The Brinkley argus., 1913-03-07
Government for Humanity.

government TOT F1umdnlty.
 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 it's 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 1t that it does not itself crush or weaken or damage it's own constituent parts. The first duty of 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 inti- 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; it is in- conceivable we should do it 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 it is and as 1t may be modified, not as 1t might be If we had 8 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 question their own wisdom and seek counsel and knowledge, not shallow self-satisfaction or the excite ment of excursions whither they can not tell. Justice, and only justice, shall always be our motto.
 Nation Deeply Stirred.
 And yet 1t will be no cool process of mere science. The nation has been deeply stirred, stirred by 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 own 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 1nterpre- 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; 1t Is a 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 Hp to the great trust? Who dares fail to try? I summon all honest men, all patriotic, all forward looking men. to my side. God helping me, will not fail them, if they will but counsel. and sustain me!