The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1913-03-05

ment we loved has too often beer
made use Of for private and SeIhSt
purposes. and those who used it nae
forgotten the people.
Duty Of Americans Outlined.
At last a vision has been youchsa fec
US Of our life as whole. We see the
bad with the good. the debased and
decadent with the sound and vital
With this vision we approach new at
fairs. Our duty is to cleanse, to re-
consider. to restore, to correct the evil
without impairing the good. to purify
and humanize every process Of our
common life without weakening OF
sentimentalizing it. There has been
something crude and heartless and IN
feeling in our haste to succeed and be
great. Our thought has been, LET ev'
cry man look out for himself; let ev'
cry generation look ont 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 fol-
themselves. We had not forgotten on
morals. We remembered well enough
that we had set up policy which was
meant to serve the humblest as we'll al
the most powerful. with an eve single
to the standards of justice and fail
play, and remembered it with pride.
But we were very needless and in Z
hurry to be great.
We have come now to the sober Sec
ond thought. The scales of Needless
ness have fallen from our eyes. We
have made up our minds to square ev-
cry 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
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 princi-
pies of taxation and makes the govern
ment a facile instrument in the hands
Of private interests; banking and cur
rency system based upon the necessity
Of the government to sell its bonds fifty
years ago and perfectly adapted to con-
centra ting cash and restricting credits;
an industrial system which. take it on
all its sides, financial as we'll as ad-
ministrative. holds capital in leading
strings, restricts the liberties and linn
it's the opportunities Of labor and ex-
PLOTS without renewing or conserving
the natural resources Of the country:
body Of agricultural activities never
yet given the efficiency Of great busi-
ness undertakings or served as 1t
should be through the fundamentally
of science taken directly to the farm
or afforded the facilities Of credit best
suited to its practical needs: water
courses undeveloped, waste places I'M
reclaimed. forests INTENDED. fast dis
appearing without plan or prospect OF
renewal. unregarded waste heaps at
every mine. We have studied as per-
fective means of production. but we
have not studied cost or economy AZ
we should either as organizers OF in
dustry. as statesmen or as individuals.
Society'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 its men and its women
and its 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.
il men and women and children be
not shielded in their lives. their very
vitality. from the consequences OF great
industrial and social processes which
they cannot alter. control or slngly
cope with. Society must see to 1t 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 con-
ditions Of labor which individuals are
powerless to determine for themselves
are intimate parts Of the very bust
ness of justice and legal efficiency.
These are some of the things we