Imperial Valley press., 1913-03-04

in its own plans and point of view:
Some old things with which we had
10 creep into the very habit of our
thought and of our lives, have altered
their aspect as we have latterly looked
critically upon them, with fresh. awak-
ened eyes; have dropped their disguises
and shown themselves alien and sin
ister Some new things, as we look
prehend their real character, have
come to assume the aspect of things
long believed in and familiar with,
been refreshed by a new insight into
our own life.
1--WE see that in many things that
life is very great. 1t is incomparably
great in it's material aspects, in its body
of wealth, in the diversity and sweep
of it's energy, in the industries which
have been conceived and built up by
limitless enterprise of groups CT men.
1t is great, also, very great, in it's
moral force. Nowhere else in the world
in more striking forms the beauty and
ness and counsel in their efforts to
set the weak in the way of strength
and hope. We have built up, more
over. great system of government,
which has stood through a long age as
who seek to set liberty upon founda-
tions that will endure against fortu-
ltOuS CHdHSc, dS anu dCCl-
dent. Our life contains every great
thing, and contains it in rich abund-
But the evil has come with the
good. and much fine gold has been
corroded. With riches has come mex
cusable waste. We have squandered
great part of what we might have
used, and have not stopped to conserve
the exceeding bounty of nature, with
out which our genius for enterprise
| n ScOrning he careful. shame
fully prodigal as well as admirably
efficient. We have been proud of our
not not hitherto stopped thoughtfuliy
enough to count the human cost, the
cost of lives snuffed out. of energies
oHertaSed and broken, nos the ,h fearfu,
and women and children upon whom
the dead weight and burden Of it all
The groans and agony of It all had
not yet reached our ears, the solemn,
moving undertone of our life, coming
up out of the mines and factories and
out of every home where the struggle
had its intimate and familiar seat.
With the great government went many
delayed to look into and scrutinize
with candid, fearless eyes. The great
government we. loved has too often
cen made use of for private and selfish
purposes, and those who used it had
forgotten the people.
"At last a vision has been vouchsafed
Of our wifi life bs soog h0s he Ms
and decadent with the sound and vital.
With this vision we approach new
Our qesy IS to the
evil without impairing the good, to
purify and humanize every process of
our common life without weakening
or sentimentalizing it; There has been
something crude and heartless and un-
be great. Our thought has been Let
oaly fnr nl Lot
every generation look out for itself
while we reared giant, machinery
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
humbest as well as the most powerful,
with an eye single to the standards
of justice and fair play; and remem-
very needless and in hurry to be
great.
thought The scales of heedlessness
have fallen from our eyes. We have
made up our minds to square every
the standards we so proudly set up at
the beginning and have always carried
at our hearts. Our work is work
of restoration.
1--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
! commerce of the world violates the
| just principles of taxation, and makes
the government a 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 perfectly
| adapted to concentrating cash and re-
stricting credits, an industrial system
which, take it on all its sides, financial
as well as administrative, holds cap
tal in Leading ftrngs GeStrlfts
| of labor, and exploits without renew
ing or conserving the natural resources
activities never yet given the efficiency
served as il should be through the
linstrumentality of science taken di-
cilities of credit best suited to its
practical needs; watercourses undevei-
| INTENDED, fast disappearing without
plan or prospect Of renewal, unre-
| garded waste heaps at every mine. We
ton has the most effective means of
production, but we have not studied
cost or economy as we should either
as organizers of industry, as statesmen
| or as individuals.
| Nor have studied and perfected
the means by which government may
safeguarding 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 opportunity, the
first essc tial of justice in the body
polite, il 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, con
troll or singly cope with Society must
see to it that it does not itself crush
or weaken or damageNit its own constlt-
uent parts. The first duty Of law is to
! keep sound the society it serves. San
itary laws, pure food laws, and laws
determining conditions of labor which
individuals are powerless to determine e
| 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 hearthfire of every mans
conscience and vision of the right. 1t
is inconceivable we should do it in
ignorance of the facts as they are or
in blind haste. We shall restore, no.
destroy. We shall deal with our eco
nomic 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
of those who question their own wis
dom and seek counsel and knowledge,
| not shallow self-satisfaction or the
| excitement of excursions whittier they
shall always be our motto.
"And yet it will be no cool process