Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1913-03-06

1essness 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
" set up at the beginning and have
always carried at our hearts. Our
work is a work CT restoration.
We have itemized with some degree
of particularly the things that ought
to be altered and here are some OF
the chief items: 4 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 IL
the hands Of private interests; a bank
ing and currency system based upon
| 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 we'll 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 instrumentality of science
taken directly to the farm, or afforded
the facilities OF credit best suited to
It's practical needs; water courses I'M
developed, waste places unreclained,
| 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
cost or economy as we should either
as organizers of industry, as states
men, or as individuals.
Matters of Justice.
Nor have we studied and perfected
the means by which government may
| be put at the service of humanity, III
safeguarding the health of the nation,
|
and its 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
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 it that it does not itself
crush or weaken or damage its 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 init
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 hearthfre 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 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
it what it should be, in the spirit Of
those who question their own wisdom
ard seek counsel and knowledge, not
shallow self-satisfaction or the excite
ment Of excursions whittier they can
not tell. Justice, and only justice,
shall always be our motto.
| Task Not One of Politics.
And yet it will be no cool process
of mere science. The nation has been
deeply stirred, stirred by a 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 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 spokesman and interpre-
tiers, whether we have the pure heart
to comprehend and the rectifled will
to choose our high course Of action.
This is not a day Of triumph; it is
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 daTes fail to try?
summon all honest men, all patriotic,
all forwardlooking men, to my side.
God helping me, I will not fail them,
if they will but counsel and sustain
mel
Romans May Have Worked Gold Mine.
Every one is aware that prehistoric