
the honest, the thrifty, the hard work
ing, the men and women who earn and
save, have no base envy-no frantic
hatred Of wealth, whether Individual
or corporate, if it has been honestly
gained and is wise. and generously en-.
ployed with a sense of responsibility
to the public. But this great body of
our people, by habit and instinct alike,
wisely conservatives; these people,
who are the bone and sinew of our
country and upon whom it's fortunes
and its safety rest, began to observe,
with deep alarm, the recent manifesta-
lions Of the new economic conditions.
More and more they came to believe
that these vast fortunes and these
huge combinations of capital were
formed and built up by tortuous and
dishonest means and through cynical
disregard of the very laws which the
mass of the people were compelled to
obey They began to fear that polit-
ical power was being reft from their
hands and put into the possession of
the money holders, that their dearest
rights were in danger, that their hopes
Of success and advancement were cut
off by business systems which they
could not understand, but by which
the individual was sacrificed and held
down.
"To those who looked beneath the
surface an ominous unrest was appar-
ent. The violent counsels of violent
men, who aimed at the destruction of
property and the overthrow of law, be-
gan to be heard and hardened to. The
great order loving, Industrious masses
of the American people turned away
from these advocates Of violence, but
at the same time demanded that their
government should give them, in law
full and reasonable ways, the protec-
ton to which they were entitled
against the dangers they justly appre-
hended.
"The great duty Of fulfilling these
righteous demands, like all the great
public services of the last half CEN
fury, was imposed upon the Repub-
lcan party and they have not flinched
from the burden. Under the lead of
the president the Republican party
has grappled with the new problems,
born Of the new conditions. It has
been no light task. Dangerous ex-
trelnes threatened on either hand. On
The one side were the radicals of re-
action, who resisted any change at all;
on the other side were the radicals Of
destruction, who wished to change
everything. Between these two ex.
tremes the Republican president and
the Republican congress were COM
PEELED to steer and while they ad-
vanced steadily, soberly and effective
ly they were obliged to repel the rad
heal assaults on either hand.
'Yet, notwithstanding all these diff
culties, much has been accomplished.
The response of the people to the pol