The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1919-12-19

nation, but unless individual property
rights are eternally safeguarded, no
home will be safe. When capital is
destroyed, labor will have gone to its
doom. Captains in industry are as es-
sential as skill in labor, and when Ell
Their disappears, life for the other will
not be possible.
Instead of joining in the hue and
cry of these chaotic times, against all
investment, all industry and all prop
erty ownership, the imperative call of
the hour is for the protection of these
sacred rights, without whose preser-
walton no republic can endure and no
people can prosper. If conditions
force us to a distinct lineup in these
| directions then the sharper the line
is drawn the better-there can be no
middle ground; and perhaps the soon
er we are compelled to settle this is
sue, the better for us all.
We are now called to recognize what
the great mass of people in America
seem to have totally forgotten, that
thrift and frugality are still essen
tial to the growth of prosperous
people, as against the fearful reign
of extravaganza and waste that is the
curse of our present generation.
With a national debt equal to S240
apiece, resting upon every man, wo-
man and child in this country, with
state, county and municipal expendi-
lures going upward by leaps and
bounds; and with no courageous voice
sounding throughout the land a clar-
ion call to great people to come back
to safety level in public spending,
we see reflected only the spirit of the
times, as personal extravaganza runs
| riot through our generation.
Underlying large percentage of
all our troubles is the fact that too
many people are in America who are
not part of America; and who never
intend to be if they can help it. Our
worldwide welcome of the past, due
to our failure to foresee and forestall
all its dangers, has filled our land
with class of people who have no
conception of what liberty means, no
respect for law and no regard for Ell
Their individual or collective rights
Only strict code of immigration
laws and new policy in handling the
alien question can save the United
States from destruction and each days
delay in acting menaces every institu-
ton we hold dear
We cannot declare too strongly IN
the midst of all the chaos and uncer-
tainty of the hour that the sole and
adequate remedy for the consequences
of war prostration is for everybody
to go to work and keep at work.
No investigation of our present ills
and no suggested remedy for Their
cure will ever get us anywhere-no
matter though it cost into the mil
lions-which is not honest enough Ia
recognize that when production de-
creases, prices go up, and that when
idleness increases, morals go down
By tremendous strides the working
hours of American labor have been
diminished and American efficiency
has decreased proportionately; people
who howl for six hour day and five
/ day week, and who are willing to &c
to any lengths to secure these ends
have lost sight of the highest concep-
ton of human service; and if modern
energies were as vigorously applied to
doing work as they are to avoiding it
most of our reconstruction problems
would vanish and the future could be
faced without fear.
The keynote of the hour, whether
we face our national problems, or con.
slider our national blessings, is founC
in single sentence-We Must All Be
Americans Together.
There is today too much the ten.
dency among our people towards class
endeavor, class legislation, class
thinking, and the interests of the ma
ton demand the destruction of such
unworthy ideals, whether they be
hoisted by labor union or by grour
of farmers. Industrial and socia
troubles of the times simmer down tc
simple selfishness-almost every mar
is out to "Get his" regardless of how
his neighbors fare.
Only by a revival of this spirit, anc
by the conservation of the whole PEG
pie to its attainments, can a republic
ever hope to survive.
We Must All Be Americans To
gether.-Copyright, 1919.