The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1908-08-06

age above all others. The ocean steamer
that crosses the Atlantic in six days
and the railroad trains that cross the
American continent in as many, bring
all the corners of the earth close to-
gether and the telegraph-wire and
wireless-give wings to the news and
bring to our very doors the happenings
of few minutes ago on the further side
of the world.
1t took the idayhower more than two
months to bring our pilgrim fathers
from England to Plymouth Rock, yet
just few months ago the news of the
death of the queen of England was
flashed through the same sea, over
thousands of miles of land, and was
printed in a newspaper in Chicago
within four minutes after the sad event
happened. The printing press has pop
ularized knowledge and has made it
possible for every one who desires it
to possess the key to the libraries of the
"NAlSs anu udNC wlUu Iuo
best thoughts of the greatest minds that
the world has ever produced.
Invention has multiplied the strength
of the human arm and has brought into
daily use by the masses comforts which
long ago even wealth could not buy.
The whole world is now one neighbour
hood and it is easier in this age for one
to distribute blessings to the whole
world than it was years ago to distribute
them to single valley. Distance has
become so annihilated and the relations
between man and man have become so
intimate that good example set any,
where can be seen everywhere. Have
you stopped to analyze or define true
greatness? The truest definition of
greatness is set forth in this form of
the injunction by the Master to his
disciples, when they asked who would
be the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven, He answered, "Whosoever of
you will be chieftiest shall be servant
of ALL" The worlds monuments have
been builded for those who have served
the most. The country never before
called so loudly and so earnestly as it
does today for character, for real man
hood and real womanhood. Not the
dazzling, snowy sort that depends on
wealth and fashion, but that quiet self
reliant manhood and real womanhood
that seeks only the right and dares to do
it. With all our spread of knowledge
and marvellous range Of achievements
there is much yet to do. Commerce has
set so rapid pace that conscience has
hardly been able to keep up with it..
The extremes of society have been driven
farther and farther apart in this coun-
try. There has developed spirit Of
commercial concentration and enlarge
ment that if uncurbed will be dangerous
to us, as free people, as the spirit of
human slavery was in the early part of
the last century. Everywhere in the
business world has there been concern
tration, the states have passed legisla-
tion to forward the formations of
corporations and in this way it has
been possible for the concentration of
almost limitless wealth that would
hardly have been possible under part
nerships. In the sense that in many
ways tend to cheaper production and
in many ways has increased the con-
venience of the public the movement
was beneficial. But the process of
crushing out has been,carried so far that
in many of the important lines Of in
dustries vast trusts have been estab-
lished and competition destroyed. A
few individuals in luxuriously furnished
counting rooms could arbitrarily fix the
price of labor and raw material on the
one hand and the price of their pro-
duction on the other. Thus on the one
side they crushed and on the other
they extorted. These immoral and cruel
combinations became so powerful, they
grew insolent and have detied the laws
or evade them. They have bribed and
corrupted Legislatures and have secured
special privileges.
AS power never places a limit upon
itself we must evolve some way of
curbing it. We must find some way of
removing overwhelming temptations on
the one hand and of distributing among
all the people the benefits flowing from
the process Of concentration. And this
is the great call of the country today.
The same aristocratic and selfish mon
archial influence that were opposed to
the war of the Revolution, that were
opposed to the idea Of Jefferson that
the people were able to rule; that were
opposed to Jackson in his fight on the
money power and the great central
bank; that were opposed to Lincoln in
his fight against the slave power, are
today arraying against those who