Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1913-03-05


out for themselves. We had not for
gotten our morals. We remembered
well enough that we had set up q
policy which was meant to serve the
humblest as we'll as the most power
full, with an eye single to the stand
ards Of justice and fair play, and re-
membered it with pride. But we were
very needless and in a hurry to be
great.
Chief Items In Program.
We have come now to the sober
second thought. The scales Of heed
lessness have fallen from our eyes.
We have made up our minds to square
every process of our national life
again with the standards we so proud
ly set up at the beginning and have
always carried at our hearts. Our
work is work Of restoration.
We have itemized with some degree
Of particularly the things that ought
to be altered and here are some of
the chief items: A tariff which cuts
us off from our proper part in the
commerce of the world, violates the
just principles of taxation, and makes
the government facile instrument in
the hands of private interests; bank
ing and currency system based upon
the necessity Of the government to
sell it's bonds fifty years ago and per-
fectly adapted to concentrating cash
and restricting credits; an Industrial
system which, take it on all its sides,
financial as well as administrative,
holds capital in leading strings, re-
stricts the liberties and limits the cp-
portunities of labor, and exploits with
out renewing or conserving the nat
ural resources of the country; body
of agricultural activities never yet
given the efficiency of great business
undertakings or served as 1t should be
through the fundamentally Of science
taken directly to the farm, or afforded
the facilities of credit best suited to
it's practical needs; water courses un-
developed, waste places unreclaimed,
forests untended, fast disappearing
without plan or prospect Of renewal,
unregarded waste heaps at every mine.
We have studied as perhaps no other
nation has the most effective means
of production, but we have not studied
cost or economy as we should either
as organizers Of industry, as states
men, or as individuals.
Matters of Justice.
Nor have we studied and perfected
the means by which government may
be put at the service of humanity, in
safeguarding the health of the nation,
the health of it's men and its women
and Its children, as well as their rights
in the struggle for existence. This is
no sentimental duty. The firm basis
of government is justice, not pity.
These are matters of justice. There
can be no equality or opportunity, the
first essential of justice in the body
polite, If men and women and chill
dren be not shielded in their lives,
their very vitality, from the conse-
quences of great industrial and social
processes which they cannot alter,
control or singly cope with. Society
must see to it that it does not itself
crush or weaken or damage It's own
law Is to keep sound the society it
serves. Sanitary laws, pure food laws,
and laws determining conditions of
labor which individuals are powerless
to determine for themselves are init
mate parts Of the very business Of JUS.
tice and legal efficiency.
These are some Of the things we
ought to do, and not leave the others
undone, the old-fashioned, never-to-be-
neglected, fundamental safeguarding
Of property and of individual right.
This is the high enterprise of the new
day; to lift everything that concerns
our life as a nation to the light that
shines from the hearthfire Of every
mans conscience and vision Of the
right. It Is inconceivable that we
should do this as partisans; 1t is In
conceivable we should do 1t in ignor-
ance of the facts as they are or in
blind haste. We shall restore, not de-
stroy. We shall deal with our econ
omic system as 1t is and as it may
be modified, not as it might be If we
had clean sheet Of paper to write
upon; and step by step we shall make
it what 1t should be, in the spirit OF
those who question their own wisdom
and seek counsel and knowledge, not
shallow self-satisfaction or the excite
ment Of excursions whittier they can
not tell. Justice, and only Justice.
shall always be our motto.
Task Not One Of Politics.
And yet it will be no cool process
of mere science. The nation has been
deeply stirred, stirred by a solemn
passion. stirred by the knowledge of
wrong, Of ideals lost, of government
too often debauched and made an in
strument Of evil. The feelings with
which we face this new age of right
and opportunity sweep across our
heart-strings like some air out of
Gods OWL presence, where Justice and
mercy are reconciled and the Judge
and the brother are one. We know
our task to be no mere task Of politics,
but a task which shall search us
through and through, whether we be
able to understand our time and the
need Of our people, whether we be in
deed their spokesmen and interpre-
ters, whether we have the pure heart
to comprehend and the rectifled will
to choose our high course of action.
This is not day Of triumph; it is
day of dedication. Here muster, not
the forces of party, but the forces of
humanity. Mems hearts wait upon US;
mems lives hang in the balance; mems
hopes call upon US to say what we
will do. Who shall live up to the
great trust? Who dares fail to tryf
I summon all honest men, all patriotic,