The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1910-09-09
most important part.

most important part.
l have spoken elsewhere also of
the great task which lies before the
farmers of the country to get for
themselves and for their wives and
children not only the benefits of bet
ter farming, but also those of better
business methods and better condi-
lions of life on the farm. The bur
den of this great task will fall, as it
should. mainly upon the great organ
izations of the farmers themselves.
| am glad it Will, for | believe they
are we'll able to handle it. In par
ticular, there are strong reasons why
the departments of agriculture of
the various states, the United States
department of agriculture, and the
agricultural colleges aud experiment
stations should extend their work to
cover all phases of life on the farm,
instead Of limiting themselves, as
they have far too often limited them
selves in the past, solely to the ques-
ton Of the production of crops.
Nothing is more true than that
excess of every kind is followed by
reaction; a fact which should be
pondered by reformer and reaction
airy alike. We are face to face with
new conceptions of the relations Of
property to human welfare, chiefly
because certain advocates of the
rights of property as against the
rights OF men have been pushing
their claims too far. The man who
wrongly holds that every human
right is secondary to his profit must
now give way to the advocate of hui
man welfare, who rightly maintains
that every man holds his property
subject to the general right of the
community to regulate it's use to
whatever degree the public Welfare
may require it. But | think we may
so still further. The right to regu>
late the use of wealth in the public
interest is universally admitted. Let
us admit also the right to regulate
which is the chief el ment of wealth,
directly in the interest of the com
mon good. The fundamental thing
to do for every MAJ is to give him
the chance to reach a place in which
he will make the greatest possible
contribution to the public welfare.
NO man can be a good citizen UNI
less he has a wage more than sufti-
cient to cover the bare cost Of living,
and hours OF labor short enough 50
that after his days work is done he
will have time and energy to bear
his share in the management of the
community, to help in carrying the
general load. We keep countless
men from being good citizens by the
conditions Of life with which we sur
round them. We need comprehen-
sive Workmen'S compensation acts,
both state and national laws to regu-
late child labor and the work Of
women, and especially we need In
our common. schools not merely edu-
cation in b~ook-learning, but also
practical training for daily life and
work. We need to enforce better
sanitary conditions for our workers,
and to extend the use Of safety ap-
pliances in industry and commerce
both within and between the states.
Also, friends, in the interest of the
w~orkingman himself we need to set
our faces like flint against mob vio-
lence just as against corporate
greed; against violence and injus-
tice and lawlessness by wage-work-
ers just as much as against lawless
cunning and greed and selfish AFRO
gance of employers.
National efficiency mas many fac
tors. 1t is a necessary result of the
principle of conservation widely ap-
piled. In the end it will determine
our failure or success as a nation.
National efficiency has to do not only
with natural and with
men,. 1t is equally concerned with
institutions. The state must be
made efficient for the work which
concerns only the people of the
state; and the nation for that which
concerns ali the people. There must
remain no neutral ground to serve
as a refuge for lawbreakers, and es-
pecially for l~awbreakers of great
wealth, who can hire the vulpine
legal cunning which will teach them
how to avoid both jurisdictions. 1t
is a misfortune when the national
legislature fails to do it's duty in
providing national remedy, SO that
the only national activity is the pure
~ negative activity of the judiciary
in f%orbidding the state to exercise
power in the premises.
/ do not ask for over-centraliza-
ton, but | do ask that we work IN