Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1913-03-05


lieved in and familiar, stuff Of our own
convictions We have been refreshed
by new insight into our own life.
Our Model Government.
We see that in many things life
is very great. 1t is incomparably great
in its material aspects. in its body of
wealth, in the diversity and sweep of
it's energy, in the industries which have
been conceived and built up by the
genius of individual men and the linn
itless enterprise of groups of men. 1t
is great also. very great, in its moral
force. Nowhere else in the world have
noble men and women exhibited in
more striking forms the beauty and
the energy of sympathy and helpful
ness and counsel in their efforts to rec
tify wrong. alleviate suffering and set
the weak in the way of strength and
hope. We have built up. moreover,
a great system of government, which
has stood through a long age as in
many respects a model for those who
seek TO set liberty upon foundations
that will endure against fortuitous
change. against storm and accident
Our life contains every great thing and
contains it in rich abundance.
But the evil has come with the good.
and much fine gold has been corroded
With riches has come ineXcuSable
waste. We have squandered a great
part of what we might have used and
have not stopped to conserve the ex-
ceeding bounty of nature without
which our genius for enterprise would
have been worthless and impotent.
scorning TO be careful, shamefully
prodigal as well as admirably efficient
We have been proud of our industrial
achievements, but we have not hith-
erto stopped thoughtfully enough to
count the human cost, the cost of lives
snuffed out, of energies overtaXed and
broken, the fearful physical and spir.
itual cost to the men and. women and
children upon whom the dead weight
and burden of it all has fallen pitiless-
~ the years through. The groans and
agony of it all had not yet reached
our ears, the solemn. moving under
tone of our life, coming up out of the
mines and factories and out of every
home where the struggle had its init
mate and familiar seat. With the
great government went many deep Sc
cret things which we too long delayed
to look into and ScrutiniZe with can
did, fearless eyes. The great govern
ment we loved has too often been
made use of for private and selfish
purposes. aud those who used it had
forgotten the people.
Duty of Americans Outlined.
At last vision has been vouchsafed
as of our life as a whole. We see the
bad with the good. the debased and
decadent with the sound and vital.
With this vision we approach new at
fairs. Our duty is to cleanse, to re-
consider, to restore, to correct the evil
without impairing the good, to purify
and humaniZe every process of our
common life without weakening or
sentimentaliZing it. There has been
something crude and heartless and IN
feeling in our haste to succeed and be
great Our thought has been, LET ev-
cry man look out for himself; let ev-
cry generation look ont for itself,
while we reared giant machinery which
made it impossible that any but those
who stood at the levers of control
should have a chance to look out for
themselves. We had not forgotten our
morals We remembered well enough
that we had set up policy which was
meant to serve the humblest as we'll as
the most powerful. with an eye single
to the standards of justice and fair
nlaY. and remembered If with pride.