Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-02-13

in 1850. and the homestead act passed In
Lincoln's administration on his recon-
mendation has converted the Staked
plains and the great American desert
into an agricultural empire that has not
parallel anywhere. The newer west has
double the total wealth of the United
States at the time Lincoln was elected.
New Life in the South.
But even more than that. the policies
OF Lincoln have brought a new life to
the south that rehelied against the Union.
In the last decade that section has had
the most remarkable development, until
in its prosperity the south is almost
willing to admit that The stone rejected
by the builders shall become the chief
corner stone of tire temple
The pioneers of the generation to
which Lincoln belonged have passed
away. With the changed conditions it IS
absolutely necessary that we should grow
more and more competent in our respect
i've callings as the old pass out and the
new come in.
Castles in Spain.
Il do not know the genesis OF any of
you, but | will venture the statement
that you built castles In Spain when you
we're boys and your effort to live up TO
them has never been fully realized: Yet
that effort has helped to make the civil
cation
IF YOU desire TO know who fifty years
from now Will be the Speaker of the
House of Representatives. who ma. come
TO talk to your successors on Lincoln :
birthday anniversary, go TO the machine
shop, to the farm, to the public school
and lind the children o. the sons of toll
who. under Gods fiat, are eating bread
in the sweat Of their faces and are build
ing their castles i'm Spain There you viii
behold Your SUCCESSORS
Representative McCall's Speech.
Representative Mccall. Who followed
Speaker Cannon. expressed the idea that
there was at present a mania for reSu-
latins things that was raging at Wash
inston more acutely than ut any other
place on earth.
He said, in part:
The mania of the times appears to be
to make man A mere statutory creature
and to regulate his activities by law
Things that the citizen should do or that
the local community should do are put
upon the distant national government and
common functions of the state and even
the exercise of their police powers are
central government.
I'm proportion as men attempt to locate
governmental power at a great distance
from themselves they abdcate the right
of self-goyeTnTent. The two hest gov
erncd countries OF Europe probably are
two of the SmalleSt-SWitzerland and
Denmark. The people there may really
know something Of what their govern
rneut is doing and they may form a
public opinion based upon real knowledge.
You may get beautiful tableau effects
from a highly centralized government
operating in the dim distance. hut they
will be pretty sure in the end TO cover
the grossest sort of acknowledgement and
corruption and YOU will get what little
may be fairly called public opinion.
One Basis for Emotion.
In such A system the startling headline
is apt to he the basis for the emotion
that takes the place OF public opinion
ami III order to satisfy it your laws must
contain llarbaric penalties and must level
sweeping prohibitions, which Will put
hundreds OF. innocent men under the ban
in order TO catch the one who is guilty
and who very likely will he the one to
escape And when such ii law Is put,
upon the statute books of the federal
government only Il revolution would avail
to cure It's defects. Take, for instance,
the Sherman act. Ii has clear, COM
mendable purpose against monopoly. but
In addition to that It's authors employed
some vague and magnificent language
whic', has thus far baff1ed the courts,
and which no one fully approves of and
no one dares To attempt to appeal. The
difficulty, therefore, with centralized, far
off regulation Is that it inevita bly, be-
comes chiefly political. and il serves TO
make the industrial energies OF the coun-
try the punching bag of politicians
Cause of Financial Panic.
In my opinion the cause of the late
financial panic was almost purely govern
mental, and I am firmly convinced that
the same cause, if invoked again, will
produce a recurrence of the trouble in
worse form. We should get back to
the old system soon as possible with
the states managing their own affairs
under the eyes of their own people, who
are so near that they can see what is
being done