The Taney County republican., 1911-01-12

Tom McNeal Writes Some Interesting
Things on the Possibilities of
the Year 1911.
A WORD OR TWO OF CHAMP CLARK.
THIS NEW YEAR OF 1911

Looking back over the year 1915
one is compelled to say that as a year
it wasn't much to blow about in a
good many ways.
Crops were fairly good in this bles
sed country, speaking generally, ane
/ prices have been fair so that it NIGH
be called moderately good year from
a financial standpoint. It may be tha
there were no more accidents thar
usual but it seems to me I heard and
read of more. The slaughter of human
life in railroad, mine and other kinds
of accidents was something rather fear
full to contemplate and most Of them
might have been avoided if the proper
precautions had been taken.
In most cases, human life seemed
to have been considered cheaper than
the cost of safety appliances although
in the end it would have been econ
omy to have provided the safety ap-
pliances.
There has been a vast amount of
crime and scandal in both high and
low places. Corruption and Doodle
have been conspicuous, but perhaps
no more so than in years past
The pessimest declares that the
world is growing worse but this I do
not believe although I frankly comics
that there are times when the pessi-
mist seems to have the best of the
argument. The so called Christian
nations still persist in. the fatuous pol
cy of marshaling and equipping great
and still greater armies and vaster and
vaster navies. The burdens of COVER
ment all over the world grow heavier
and heavier and, as it has been from
the beginning of organized government
the burdens are finally laid on the
backs of those least able to bear them.
And yet the situation is not so bad
as it might seem. Every year there is
an increasing and more intelligent pro-
test against the criminal folly of vast
armies and navies. Every
year the murmor of dissatisfaction
grows louder in imperial Germany and
it is only a question of time until TIE
of military rule will be in
the majority.
One thing that has kept the Socia
Democrat party of Germany from grow
ing faster than it mas is the fact tha
whatever faults be may have Emperor
Bill is really anxious for the prosperity
of his people and has used his power
to better the conditions of the masses.
A great many of the Germans admire
him personally who do not take any
stock in his belief that ne rules by di
vine right.
In this country it seems to me that
we are slowly but surely moving toward
a more just and equitable state of af-
fairs. Public men from the president
down acknowledge that our system of
is cumbersome and often
Justice is long delayed or
often thwarted altogether by the tech
nicalities of the law and the courts
have too often been the means of de-
Ieating the causes of the deserving
poor.
The tendency of legislation is to up
set the old theory that the person who
IS engaged in hazardous occupation
must assume all the risks of his occu
patton and if injured could not receive
damages from his employer. The in
Justice of this rule of law is so mani
est that it seems remarkable that a
iustice-loving people have stood for it
80 long. In 10 years from now there
will hardly be state in the Union
that will not have a just employers
liability law on its statute books.
Grafters are still abundant and the
crop of fools on which they feed and
fatten is still reasonably abundant, but
there seems to be more concerted and