Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1918-03-29

acting with wisdom in the present ana
who we're therefore readymade follow
ers II the Boishevist leaders. bn'
cur sympathy must not blind US u
the fact that ttese leaders lea them
into the abyss. The Boishev,ki ma 'e
no more To teach America than tne
. Romanoffs themselves. The Roman J.
! offs announced that they stood foi
order ana in the long run they proYea
! the most fatal enemies of ORDER Inc
! BolsheNiki announced that they stoou
| fer liberty and during the last FIX
norths they have been. with the eS-
ccpiloI1 Of the -:Utocracy OF the Ho-
,euz~i.crns. n. ,nc,~ de-gerous OF all
the eGcyf..e-, =. liberty. In internal
,Ional m.tt%l, 5i,"y proved false to g:
| liberty loving .iaiscns, and they be-
/ trayeG tbe'r Cwn country. and SouRSt
, TO betray al, the free nations. into the
hands III Germany. Hhey were hrst
the tcuis .;,rfi i;rs. and then the
, tIupcs and y, m. Of Prussian mill
iarism Within their own boundaries
they have brought Russia to the verge
Of COMPLETE dissolution. Their
government. vas a@squalid desputisn1.
a'key iramplad freedom under foo.
They we've no less the enemies of hui
man rights: than Of property rights
I'hssv, i; in this country just as little
room for. the catalogues of the Bal-
sreyiki as, there is for the analogous
ar the Rom lofts. If we are wise we
sna /, no. permit ourselves to be with
held from forward movement by the
Romancffs of our own social and ~
dustrial system. ard neither shall we
permit ourselves to be plunged into
the abyss of fathomless disaster into
y hich we wculd 10 plunged if we fo.-
lowed the American Bolsheviki.
am not blind to the fact that there
must be a proper moral standard ar
no material success will avail. But II
is just as true that there must be q
basis of material, of economic justice
and well-being or no high moral stan
dard can permanently be maintained.
This standard of economic Well-belng
can only exist If We use the govern
ment to secure high degree Of in
dividual initiative and vet hold our
selves in readiness at any time to ap-
ply our collective strength. always
cautiously but resolutely, to prevent
the individuality of any one man from
being exercised 20 the detriment OF his
fl lloWs. AMI to see that the individual
initiative of each shall be in fair
measure used for the common good Of
all We can leither afford to be Cog
matte individui.jists -. dogmatc in q
blind belief III collectivism. We mus
SO; <,,e 81 Ia
necessary changes: never making. any
change merely for the sake of change
or without due and careful corsid. =
alton, and remembering that each
considerable change may work hard
ship if made to quickly and too sweep
ingly; but refusing to rest content
with any policy of mere obstruction.
We must apply these principles alike
to the farmer and 10 the working man
and tc. the business man-;o the nell
who in the aggregate make uo ihr
vast Majority of o,:r citizenship.
Cannot Afford Tenant Farming
1t is q mere truism to say that the
prosperity of the farmer stands as basic
to the prosperity OF the nation. On the
whole, every great crisis In the past.
the farmer has stood as pre-eminently
the arch-typical American, who in peace
without which the republic must sue
cumb. In our country the typical farm
er has been the man who owned the
land which he himself. with his own
hands. assisted By his sons and by
one or two hired men, tilled-and this is
the farmer of whom l especially speak.
We cannot afford to have him supplant-
ed by the man who merely holds his
land as a tenant for an absentee owner.
We cannot afford to have his farm abb
sorbed by big landowner. Yet in sec
tons of our country the tenant farmer
has tended to increase ominously at the
expense of the man who owns his farm.
and in other sections there has been an
equally ominous tendency to see the big
landowner. especially the big absentee
landowner. grow at the expense Of the
small landowner. Various causes have
combined 20 bring about these results
and these causes have been due far less
to any evil action than to sheer mac
ton. No one remedy will by itself avail
But there are various remedies which,
taken together. can do much. The laws
must be SO shaped as to secure to thu
tenant not merely a right to his i'm
proyements, but certain right to the
land which he cultivates. and of giving
him easy means of himself acquiring t.
We should sharply discriminate in favor
of the actual farmer against the mon
eyed man, not really farmer at all
who buys thousands OF acres and holds
them for speculation. We must in every
way favor the man who lives upon the
land which he owns and which he him.
self cultivates. Moreover, we must rem
der it possible for the man who works
on the rm. but who does not own any
land, for the hired man who is not Il
tramp laborer. but a Woodworking
steady, industrious worker. to acquire
and to owl a farm for himself. We
must make it more practicable than at
present for the farmer to get money al
not too high a price for the actual work
Of production-not in order to acquirs
more land or for other purposes. but ac.
tually do the productive work of the
farm. BY preference the money thus
advanced should be by private organiza
tons. encouraged by. the government,
for that purpose; but if such organiza.
tons fail. then the government itself
must undertake the work
Encourage Owner Farmers
Under certain conditions of io;ut pro.