Norwich bulletin., 1913-03-05


 every process of our national 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 restoration.
 We have itemized with some degree of particuIarlty 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 prin- ciples of taxa tion, and makes the gov ernment facile instrument In the hands of private interests; banking and currency system based upon the necessity of the government to sell it's bonds fifty years ago and perfectly adapted to concentrating cash and re- stricting credits; an industrial system which, take it on all it's sides, f1nan- cial as well as administrative, holds capital in leading strings, restricts the liberties and limits the opportunities of labor, and exploits without renew ing or conserving the natural resources of the country; a body of agricultural activities never yet given the eff ciency of great business undertakings or servedSas it should be through the rectly5 to the farm. or afforded the ia acilities of credit best suited to it's practical needs; watercourses unde- veIoped, waste places unreclaimed, for ests untended, fast disappearing with out plan or prospect of renewal, unre- garded 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 cost or economy as we should either as organizers of industry. as states men, or as individuals.
 Nor have we studied and perfected the means by which government may be put at the service of humanity, in Safeguard rding 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 oppor- tunity. the first essential of justice in the body polite, if men and women and children be not shielded ih their lives, their very vitality, from the con- sequences of great industrial and so- cial process which they cannot alter, control, or singly cope with. Society must see to it 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 1t serves. Sanitary laws, pure food laws, and laws determining conditions of labor which individuals are power1ess to determine for themselves are inti- mate parts of the very business of justice 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 safeguard ing 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 hearthf1re of every mans conscience and vision of the right. It Is inconceivable that we should do this as partfsans; 1t is tn- conceivable we should do 1t in 1g- norance of the facts as they are or in blind haste. We shall restore, not destroy. We shall deal with our economic system as it is and as it may be modified, not as it might be if we had a clean sheet of paper to write upon; and step by step we shall make 1t 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 ex- citement of excursions whither they cannot tell. Justice, and only justice, shall always be our motto.
 And yet it will be no cool process of mere science. The nation has been deeply stirred. stirred by 8 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 heart-strings like some air cut of Gods own presence, where justice and mercy are reconciled and the judge and the brother are one. We know
 
 but 6 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 indeed their spokesmen and in terpreters, whether we have the pure heart to comprehend and the rectified will to choose our high course of ac- tion.
 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 up to the great trust? Who dares fail to try? l summon all honest men. all patriotic, all forward looking men, to my side. God helping me, I will not fail them. if they will but counsel and sustain mel