The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1913-03-07

ONu ob Lut levers OF
control should have a chance to look
out lor themselves, We had not for
gotten our morals. We remembered
well enough that we had set nm
policy which was meant to serve the
numolest as well as the most power.
ful, with an eye single to the stand
ards of justice and fair play, and re-
membered it with pride. But we we're
very needless and in a hurry to he
great.
Chief Items in Program.
We have come now to the sober
second thought. The scales of heed.
lessness have fallen from our ewes,
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 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 en- from our proper part in the
commerce Of the world, violates the
just principles of taxation, and makes
the government a facile instrument in
the hands Of private interests; a bank
ing and currency system based upon
the necessity of the. government to
sell It's 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 op-
poTtunities Of labor, and exploits with
out renewing or conserving the nat.
uraI resources of the country; a 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 IN
developed, waste places unreclaimed,
forests untended. 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, in
safeguarding the health Of the nation,
the health of its men and its 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 jRstice. 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 tine conse
Quences of great industrial and socia
processes which they cannot alter
control or singly cope with. Society
must see to it that it docs not itsel
crush or weaken or Damage its owl
constituent parts. The first duty O.
law is to keep SOUND the society i
serves. Sanitary laws, pure food laws
and laws determining conditions o
labor which individuals are .powerles'
to determine for themselves are init
mate parts Of the very business Of jus
tice and legal efficiency.
These are some Of the things wv
ought to do, and not leave the Others
unGone, the old-fashionad, neFer-to-be
neglected, fundamental safeguarding
of property and of individual right
This is the high enterprise of the new
day; to lift everything shat concerns
our life as nation to the light tina
shines from the hearthsire OF ever.
mans conscience and vision aof TIT
/ right. 1t is uncomfortable that w
/ should cdo this as partisas1s; 1t is in
conceivable we should do 1t In Egnor
ance of the facts as they are ar Il
3gblind haste. We shall restore, not dc
! stroy. We shall deal with our econ
omic system as it is and las it ma,
be modified, not as 1t migbf be If W.
had clean sheet tof paper to WRITE
upon; and step by step we shall max
it what it should be, in the spirit @
those who question their own wisdom
| and seek counsel and knowledge, no
shallow seif-aatisfactfon or the excit'
ment of excursions whittier they can
not tell. Justice, and only Justice
! shall always be our motto.
I Task Not One of Politics.
And vet it Will be no cool process
Of mere science. The nation has heel
deeply stirred, stirred by solemn
passion, stirred by the knowledge o
wrong, of ideals lost, of goyernmeS
-. e4s 5nhouohod ond made An III