Evening star., 1922-11-12
Letters of Franklin X. Lane
Revelations of the War Cabinet and Intimate
Views of National and World Figures by the For
mer Secretary of the Interior.
Copyright BY An " Iaas)
Copyright, lsas. BY Anne ". Isns.)


west.
We want our streams controlled SO
that they do not wash away our
cities. farms and railroads, and so as
to redeem the submerged bottom
lands for the next generation.
We want fewer boys and girls, men
and women. who cannot read or write
the language of our laws. news
papers and literature. that
those who live with US may really be
of US.
We should dignity the profession of
teaching as the foundation profess
sion of modern democratic life ."
We want definite and continuing
studies made of our great Industrial.
fiscal and social problems. The franz
ing of our policies should not be left
to emotional caprice or the oppor-
tunism of any group of men. but
should be the result Of sympathetic
have. irrespective of their politics.
There should be industrial confer
ences, such as those recently in
augurated. to arrive at the ways by
which those who furnish the financial
arm OF industry and those who fur
nish the working arm of industry
may most profitably and productivity
be brought into cooperation.
Through the study of what has been
done we can give direction to our ma
tional thought and work with a VIII
toward a condition in which labor
will have recognition and be more
certainly insured against the perils
OF non-occupation and old age. and
capital become entitled to sure re-
turn because more constantly and
productivity used
Then. too. we need a study made
or the health conditions of our chill
dren-of the reason for the large per-
centage of undeveloped and subnor-
NAL children who are brought to our
schools. and the larger number who
do not reach maturity . Under
fed boys and ignorant boys are the
ones who turn to boIshevism. We
cannot stand pat and let things drift
without their drifting. not to the
good old days." but to bad new days.
Why should not our system of tax
alton be subject for the profoundest
study: We must find ways
by which the individual may have
tools for production which his skill
and foresight and thrift have ere
ated and yet take for society in taxes
what society itself gives.
There must come to society an in
creasingly large portion of the wealth
created by each generation through
inheritance taxes. Thus all our boys
and girls will start the race of life
more nearly at the scratch. This will
be for the making of the race and for
the enriching of the whole of society.
Yet there must be saved, surely, the
call upon the man OF talent for every
ounce of energy that he has and every
spark of Imagination.
We want our soldiers and sailors
to be more certain of our gratitude
and to have an opportunity to realize
their own ambition for themselves.
We must not be driven into any fool
ish or impossible course by the pres
sure of a desire to win their votes
On the contrary. the pressure should
come from us who had not the op-
portunity to risk our lives, that those
who did take such risk shall be high
ly honored. For those who will iden-
tify themselves with the tilling of the
soil. there should be farms, small vet
complete. for which they can grad
ually pay on long time. For others
there should be such education for
professional or industrial life as they
desire. For others, home, not a
speculation in real estate, but a piece
of that American soil for which they
fought. For these things we can paw
without extra financial strain, If we
dedicate to this purpose merely the
interest upon the moneys which other
nations owe US. The extent of our
to help these mefi is not
to be measured by their request, but
rather by our ability and their last
ing welfare. 80
We are to extend our activities into
all parts Of the world. Our trade is
to grow as never before. Our people
are to resume their old place as
traders on the seven seas. We are to
know other peoples better and make |
them all more and more our friends, |
with them as mutually de-
pendent factors in the growth of the
worlds life. For this day a definite
foreign policy must be made, one that
is fair; to which none can take ex-
ception. Our people shall go abroad
for their good and the good Of other
lands, with their skilled hands and i
their resourceful minds, and their |
energetic capital. and they must be !
of support abroad, as at
home, in every honest venture.
Americas ambition is to lead the
world in showing what democracy
can effect. This would be my con-
ception of the large idea of this cam
paign. 1t involves much more than
the league Of nations. This is our
hour of test. We must not be little |
in our conception Of ourselves, nor
yet have conceit that is self-de-
structive.
America must prove herself a Div
ing thing, with policies that are ade-
quate to new conditions - We
wish an international settlement that
will enable us to be more supremely
great as nationahsts. This is the sig
nificance Of the league of nations. It
il q plan of hope. 1t is the only plan
which the mind Of man has evolved
which any number of nations has