The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-08-01
TAFT TAKES 1T.
tcontiaued from Page one.D

and expend for the general welfare has
long been exercised, and the admira-
tiOn one feels for our constitution is
increased when We perceive how readily
that instrument lends itself to wider
governmental functions in the promo
tion of the comfort OF the people.
Eight Hour Law.
Congress has sought to encourage the
movement toward eight hours a day for
all manual labor by the recent enact
ment of a new law on the subject more
stringent in its provisions regarding
works on government contracts.
One of the great defects in our pres
ent system of government is the delay
and expense of litigation, which OF
course works against the poor litigant.
The supreme court is now engaged IN
revision OF the equity rules to accom-
plish this purpose as to hair our 1eu-
eral litigation. The workmens compen-
sation act will relieve our courts OF law
of a very heavy part of the preseni
dockets on the law side of the court
and give the court more opportunity
to speed the remaining causes. The
last congress codified the federal court
+ provisions, and we may look for, ana
should insist upon, a reform In the
law procedure so as to promote dis
patch of business and reduction In
: costs.
We have adopted in this administra-
ton, after very considerable opposition,
the postal savings banks, which work
directly in the promotion of thrift
+ among the people. By payment or only
2 per cent interest on deposits they &c
not compete with the savings banks.
! But they do attract those who rear
banks and are unwilling to trust thelI
funds except to a governmental agency
Experience however. leads deposltors
to a knowledge of the Importance OF
/ interest, and then seeking a hlgher
rate they transfer their accounts TO
the savings banks. In this way the
n
reduced, are increased, and there Is
thus available a much larger fund TOT |
general investment |
For some years the administration |
has been recommending the parceis |
post, and now 1 am glad to say
measure will probably be adopted by
! congress authorizing the government
to avail itself of the existing machln-
1ery of the postoffice department to carry |
ma reels at a reasonably low rate, sc |
fhat the communication between the |
city and the country in ordinary mer-
chandise will be propor1onately as
cheap and as prompt as the neWspapeh
! and letter delivery through the post
greatly to a reduction in the cost and
comfort of living.
Public Land Policy.
We are considering the changing
needs of the people in the dlsposlIon
of our public lands and their conser-
walton. AS those lands owned by the
government and useful for agricultural
purposes which remain are as whole
less desirable as homesteads tnan those
which have been already settled, 1t mas
been properly thought wise to reduce
the time for perfecting homestead
claim from five years to three, ana thls
whether on land within the ram area
or in those arid tracts within the re-
clamation system.
Again a hill has passed the senate
and is likely to pass the house when
will not compel the settlers on re-
clamation lands to wait ten years anu
until full payment of what they owe
the government before they receive
title. but which gives a title after three
years with a first government lien.
ON the other hand, the withdrawal OF
coal lands, phosphate lands, ana on
lands and waterpower SITES is sun
maintained until congress shall provide
on the principles of proper conserVa-
ton a system of disposition which VIII
attract capital on the one hand ana
retain. sufficient control by the govern
ment on the other to prevent the eVll
of concentrating absolute ownership IN {
a few persons of those sources for the :
production of necessities II
Popular Unrest.
In the work of rousing the people {
to the danger that threatened our G
centrated wealth and the power it I
was likely to exercise. the public I
magination was wrought upon and a c
reign of sensational Journalism and I
unjust and unprincipled undertaking
has followed, in which much inJus-
tice has been done to honest men. I
Demagogues have seized the oppor- Il
tunity further to inflame the public [
mind and have sought to turn the
peculiar conditions to their advan- |
tage.
We are living in an age in which I
by exaggeration of the defects of our !
present condition, by false charges of =
responsibility for it against individuals +
feverish imagination of the less for =
tunate and the discontinued the pos y
sibilities of a millennium, condi =
ton of popular unrest has been pro- =
duced. New parties are being formed, i
with the proposed purpose of satisfy T
ing this unrest by promising a PAN v
acea. In so far as inequality of con- @
dition can be lesSened and equality of 7,
opportunity can be promoted by i'm b
provement of our educational system, | f
the betterment of the laws to insure t
the quick administration of justice, il
and by the prevention of the acQuiSi- d
sation, in so far as the adoption of il
the legislation above recited and laws o
or similar character may aid the less o
fortunate in their struggle with the y
hardships of life, all are in sympathy v
with a continued effort to remedy in a
Justice and to aid the weak, and a
venture to say that there is no ma
tional administration in which more t
real steps of such progress have been f;
taken than in the present one. But s
in so far as the propaganda for the s.
satisfaction of unrest involves the p
promise of a millennium, a condition L
in which the rich are to be made rea- n
sonably poor and the poor reasonably
rich by law, we are chasing a phan- 2
tom; we are holding out to those I
whose unrest we fear a prospect and =
a dream, a vision of the impossible. '