The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1911-07-20

novel and untried things. The speed
limit has been taken off, the stop,
look, and listen" sign removed, and
the importunate cry is, full speed
ahead! Get somewhere else than
where you are--it matters not where
only, in Gods name, let il be
quickly
Changes in governmental forms are
advocated apparently for the mere
sake of change. So many strange and
doubtful experiments are being UNI
dertaken that we shall end by find
ing ourselves overwhelmed by their
very multiplicity and impracticability.
The minds of the people are being
filled with all sorts of idealistic the
cries, beautiful in promise but inef-
fective in performance. Every self
constituted reformer brings to the
quilting bee his favorite patch, and
when the work shall be completed our
scheme of government will be as BIZ
zarre as the old.fashioned crazy quilt
of our grandmothers. 1t is high time
for a reaction to that ancient but dis
credited common sense which thinks
before it acts instead of repenting af-
forwards.
II is one of the penalties of ad
vancing civilization that the feet OF
progress must sometimes go through
the mire before they can plant them
selves on the firm upland. That man
IL the truest pilot whose keen vision
soonest makes out the direction in
which the upland lies and, in safety
rather than in haste, leads us to it,
and he but false pilot or an arrant
knave, whatsoever he may call him.
self or howsoever loudly he may an
athematize the mire, II he but lead
us, however swiftly, round and round
the vicious circle within the swamp.
The problems with which we have to
Heal are full of perplexity and com
plexity. They can not be solved by a
simple wave of the hand in moment
Of time, by hysterical denunciation. by
the undigested theories of the vision.
airy and the dreamer, by the self
serving mouthings of the demagogue,
or by the mere counting of .heads at
the ballot box. They call for thorough
going investigation. dispasslonate con-
sideration, wise craftsmanship, and
sometimes for that courageous patti
ence which moves deliberately in the
face of clamorous demands to make
haste. There is overmuch waving of
flags and beating of drums and blow
ing of horns. The voice of the profes-
sional refoTmer is heard in the land
insistently calling upon us to forsake
the ancient and well-beaten paths
along which we have proceeded, at
least in security, for a century and
quarter and go headlong in new and
unexplored directions, luckily to find
ourselves in pleasant fields and firm
footing or unluckily plunged over the
precipice or engulfed in the dismal
swamp.
The so-called popular-government
propaganda has for its ostensible OBJ
ject the broadening and Strengthening
of power in the hands of the people
but its tendency is TO emasculate and
ultimately destroy representative gov
eminent. Its adherents in their en-
thusiasm have advocated what seems
to me- some very wild and visionary
schemes admirably calculated to in
flame the popular imagination, but
which. however much they may in
crease the direct participation of the
multitude in the affairs of govern
ment will, am persuaded, give then
not better but far less efficien
and desirable government than the!
now have. do not mean to say tina
| am opposed to every suggested al
iteration in the existing governmental
framework. To oppose a new thinl
I..t,, L.. 1, 1.