The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1919-09-26
Will BE Work For All OF Us Which
Will Take Years To Complete.

Ier Ihlngs, ana, even though we are the
greatest and most successful democ-
racy that the world has ever seen, it
would be as foolish as it would be fatu-
Gus to deny our faults or ignore our
weaknesses.
We Are Prone to Go Too Far
One of our greatest faults is that
too many are extremists. Along the
roads we follow many are prone to go
too. far. Like our gallant boys in
France, we are someties not content
to stop at our detectives We dash on
ahead-and are caught in our own bar
rage.
This is understandable. 1t is in a
way forgivable 1t is because we are a
young nation, full of enthusiasm and
strength and courage. But it is dan
gerous and costly. And even before
the war this fault had led us into
grave trouble.
Business organization, from reason
able limits, had grown into great and
menacing trusts, combinations and
corporations; they had gone beyond
the legitimate field of development in
to the illegitimate field of manipula-
tion, stock jobbery and domination of
whole wealth of the land was being
our political and judicial life. The
whole wealth of the land was being
taken from the hands of the many and
placed within the grip Of the few. We
were in danger of becoming, ike the
Mexico of decade ago, a country of
but two classes: the vastly rich and
the pitifully poor
That such a coalition is botn wroag
and fatal is beyond argument. There
is neither justice nor common sense n
a condition that allows one man to
have hundred million dollars and a
hundred million men to have nothing
at all A condition where the few pos
sess little is not democracy. + is all
olgarchy. It's further development
could not, and would not, have been
tolerated
Too Much Thought for Self
This condition was brought about by
another extramism; the cvetworship
of single god of all those that dem
ocracy must serve. We Lad cone to
spend too much time before our favor
ed -Individualism.
And during our eighteen nj onths of
war we renamed true TO democracy.
Labor, capital, business, society, work
ed hand in hand and shoulder to
shoulder for victory Never had the
democracy of the United States of
America risen to such an exalted
height. 1t was the final test of our
national abilities, and the last justif-
cation of our form of government. We
had shown what democracy could do,
and how it could do it.
And now what?
We are once more at peace.
Shall we prove ourselves to be less
able, less noble, less courageous, less
firm in time of peace than in time Of
war? Did we have to have direct
and dire menace hanging over our
heads to make us do what was right
and just and sensible? Shall we, once
that menace is removed, flop supinely
back to confusion, injustice, selfishness
and the hyper-individualism that was
once our bane?
Problems to Be Met
! know the American people. And
know they will not be at once so las
and so misguided But they must
make no mistake. The fight before
them lies long and bitter.
There is the immigration question.
There are the trusts, the corpora
tions, the railroads.
There is the problem of demobiliza
ton and the returned soldier.
There is the reorganization Of in
dustries.
/ Business must be relieved and en-
couraged.
There is an understanding to b,
gained between the employers and th
workers.
There is the feeding and financing
of the world, in which We must hell
to do our shars.