Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-03-04

not hitherto stopped thoughtfully
enough to count the human cost of
lives snuffed out, Of energies overtaXed
and broken, the fearful physical and
spiritual cost to the men and women
and children upon whom the dead
weight and burden of it all has fallen
pitilessly the years through. The
groans and agony of it all had not
yet reached our ears, the solemn mov-
ing 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 deep
secret things which we too long de-
layed to look into and scrutinize with
candid fearless eyes. The great gov
ernment we loved has too often been
made use of for private and selfish
purposes and those who used it had
/ forgotten tho people
At last a vision has been vouchsafed
us Of our life as a whole. We see the
bad with the good, the debased and
decGGent with the sound and vital.
With this vision we approach new af-
fairs. Our duty is to cleanse, to recon-
slider, to restore, to correct the evil with
out impairiNg the good, to purify and
humanize every process of our COM
mon life without weakening or senti-
mentalizing it. There has been some
thing crude and heartless and un-
| feeling in our haste to succeed and
be great Our thoughts has been Let
every man look out for himself, let
every generation look out for itself,
while we reared giant machinery by
which we made 1t impossible that any
but those who stood at the levers of
control should have a chance to look
out for themselves. We had not for
gotten our morals. We remembered
well enough that we had set up a pol
| icy which was meant to serve the hum
blest as we'll as the most powerful,
with an eye single to the standards of
Justice and fair play, and remembered
1t with pride. But We were very heed
less and in a 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.
We have itemzed 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
off from our proper part in the COM
merce of the world violates the Just
principals Of taxation, and makes the
government facile instrument in the
hands of private interests; a banking
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-
strictlng credits; an Industrial system
which, take it on all its sides, finan-
cial as well as administrative, holds
| capital in leading strings, restricts the
liberties and limits the opportunities
| of labor, and exploits without renew
ing or conserving the natural re-
sources of the country; a body of ag-
ricultural activities never yet given
the efficiency of great business un-
dertaltings or served as 1t should be
through the instrumentality of science
taken directly TO the farm, or affirded
the facilities of credit best suited to
its practical needs; watercourses un-
developed, 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 effective means
Of productiono but we have not studied
| cost or economy as we should either
as organizers of industry, as states
men, or as individuals.
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 well as their right
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 child
rem 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 1t to keep sound the society 1t
serves. Sanitary laws, pure food laws,
and laws determining conditions of
labor which individuals are powerless
to determine for themselves are init
mate 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 safeguard
ing of property and of individual
--@--~.z-a-z-@a-z-sa