Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1919-08-29

: righteous?
What is needed now is Henry
James Moral equivalent of war
a motif born of righteousness, not in
fear. and strong enough to actuatC
a people that claims to be civilized
our ability to discover and to estab-
lish and to be guided by such a NOR.
al equivalent of war will be the com
ing test of our civilization.
To this end we must have not sim
ply aggressive policies regarding ag-
riculture, labor, capital, land, and
what not. but we must go forward
step by step through conference to
constructive ends until by and by
we shall gradually evolve a National
| Procedure big enough catholic
enough, to include all interests es-
sential to progress. This is a govern
ment of the people, not of interests,
and if the people are to rule them
selves they must do it in wisdom and
| in righteousness not in strife.
The theory that we are to be given
over to an eternal turmoil of con-
tending interests each striving for an
impossible advantage, is as abhor-
rent to the higher judgment as it was
found fatal to the relations between
nations; and the end Of both is war
That much ought to have been salts
factorily demonstrated by this time.
| II we are to have a real democracy
and one that will endure, then we
must pay the price and that price is
Orcn and constant conference be-
tween all interests, a lesson which
the Food Admin tration has taught
us and without which we should
have lost the var.
Some of us have been talking
about meetings of representative men
to discuss what has been called a
program for agriculture, meaning
thereby an attempt to discover what
are the issues agricultural that ought
u be deemed of vital and public CON
Germ, calling for action at this par
ticular time Without question such
formal discussion would be exceed
ingly valuable, even a necessary step
in agricultural progress, but to the
mind Of tho cnoolyo, ann eo1,,o+;o,, =.
not wholly through the direct efforts
OF any kind of exclusively agricul-
tural influence. President Roose-
yelt's Country Life Commission was
a step in the right direction, and an
important question now is, why were
the facts collected by that eminently
respectable body so little used and
why was the Commission so little
heard in the many things it might
have said? One of the first steps
now, in my opinion, is to resurrect
the data collected and put them into
the hands of competent authorities
for study.
But these records are old now and
valuable chiefly for comparison. An
other country life commission should
be at once appointed Jointly by con-
gress and the President, and COM
posed not solely of farmers, but of
representatives of many other classes
particularly business men and
representatives of labor.
Why the mixed commission? For
| tho very simple reason that it would
tend to harmonic the various and
| conflicting interests and establish
righteousness within the common
wealth. Labor, for example, does
not understand when continually con-
tending with the railroads or the
great manufacturing interests that
it, demands for higher wages will re-
act upon itself, because labor in GEN
eral does not travel much nor does 1t
reyel in manufacturing luxuries. But
| when organized labor confronts the
farmer across the table, it will find
perhaps for the first time in its ex-
perience that incessant demands for
all ever increasing wage will newt
ably affect the cost of bread and
meat, and may easily make good food
prohibtiye. In the same way, or
gained business will learn some
thing; for example, that farming
does not lend itself to all the forms
of business which manufacturing
banking, and transportation have de-
yised for their successful operation,
and the farmer will learn that while
il is he who feeds the world, IT
would hardly be worth feeding if all
men were farmers.
Such study of agriculture and of
farming as body like this could
make, would be liberal education