The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1913-03-04


we have not hitherto stopped thought
fully enough to count the human cost,
the cost OF live snuffed out, of ener-
gies overtaXed and broken, the fear
ful physical and spiritual cost to the
men and women and children upon
whom the dead weight and burden
of il all has fallen pitilessly the
years through. The groans and ag-
onv of it all had not yet reached
cur 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 intimate and familiar seat With
the great government went many
deep secret things which we too
long delayed to look into and scru-
tinize with candid, fearless eHs.
The great government We loved has
too often been made use of for pri-
vate and selfish purposes, and thsoe
who used it had forgotten the peo-
| pie.
At last vision mas 5een vouch-
safed us of our life as a whole. we
see the bad with the good the de-
based and deCadent with the sound
and vital. With this vision we ap-
proach new affairs. Our duty is to
cleanse. to reconsider, to restore, to
correct the evil without impairing
the good, to purify and humanize
evcery process of our common life
without weakening or sentlmentallZ-
ing It. There has been something
crude and unfeeling in our haste to
succeed and be great Our thought
has been Let every man look out for
himself, let every generation look out
for itself while We reared giant ma
chinery 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 remem-
, bered well enough that We had set
: up q, policy which was meant to
: serve the hnmbest as well as the
most powerful, with an eye single
; to the standards of justice and play.
= and remembered 1t with pride. But
we were very needless and in hur-
l ry to be great.
We have come now to the sober
J second thought The scales of heed
! lessness have fallen from our eyes.
We have made up our minds TO
square every process of our nation
al life again with the standards we
So proudly set up at the beginning
and have always carried at our
hearts. Our work is a work Of re-
storation.
, We have itemized with some de-
9 gree of particularly the things that
D ought to be altered and here are
some of the chief items: A tariff
> which cuts us off from our proper
q part in the commerce of the world,
O violates the just principles OF taxa
ton. and makes the government
n facile instrument in the hands OF
9 priyate interests: a banking and cur
, rencv system based upon the neces-
q sity of the government to sell its
O bonds fifty years ago and perfectly
! adapted to concentrating cash ana
O restricting credits; an industrial sys'
II TEN which, take it on all its sides,
G financial as well as administrative,
G holds capital in leading strings, re-
= stricts the liberties and limits the
n OPPORTUNITIES of labor, and EXPLOITS
# without renewing or conserving the
- natural resources of the country;
Y body Of agricultural activities nev-
Il er vet given the efficiency OF great
20 business undertakings or served as
= II should be through the instrument
20 ality of science taken directly to the
N farm. or afforded the facilities or
- credit best suited to its practical
- needs: watercourses undeveloped,
p waste places unreclaimed, forests un'
70 tended, fast disappearing without
n. plan or prospect of renewal, unregard-
ed waste heaps at every mine. we
~ have studied as perhaps no other
l.. nation has the most effective means
10 of production, but we have not stud
ID led cost or economy as we should
&c. either as organizers of industry, as
n statesmen, or as individuals.
al Nor have we studied and perfect
of ed the means by which government
o. may be put at the service Of human,
- ity, in safeguarding the health OF
10 the nation, the health Of its men
70 and its women and it's children, as
q well as their rights in the struggle
&C for existence. This is no sentimental
Of