The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1910-09-01
HISTORIC GROUNDS
Cu,i.iuaeu from DC |


IT hold that. while man exists it is
his duty to improve not only his own
condition but to assist in amelioratiny
mankind" And again. Labor is prior
to and independent Of capital capital is
only the fruit of labor. and could never
have existed but for labor Labor is the
superior of capital and deserves much the
higher consideration. Capital has its
rights which as worthy of prote elton
- any other rights. Nor should this
lead to war upon the owners Of prop
erty. Property is the fruit of Iabor; prop
erty Is desirable; Is a positive good in
the world Let not him who is houseless
pun down the house Of another, but let
him work diligently and build one for
himself, thus by example showing that
his own shall be safe from violence when
built. 1t seems to me that in these
words Lincoln took substantially the atti-
tude that we ought to take; he showed
the proper sense of proportion in his rela-
1--WE estimates Of capital and labor, Of
human rights and property rights. Above
all, In this speech, as in many others, he
taught lesson in wise kindness and
charity; an indispensable lesson to us Of
today. But this wise kindness and char
ity never weakened his arm or numbed
his heart. We cannot afford weakly to
blind ourselves to the actual conflict
which faces US today. The issue is join
ed, and we must fight or fail.
Equality of Opportunity.
In every wise struggle for human bet
terment one Of the main objects, and
often the only object has been to achieve
In larger measure equality Of opportunity.
In the struggle for this great end, ma
tons rise from barbarism to civilization,
and through 1t peoples press forward from
one stage Of enlightenment to the next.
nrn 80 ol,s t.
the destruction Of special privilege. The
essence of any struggle for healthy lib
erty has always been and must always
be to take from some one man or class
OF men the right to enjoy power or
wealth, or position, or immunity, which
has not been earned by service to his
or their fellows.
At many stages in the advance of hu-
mainly this conflict between the men who
possess more than they have earned and
the men who have earned more than they
possess Is the central condition of prog
ress. In our day it appears as the strug-
gle OF free pen to gain and hold the
right Of self Government as against the
special interests, who twist the methods
OF free government into machinery for
defeating the popular will. At every
stage and under all circumstances the
essence of the struggle is to equalze op-
portunity, destroy privilege, and give to
the life and citizenship of every individ-
ual the highest possible value both to
himself and to the commonwealth.
Practical equality of opportunity for all
citizens, when we achieve it, will have
two great results. First, every man will
have fair chance to make Of himself all
that in him les to reach the highest point
to which his capacities, unassisted by
special privilege Of his own and unham-
pered by the special privileges of others,
can carry him, and to get 1or himself
and his family substantially what he has
earned. Second, equality Of opportunity
means that the commonwealth will get
from every citizen the highest service Of
which he IL capable. No man who car
ries the burden of the special privileges
OF another can give to the commonwealth
that service to which it is fairly en-
titled.
stand for the square deal But when
I say that I am for the square deal
mean not merely that stand for fair
play under the present rules of the game,
but that I stand for having those rules
changed SO as to work for q more sub
stantial equality of opportunity, and Of
reward for equally good service.
This means that our governments, Ma
tonal and State, must be freed from the
sinister influence or control Of special
interests. Exactly as the special interests
htical integrity before the Civil war, 50
now the great special business interests
too often control and corrupt the men and
methods of government for their own
profit. We must drive the special inter-
ests out of politics. That is one of our
tasks today Every special interest is
entitled to justice-full. fair, and COM
plete-but not one Is entitled to vote in
congress. voice on the bench, or to rep
resentation in any public office. The Con-
stitution guarantees protection to proper
ty, and we must make that promise good
But it does not give the right Of suffrage
to any corporation
Property Should Be the Servant.
The true friend OF property, the true
conservative, Is he VINO insists that prop
erty shall be the servant and not the
master of the commonwealth; who insists
that the creature of mans making shall
be the servant and not the master of the
man who made it. The citizen of the
United States must effectively control the
mighty commercial forces which they
have themselves called into being
There can be effective control OF
corporations while their political activity
remains. To put an end to 1t will be
neither short nor an easy task, but 1t
can be done.
We must have complete and effective
people may know beyond peradventure
whether the corporations obey the law
and whether their management entities
them to the confidence of the public 1t
Is necessary that laws should be passed
to prohibit the use of corporate funds
directly or indirectly for political pur-
poses; it is still more necessary that
such laws should be thoroughly enforced
Corporate expenditures for political pur-
poses, and especially such expenditures
by public service corporations have sup
piled one Of the principal sources Of cor
ruption in our political affairs.
1t has become entirely clear that we
must have government supervision of the
capitalization not only Of public service
corporations, including particularly rail-
ways, but Of all corporations doing an
Interstate business. / do not wish to
see the Nation forced into ownership of
the railways If it can possibly be avoided
and the only alternative is thoroughgoing
and effective regulation, which shall be
based on full knowledge Of all the facts,
including a physical valuation of the
property. This physical valuation is not
needed. or at least is very rarely needed,
for fixing rates; but 1t is needed as the
basis Of honest capitalization
We have come to recognize that fran
chisss should never be granted except
for limited time, and never without
proper provision for compensation to the
public. 1t 10 my personal belief that the
same kind and degree Of control and
supervision which should be exercised
over public service corporations should
be extended also to combinations which
control neCeSSarfes Of life sIch % rnao<