The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1913-03-04

farm, OF afforded the facilities of credit |
best suited to its practical needs: water |
courses undeveloped, waste places unre-
claimed forests INTENDED. fast disappear
ing without plan OF prospect of renewal,
unregarded waste heaps at every mine. W
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 III
dustry, as statesmen, or as individuals.
Nor have we studied and perfected the
means by which government may be put
at the service of humanity, i'll safeguard
ing the health of the nation, the health Of
its men and its women and its children, as
we'll as their rights in the struggle for eX-
istence. 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 children be not
| shielded in their lives. their very vitality
! from the consequences 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 its own constituent
parts. The first duty of law is to keep
| sound the society it serves. Sanitary laws,
pure food laws, and laws determining con
! ditions of labor which individuals are
| powerless to determine for themselves are
| intimate 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 funda-
mental safeguarding of property and Of
individual right This is the high enter
| prise 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. 1t is inconceivabe that we should
do this as partisans; it Is inconceivable we
should do it in ignorance of the facts as
they are or in blind haste We shall re-
store, not destroy We shall deal with
our economic system as it is and as it NAV
! be modified not il might be if we had
? a clean sheet of paper to write upon: and
= step by step we shall make it what it
should be, in the spirit of those who aues
ton their own wisdom and seek counsel
and Inowledgs, not shallow self-satisfac
ton or the excitement Of excursions with
er they cannot tell Justice. and only ius
e tiee, shall always be our motto
, And yet it win be no cool process OF
+ mere science. The nation has been deeIy
e stirred, stirred by a solemn passion. stirred
] by the knowledge OF wrong, of ideals lost
r of government too often debauched anc
made an instrument of evil The feelings
t with which we face this new age of right
e and opportunity sweep across our heart
I strings like some air out of Gods own pres
T ence, where justice and mercy are recon
|, ciled and the judge and the brother ar,
d one. We know our task TO be no mer
/ task Of politics but a task which shall
a search us through and through. whethe
n we be able to understand our time an,
5 the needs Of our people, whether we be in
d deed their spokesman and interpreters
/ whether we have the pure heart to compre
= bend and the rectifed will to choose ou
5 high course of action.
e This is not day of triumph; it is da
, of dedication. Here muster, not the force
4 OF party, but the. forces of humanit,
al Mems hearts wait upon Us: mems live
i hang in the bananee: mems hopes ca
l. upon Us to say what we will do Who sha
II live up to the great trust. Who dares ia
II to try | summon all honest men, all patr
he otic, all forward-loolzing men, to my sid