The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1916-07-20

| to transmit the current the result would
| not be obtained. Just so any good or
evil work may sometimes be thwarted
| by the failure Of a single individual to
cooperate.
While Luther ano Wesley were the
visible motive forces in great movements
among men, a multitude of individuals
| cooperated to aid in securing great re-
suits. The same is true of Caesar and
Napoleon, though their motives were
| less noble. Conventionality and custom
! fasten many a burden upon childhood
i which it can i'll afford to bear. Silent
! letters and the numerous means employ
| ed to represent single sound of human
| speech may be compared to lace and
| frills on a lady's dress, but not every
child can afford these frlIs of dress or
speech.
| Social custom often sacrifices health as
we'll as time. Those who contribute to-
ward the support of children's homes
would often be surprised to learn that
the death rate in some of these institu-
tons is IS per cent annually. Some
have suggested that they should be re-
named and called places for children to
die. When we see men sliding ice to be
used for cooling drinking water on the
sidewalk where everybody splits, we are
reminded that an ounce of prevention
would be worth a pound of cure in pro-
viding tuberculosis sanitariums.
We pride ourselves much upon the
magnanimity of our laws, The hungry
are fed at public expense. The deaf and
blind are taught the arts of civilization.
The sick receive medical attention. But
the laws are not constructed from the
view point of the recipient.
Many diseases have been placed large
ly under control, but railroads are still
allowed to conduct public nuisance for
scattering typhoid and other disease
germs from ocean to ocean. Only few
people between New York and the
neighboring cities have thought to pass
laws requiring lavatories on trains to be
locked while passing through their terri
tory. The nation as whole should pass
such law and might suggest or require
substitute. The use Of the septic tank
for receiving the lavatory refuse is un-
known outside few small towns. AS
the water flowing from such a tank con-
tanning antiseptics is said to be compare
lively pure, such tank would doubtless
be adapted to the needs of railroad
trains Health and nourishment go hand
in hand, in contributing to the we'll be-
ing of humanity.
When man has paid the government
hundreds or thousands of dollars as taxes,
and later through some natural catas-
trophe, the trckery of his fellowman or
ill health he must seek aid as common
vagrant. while the man who has at some
time in his life been drafted into the
army comes as an honored veteran. Is
not our army of workers as honorable
and essential to national welfare as our
army of fighters? Why this distinction?
Every able bodied man from twenty to
fifty years of age is capable of contri-
buting financial aid to the government.
Let him do so in proportion to his abil-
ity, and then in his time of need, wheth-
er sickness or old age, he can draw his
needed rations, not as common vag-
rant but as an industrial veteran as hon.
orable as any army or navy veteran.
Men could not make themselves USE
full to the nation IN the army or navy
unless laws were passed providing for
the direction of their effort. Neither
can the industrial army make itself USE
full to the nation unless the law-making
power provides this connecting link. This
system of drawing rations from COM
mon storehouse would enable all school
children to sit at the common table. A
few schools have already provided such a
system; others provide a noon lunch at
cost. But poor children are unable to
procure money to pay the cost of even
simple, nOurlShlng luncn.
When we remember such men as Lin
coin, the railsplitter, and Franklin, the
philosopher and statesman, walking the
streets of Philadelphia eating his cold
penny roll, who can keep silent when
looking upon their successors sitting
around the halls of learning, eating a
cold lunch like beasts upon the range,
while those born in more favorable cir
cumstances are sitting at the common
table. True, we have made progress in
providing free instruction for all classes,
but we need to go another step and pro-
vide for the physical needs and comforts
of all classes.
Under q healthy system Of training,
every mature person would be amply able
and willing to repay the government the
| cost of all the necessities of life. Every
person should tackle the biggest task of
which he is capable, but he should be
careful not to make the mistake of the