The river press., 1913-03-12

It impossible that any but those who
stood at the levers Of control shoul1
ave a chance to look out hpr tho0
selves. We had not forgotten our
morals. We remembered well esacugh
that we had set up poticy which
was meant to serve the humblest as
well as the most powerful, with an
eye single to the standards of justice
and fair play, and remembered it with
pride. But We were very needless and
In hurry to be great.
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 work of restoration.
Things to Be Accomplished.
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 of 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
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 sides,
financial as we'll as administrative,
holds capital in leading strings, re-
stricts the liberties and limits the op-
portunities of labor and exploits with
oIlt renewing or conserving the natur-
al resources Of the country; a body Of
agricultural activities never yet given
the efficiency of great business under
takings or served as it should be-
through the instrumentality of SCI
ence taken directly to the farm or af-
forded the facilities of credit best
suited to its practical needs; water
courses undeveloped, waste places un-
reclaimed, forests untended, fast dis
appearing without plan or prospect Of
renewal; unregarded waste heaps at
every mine. We have studied as per-
haps no other nation has the most ef-
fective means of production, but we
have not studied cost or economy a.
we should either as organizers Of in
dustry, as statesmen or as individuals.
soeiety's Duty to Itself.
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 we'll 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 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 it
serves. Sanitary laws, pure food
laws and laws determining conditions
of labor which individuals are power
less to determine for themselves are
intimate 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 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 hearth fire of every
mans conscience and vision of the
right. 1t is inconceivable we should do
this as partisans; it is inconceivable We
should do it in ignorance of the facts
as they are or in blind haste. We shall
restore, not destroy. We shall deal
with out economic system as it is and
as it may be modified, INST as it might
UC IL We Ldu q ClcuH S:ACCC VI 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 satisfac-
tion or the excitement of excursions
! whittier they cannot tell. Justice, and
only justice, shall always be our motto.
Task Not Merely One Of Politics.
And yet it will be no cool process of
! mere science. The nation has been
deeply stirred-stirred by a solemn pas
sion, 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
heartstrings like some air out of Gods
own presence, where justice and mercy