Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1913-03-05

dered a great part of what we might
have used, and have not stopped to
conserve the exceeding bounty of ma
ture, without which our genius for en-
terprise would have been worthless
and impotent, scorning to be careful,
shamefully prodigal as well as admir-
ably efficient. We have been proud of
our industrial achievements, but we
have not hitherto stopped thought
fully enough to count the human cost,
the cost of lives snuffed out, of ener-
gies overtaxed and broken, the fear
full physical and spiritual cost to the
men and women and children upon
whom the dead weight and burden of
1t all has fallen pitilessly the years
through. The groans and agony of 1t
all had not yet reached our ears, the
solemn, moving undertone of our life,
coming up out of the mines and fac
tories and out of every home where
the struggle had it's intimate and ia
miliar seat. With the great govern
ment went many deep secret things
which we too long delayed to look
into and scrutinize with candid, fear
less eyes. The great government we
loved has too often been made use of
for private and selfish purposes, and
those who used it had forgotten the
people.
At last a vision has been 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 every
process of our common life without
weakening or sentimentalizing 1t.
There has been something crude and
heartless and unfeeling in our haste to
succeed and be great. Our thought has
been Let every man look out for him
self, let every generation look out for
ITSELF while we reared giant machin
cry which made it impossible that any
but those who stood at the levers OF
control should have chance to look
out for themselves. We had not for.
| gotten our morals. We remembered
well enough that we had set up a
policy which was meant to serve the
! humblest as well as the most power
full, with an eye single to the stand
ards of justice and fair play, and re-
membered 1t with pride. But we were
very needless and in a hurry to be
great.
Chief Items in Program.
| We have come now to the sober
second thought The scales Of heed
lessness have fallen from our eyes
We have made up our minds to square
every process of our national life
! again with the standards we so proud
ly set up at the beginning and have
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 off from our proper part in the
commerce of the world. violates the
! just principles of taxation, and makes
the government facile instrument In
the hands of private interests, bank
| ing and currency system based upon
i 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 it on all its sides
financial as well as administrative
holds capital in leading strings, re
! stricts the liberties and limits the OPP
portunities of labor, and exploits with
out renewing or conserving the nat
ural resources of the country; body
of agricultural activities never yet
given the efficiency of great business
: undertakings or served as it should be
| through the fundamentally of science
i taken directly to the farm, or Afforded
the facilities of credit best suited to
it's practical needs; water courses un
developed, waste places unreclaimed
! 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