The Palatka news and advertiser., 1916-09-08

| wish we could have more progress
than we have made in this vital mat
ter; and | call once more, with the
deepest earnestness and solicitude, up
on the advocates of a careful and
provident conservation, on the one
hand and the advocates of free and
inviting field for private capital, on
the other, to get together in spirit
Of genuine accommodation and agree
ment and set this great policy for
ward at once.
We must hearten and quicken the
spirit and efficiency Of labor through
out our whole industrial system by
everywhere and in all occupations do
ing justice to the laborer, not only by
paying a living wage but also by
making the conditions that surround
labor what they ought to be. And we
must do more than justice. We must
safeguard and promote health and
safety in every occupation in which
they are threatened or imperilled.
That is more than justice and better,
because it is humanity and economy.
We must coordinate the railway
systems of the country for national
use, and must facilitate and promote
their development with a view to that
coordination and to their better adap.
tation as a whole to the life and trade
and defense of the nation. The life
and industry of the country can be
free and unhampered only if these ar
teries are open, efficient and COM
plete.
Thus shall we stand to meet the
future as circumstance and interna-
tional policy effect their unfolding,
whether the changes come slowly or
come fast without preface.
| have not spoken explicitly, gen.
tlemen, of the platform adopted at st.
Louis: but it has been implicit in all
that have said. I have sought to
interpret it's spirit and meaning. The
people of the United States do not
need to be assured now that that plat
form is definite pledge, a practical
program. We have proved to them
that our promises are made to be
kept.
Hold Definite Ideals.
We hold very definite ideals. We
believe that the energy and initiative
of our people have been too narrowly
coached and superintendent that they
should be set free, as we have set
them free, to disperse themselves
throughout the nation: that they
should not be concentrated in the
hands of few powerful guides and
guardians, as our opponents have
again and again, in effect if not in
purpose, sought to concentrate them.
We believe morever-who that looks
about him now with comprehending
eye can fail to believe THAT the day
of Little Americanism, with its mar
row horizons, when methods of "pro-
lection" and industrial nursing were
the chief study of our provincial
statesmen, are past and gone and that
the day of enterprise has at last
dawned for the United States whose
field is the wide world.
We hope to see the stimulus of that
new day draw all America, the re-
publics of both continents, on to
new life and energy and initiative in
the great affairs of peace. We are
Americans for Big America and re-
ioce to look forward to the days in
which America shall strive to stir the
world without irritating it or drawing
it on to new antagonisms, when the
nations with which we deal shall at
last come to see upon what deep foun-
dations of humanity and justice our
passion for peace rests, and when all
shall look upon our great
people with a new sentiment of ad-
friendly rivalry and real af-
fection, as upon people who
though keen to succeed, seek always
to be at once generous and Just and
to whom humanity is dearer than
profit or selfish power.
Upon this record and in the faith
of this purpose we go to the country.