The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-01-28

wise. They must, he believes, be
permitted to work themselves out In
accordance with natural law. If the
resulting structure is to be healthy
and enduring it must be the product
of natural growth, not of artificial
processes. =
"To accept this truism, however, is
not to deny the need of assisting ma
ture by art, or making it easy for the
laws of social and economic progress,
which are recorded in knowledge born
Of experience, to work themselves out
benefciently.
"Once we have accepted the truth
that these laws will have their way in
the end, that we are their creatures,
ard they not ours, and we have plan
ned accordingly, we shall be well along
the road to economic prosperity and
social cententment.
Russia lies in ruins because she
has defied the natural laws of social
and economic life; Great Britain holds
in her. hand, the commerce of the
world, and enjoys in greatest meas
ure the blessings of security and lib
erty, because she has scrupulously OBJ
served the laws which insure free
dom, wealth, power and happiness.
"The more closely we In our turn
follow the teachings of practical ex-
pelience, as expounded by practical
men, the fewer will be our disasters,
the more numerous our successes. We,
like Ulysses, are embarked upon a
| perilous voyage. To come again safe
into port we also must stop our cans
against the songs of the sirens of
theory. Whether the voices come
from the maelstorm of Petrograd, or
the treacherous reefs of a Germany
turned docile, or the alluring waters
of intellectualia, babbling and shall
low, our safety lies upon one course
only, that which experienced mariners
/ have traversed in security. The air
is far too full of sweet singers, who
strive to lure off their course the des-
TIMES of our one hundred and five
millions of people, upon an expert
mental Utopia of painless existence.
| "To consider the problems before Us
we must divide our epoch into three
periods, that of war, that of transi-
ton, that of the new normal, which
will undoubtedly supercede the old
The questions before us, therefore, are
broadly, two: How shall we pass from
wax to the new normal with the least
/ jar, in the shortest time In what re-
| srect should the new normal be shaped
to differ from the old?
"Some contend that we should first
envisage the new normal, and carve
the measures of transition to suit it's
| requirements. Others believe that we
should cautiously feel our way thru
the period of transition, and arrive al
what the new normal shall be by the
road of experience. The first would
attempt reconstruction by synthetic
process; the second would achieve il
by natural growth Who shall say
that a new normal, artifcially com.
pounded at this distance from the flu.
ture, will work? Who shall say that
a new normal, patiently sought thru
trial and error, will not work?
"There are those who now come
forward to challenge our distrust oi
autocratic Capitalization in peaceablt
| times. They offer us new theory
of democracy, in accordance with
which men are to pass the machinery
by which they subsist out of their owl
hands as individuals, and thence intc
the hands of centralized authority
Several of the rights of the individu
i al, including that of possession, which
/ men won from the sovereign anoint
4 ed of ancient times, free men ar'
now being asked to return to the SOW
ereign appointed of modern times.
j "A strange excursion, indeed, haI
democracy made if men, having gain