Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-09-01

law and practice the largest number of constructive
and forward-looking measures ever attempted IN
the period of a single administration.
Especially notable from the Progressive point
of view is the Child Labor law which marks an
epochal advance in the protection of human rights
as contrasted with property privileges. The Demo-
cratic platform of 1912 did not promise such
law; the Progressive platform did promise it. But
the Wilson administration, guided it is in all
things by dictates of progress and humanity, put
the principle of child freedom and welfare into
effect.
Hardly less significant the establishment
by this administration, of Federal Employment
bureau through which thousands of men out of
work have found the means of livelihood and by
which the national problem of unemployment is
being reduced to basis where it can be simplifed
and. perhaps, eventually solved.
leading pledge in the Progressive platform of
1912 looked to the development or the nations
resources In that field of service the Wilson ad-
ministration has done than any all of its
predecessors during the last fifty years. Its aid to
agriculture alone the production of billions
of dollars of wealth and the economy of bill
lions more which formerly went to waste. Under
the Agricultural Extension act, farm demonstrators
and specialists available for every rural county
in the United States. expert instructors and adj
visors who carry directly to the man behind the
pillow and to the women of the farm household the
stores of scientific knowledge which years of re-
search and discovery have accumulated. AS re-
suit of this piece of legislation, American soil
will become more productive than ever before and
the country will be far more capable of feeding
and clothing itself and ministering to the needs of
all the world.
Equally important as an act of social service
is the Vocational Education bill which provides a
far-reaching system of federal aid for public in
in fba cal nd ooricu
The majority of American youths leave school at
the age of fourteen or earlier to become bread
winners 1t is conservatively reckoned that at
least two million boys and girls between fourteen
and sixteen years are working for wages and that
of these the rank and file are wholly unskilled ii
not incompetent. Authorities say, moreover that
of the fourteen and a quarter million persons en-.
gagged in manufacturing and mechanical trades
not one per cent have had at the present time
have any chance to obtain adequate Industrial
training. BY remedyng this condition. the Voca-
tional Education act will broaden beyond measure
the field of individual opportunity and at the same
time contribute vast deal to the nations eff
cheney If such legislation is not progressive there
is no meaning to the term.
The entire record of the Wilson administration
is one of service and protection to the country's
common interests. In domestic matters it has
stood for development and prosperity. In foreign
affairs it has stood for peace with honor. Sincere
and thoughtful Progressives, who care more
for principles than for names and who are more
interested in results than in formulas, recognize
that in Woodrow Wilson they have their most
dependable leadership and in the Democratic
party now constituted and controlled their
only available instrument of constructive politics
They realize that the Republican party is DOM
mated by the same reactionary forces which have
ruled it for decades and that Mr.. Hughes, however
well-intentisned he may be, could not overcome
those influences and give the country a truly pro-
gressiye administration.
Naturally, therefore, we find such Progressive
leaders as cambridge Colby of New York; Mat
thew Hale, of Massachusetts, Judge Lindsey of
Colorado; Francis ]. Heney, of California and
numerous others revolving from the scheme to de-
liver the Progressive vote to the Republican can
didate and, in notable instances, declaring them
selves heartily in support of Woodrow Wilson