The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1910-09-07

dCC DIS d DRAKE upon ldulCdISlu VI
hysteria and should construe the law
as to it's constitutionality until such
time as the nation deems itself suffi
GENTLY intelligent and selfrestrain
ing to do away with the constitution
entirely.
Thus we take issue with Mr.. Roose,
welt, not as to his criticism of certain
decisions of the courts, but as to the
courts themselves.
At Ossawattamie Mr.. Roosevelt de.
veloped his full program of reforms.
1t is a wide-sweeping and ambitious
program Our country might we'll
congratulate itself if the next half
century saw the fulfillment of half
of the Colonel's utopian ideas. The
program smacks of republicanism, of
insurgency, of democracy, of populism,
of paternalism, of socialism. In fact
it is borroweds from all the ''isms"
and very much of it is good. Its
|
amount to an entire social and bust
ness revolution. The after results
might be beneficial, and as a whole
they would be, but the immediate re-
suits would be panic. The colonel, in
his eager desire to make America the
model government of the earth, has
become trifle impatient. He fails
| to recognize that it is evolution, not
revolution, which We need. He has
hitched his wagon, not to star, but
to comet and it has dragged him
clear off the earth. We have vast
admiration for the magnificent vision
outspread from the mountaintop into
which the Colonel has led us. but we
recognize that there are foothills to
climb and precipices to descend and
ascend before the snow-topped ranges
can be reached. Undoubtedly the
Colonel knew this. Probably with his
prophetic vision he wished to spread
before the people the highest mark of
national government, the ideal state
the contamination devoutly to be
longed for. AS long range view of
what government may accomplish, as
a shining mark towards which the eye
of the nation may be turned, it will
serve great purpose, but as the &C
tual program of a political party it is,
at this time, impractical and impossi-
BILE.
With his mental aeroplane the
Colonel is able to touch only the high
places, but the nation must plod it's
weary way afoot and it is many a
long mile between where we now
stand and the paradise painted for us
in this modern book of revelations.
This is not to criticize the vision, but
to warn the people that the reforms
will not be accomplished all at once,
that it would not even be we'll if
they could be accomplished all at
once, and that without relaxing effort,
we must school ourselves to patience,
to meeting conditions as they are, to
progress but to progress with wis
dom as we'll as with desire. In short,
that the perfect growth is attained
not by revolution but by evolution. 1t |
took thousands of years for the mon
key to lose his tail and become q man.
1t will take some decades for us to
lose our old ideas of property rights
and become an ideal nation.
How far the program is in advance
of the times is in nowise better shown
by the inconguousness of Col. Roose-
velt's present tour. One item of the
program is that no corporation should
be allowed, directly or Indirectly, to
contribute to any political aim. Yet
The Outlook, corporation, whether
it deals in magazines or coal oil, de-
trays all the expenses of the present |
trip which most certainly, either d.
rectly or indirectly, has politics for
Its mission.
We do not criticize this, it is all right |
and very proper, but it would not COM
ply strictly speaking with the ,colonel's
own program of reform. Supposing
that The Outlook, instead of being
the exponent of Roosevelt, were the
exponent of Senator Aldrich, what
hullaballoo there would be.
With the election of senators by
direct vote, with the revision of the
tariff schedule by schedule, with the
better control of corporations, with
the maintenance of army and navy,
with the extension of the usefulness
OF the agricultural department, with
the continuous striving for high stand
ards in public and in private life, we
agree in toto.
With the absolute publicity of all
the business transactions of a cor
poration we do not agree. A corpora
ton is fictitious Individual created