Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1910-06-15

4
nations that nave expanded and that
have played a mighty part in the
world, have in the end grown old and
weakened and vanished: bur so nave
the nations whose only thought was
to avoid all danger, all effort, who
would risk nothing, and VINO there
fore gained nothing In the end the
same fate may overwhelm all alike:
but the memory of the one type per
isles WITH it. while the other leaves
its mark ieep on the history of all
the future Of mankind.
National Problems.
Mr.. Roosevelt declares that every
modern civilized nation has many and
terrible problems to solve within its
own borders, problems that arise not
merely from iuxtaposition of poverty
and riches, but especially from the
self-consciousness of both poverty and
riches. Each nation must deal with
these matters in its own fashion, and
yet the spirit in which the problem,
is approached must ever be funda-
mentally the same It must be a
spirit of broad humanity; of brotherly
kindness: of acceptance of response
bility. one for each and each for all: :
and at the same time spirit as re-
mote as the poles from every form
Of weakness and sentimentality. AS
In war to pardon the coward is to do
cruel wrong to the brave man whose
life his cowardice~ jeopardizes. so in
civil affairs it is revolving to every
principle of Justice to give to the
lazy, the vicious, or even the feeble
and dull-witted a reward which is re-
ally the robbery of what Drawer,
wiser, ADLER men have earned. The
only effective way to help any man
is to help him to help himself. and
the worst lesson to teach him is that
he can be permanently helped at the
expense of some one else. True lib
erty shows itself to best advantage
in protecting the rights of others. and
especially of minoritids. Privilege
should not be tolerated because it is
to the advantage of a minority. nor
yet because it is to the advantages
of majority No doctrinaire the
cries of vested rights or freedom of
contract can stand in the way of our
cutting out abuses from the body pol
itic. Just as little can we afford to
follow the doctrinaires of an impos-
sible-and incidentally of highly
ndesirable-social revolution which,
in destroying individual rights Tin
Guiding property rights and the fam
lily, would destroy the two chief
agents in the advance of mankind,
and the two chief reasons why either
the advance or the preservation OF
mankind is worth while. II is an
evil and a dreadful thing to be cal
lous to sorrow and suffering. and
blind to our duty to do all things
possible for the betterment of social
conditions But it is an unspeakably
foolish thing to strive for this bet
terment by means so destructive that
they would leave no social conditions
to better. In. dealing with all these
social problems, with the intimate re-
lations of the family, with wealth in
private use and business use, with
labor. with poverty, the one prime ne
cessity is to remember that, though
hardness of heart is a great evil. It
is no greater an evil that softness of
head.
But in addition to these problems
the most Intimate and important of
aa,, W..:th to a larger or less de
gree affect all the modern nations
somewhat alike" said Mr.. Roosevelt.
we of the great nations that have
expanded, that are now in compli-
Gated relations with one another and
with alien races, have special prob
lens and special duties of our own
You belong to a nation which pos
sesses the greatest empire upon which
the sun has ever shone. | belong to
a nation which Is trying, on scale
hitherto unexampled. to work out the
problems of government for, of. and
by the people, While at the same
time doing the international duty OF
great power But there are cell
tain problems which both IF us have
to solve. and as to which our stand
ards should be the same The Eng
lishman, the man of the British Isles.
in his various homes across the seas.
and the American. both at home and
abroad, are brought into contact with
utterly alien peoples, some with a
civilization more ancient than our
own. others still in. or having bat re-
Gently arisen from. the barbar1sm
which our people left behind years
ago. The problems that arise are of
welLnigh inconeeivable difficulty
They cannot he solved by the foolish
sentimentality of stay-athome people.
with little patent recipes, and those
cut-and-dried theories of the political
nursery which have such limited APP
plicahility amid the crash OF elemental
forces. Neither can they be solved
by the raw brutality OF the men VINO.
whether at home or on the rough
frontier of civilization. adopt might
as the only standard OF right in deal
ing with other men, and treat alien