Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1913-03-06

always carried at our hearts. Our
work is a 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 OF from our proper part in the |
commerce of the world violates the |
just principles of taxation, and makes |
the government faciie instrument in |
the hands of private interests; bank
ing and currency system based upon |
the necessity of the government to
sell its bonds fifty years ago and per
fectly adapted to concentrating cash
and restricting credits; an industrial
system which, take 1t on all its sides,
financial as we'll as administrative,
holds capital in leading strings, re-
strtcts the liberties and limits the OPP
portunities of labor, and exploits with
out renewing or conserving the nat
ural resources OF the country; a body
of agricultural activities never yet
given the efficiency of great business
undertakings or served as IL 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 unroclaimed,
forests INTENDED. 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.
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 It's 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, IL men and women and chill
dren be not shielded in their lives,
their very vitality, from the conse-
/
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 its own
| constituent parts. The first duty of
law is to keep sound the society IL
serves. Sanitary laws. pure food laws
and laws determining conditions OF
} labor which individuals are powerless
: to determine for themselves are init
i mate parts of the very business OF jus
8 tice and legal efficiency.
!, These are some of the things we
: ought TO do, and not leave the others
I undone, the old-fashioned, never-to-be'
Q 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
3 shines from the hearthfire of every
4 mans conscience and vision of the
( right It is inconceivable that we
) should do this as partisans; 1t is in
t conceivable we should do 1t in ignor
g ance of the facts as they are or in
J, blind haste. We shall restore, not de
: stroy. We shall deal with our econ
g omic system az II Is and as 1t may
/ be modified, not as 1t might be IL we
l. had a clean sheet of paper to write
s upon; and step by step we shall make
k it what it should be, In the spirit Of
= those who question their own wisdom
o and seek counsel and knowledge, moi
Il shallow self-satisfaction or the excite
d ment of excursions whittier they can
@ not tell. Justice. and only justice
shall always be our motto,
l. And yet it will be no cool proces'
e of mere science. The nation has beer
g. deeply stirred, stirred by solemn
d passion, stirred by. the knowledge o
p wrong, of ideals lost, Of government
% too often debauched and made an In
o strument of evil. The feelings will
10 which we face this new age of RICH
y and opportunity sweep across on
1t heart-strings like some air out o
t. Gods own presence, where justice an,
ID mercy are reconciled and the ludg
20 and the brother are one. We know
Is our task to be no mere task of politics
l. but a task which shall search u
II through and through, whether we b
4 able to understand our time and tn
y need of our people, whether we be in
II deed their spokesman and interpre
k tiers, whether we have the pure hear
r to comprehend and the rectifed viii
d to choose our high course of action.
a This is not a day Of triumph; it /
e a day Of dedication. Here muster, no
r the forces Of party, but the forces o
l. humanity. Mems hearts wait upon US
O. mems lives hang in the balance; men
e hopes call upon US to say what w
t. will do. Who shall live up to tn
n great trust? Who dares fail to try
J. summon al honest men. all patriotic
8. all forwardlooking men. to my side
g God helping men, will not fail them
e if they will but counsel and sustain
l. mel