Weekly journal-miner., 1911-05-10

LIAR JUDGMENT.
 IT IS SUFFICIENT THAT THE PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE THE LAW WHEN THEY WILL. IT IS NOT NECESSARY THAT THEY SHOULD DIRECTLY INFLUENCE BY THREAT OF RECALL THOSE WHO MERELY INTERPRET THE LAW ALREADY ESTABLISHED. THE IMPORTANCE AND DESIRABILITY OF THE RE- CALL AS A MEANS OF ADMINS TRATIVE CONTROL OUGHT NOT TO BE OBsCURED BY DRAWING IT INTO THIS OTHER AND VERY DIFFERENT FIELD.
 The second power we fear is the control of our life through the vast privileges of corporations which use the wealth of masses of men to sus- tain their enterprise. It is ia connec- tion with this danger that it is neces- frankest thinking. It is a fundamental mistake to speak of the privileg ges of these great corporations as if they fell within the class of private right and of private property. Those who administer the affairs of great joint stock companies are really administer ing the property of communities. the property of the whole mass and nis-
 
 stock or the bonds that sustain the en- terprise. The stocks and the bonds are constantly changing hands. There is no fixed partnership. Moreover. man tees of moneys which they them selves never accumulated. but which have been drawn together out of pri- vate savings here. there and every
 What is necessary in order to rectify the whole mass of business of this kind is that those who control it should entirely change their point of of private property, not only because their power is derived from multi tude of men. but also because in its investments it affects a multitude of or decay of communities. It is the means of lifting or depressing the life of the whole country. They must re- gard themselves as representatives of sonable jealousy of public regulation in such matters, because the oppor- tunities of all men are affected. Their property is everywhere touched. their savings are everywhere absorbed. their employment is everywhere determined. by these great agencies. What we need. therefore, is to come to a com mon view which will not bring antag- onisms but accommodation. The pro- grams of parties must now be pro- grams of enlightenment and readjust- ment, not revolutionary, but reStor- ative. The processes of change are largely processes of thought, but un- happily they cannot be effected with out becoming political processes also. and that is the deep responsibility of public men. What we need. therefore. in our politics. is an instant alignment of all men free and willing to think and to act without fear upon their thought.
 This is just as much a constructive age in politics, therefore. as was the great age in which our federal govern ment was set up, and the man who does not awake to the opportunity, the man who does not sacrifice private and exceptional interests in order to serve the common and public interest, is de- clining to take part in the business of heroic age. l am sorry for the man who is so blind that he does not see the opportunity, and I am happy in the confidence that in this era men of strength and of principle will see their opportunity of immortal service.
 I am not one of those who wish to break connections of the past, nor am one of those who wish change for the mere sake of variety. The only men who do that are the men who want to forget something. the men who filled yesterday with something they would rather not recall today. Change is not interesting unless it is construc- tive. and it is an age of construction that must put fire into the blood of any man worthy of the name.