The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1913-03-13


yeloped, waste places unreclaimed,
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 effec-
tive means of production. but we
have not studied cost OF economy as
we should either as organizers of in
dustry, as statesmen, or as individ-
uals.
Nor have we studied and perfected
the means by which the government
may be put at the service OF human
ity, 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 eX-
istence. This is no sentimental duty.
These are matters of justice. There
can be no equality or opportunity,
the first essential of justice in the
body politics, if men and women
and children be not shielded in their
lives, their vitality, from the conse-
quences of great industrial and social
processes which they can not 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 condi-
tons of labor which individuals are
powerless to determine for them
selves are intimate parts OF the very
business of justice and legal effici-
ency.
These are some Of the things we
ought to do, and not leave the others
undone, the old-fashioned, never-to-
be-neglected, fundamental safeguard
ing of property and Of individual
right. This is the high enterprise of
the new day; to lift every thing thai
concerns our life as nation to the
light that shines from the hearthtire
of every mans conscience and vision
OF the right. 1t is incOnceivable that
we should do this as partisians; it
is uncomfortable we should do 1t IN
ignorance of the facts as they are
or in blind haste. We shall restore,
not destroy. We shall deal with our
economic system as it is and as 1t
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
spiri; of those who question their
own wisdom and seek counsel and
knowledge, not shallow selfsa tisfac-
ton or the excitement OF excursions
Mhtner they can not tell. Justice,
and only Justice, shall always be our
motto.
And yet it will be no cool process
Tha
deeply stirred, stirred by 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 reconclled ana the
Judge and the brother are one. We
know our task to be no mere task
of politics but a task which snail
search us through and through,
whether we be able to understand
our time and the need OF our people,
whether we be indeed their spokes-
men and interpreters, whether we
have the pure heart to comprehend
and the rectified will to choose our
high course of action. "
This is not day OF triumph; 1t
is day of dedication. Here muster,
not the forces of the 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
dares fail to try? l summon all
honest men, all patriotic, all for
ward-looking men, to my side. God
helping me, l will not fail them, If
they will but counsel and sustain
me- "