The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1922-05-11
HUMAN SOCIETY IS BASED
UPON PROTECTION

CNAtSS - P4AAldTlIy 10 prOCecL Inc lam
lily. Any social group, any system of
laws, any code of ethics that does not
protect the family is a failure. Per
haps the supreme weakness of the
present government in Russia lies in
the fact that it does not give suhi-
cient Importance to the family as the
social unit and does not offer suffi-
Gent protection to the family and
encourage every effort on the part of
the heads of families to do all in
their power to further their protec-
ton.
The average man does not accum-
ulate wealth for the purpose OF en-
joying it himself. He will have but
a few brief years at most in which
to enjoy it, but his family, his chill
dren and his grandchildren and their
children and grandchildren can en-
Joy it. The wealth that he accum-
ulates serves. as a protection to his
family.
If men were not striving to pro
tect their families, they would not
spend their money for life insurance.
The plea that makes men go forth to
war and fight the enemy is the plea
to protect the home.
Only so long as the home, the fam
lily. is protected can the human race
survive. Back of all labor trouble is
the desire to project the home, the
family. The laborer is fighting for
higher wages in order that he can
have a better home, that he can give
his family greater protection. If
there is any doubt about this all that
is necessary is to learn that in those
industries where the wage earners
have the fewest days of work year
trouble is more frequent and more
acute. In those industries where the
families of the wage earners are pro
tected from want because the head of
the family has steady work year in
and year out there is little or no
trouble. 1t is a matter of protecting
the family.
The employer is impelled to fight
for what he has because he wants to
retain the protection for his family.
1t is all a matter of protection.
Labor joins together for prOtec-
ton. Employers join hands for pro-
lection. Families come together in
groups forming towns and cities be-
cause in this way they can better pro
tect themselves from want and mis-
cry. Communities organize into coun-
ties and counties into states for the
better protection of the families.
Had it not been for the necessity of
uniting for>the protection of the fam
lilies and the colonies composed of
these families, the original thirteen
colonies would not have united into
the United States of America. 1t was
protection that was needed. The in
dividual families would not have been
safe without this protection.
Up to within comparatively recent
times it was fighting strength that
measured protection. Families grew
into clans and clans into nations
simply because this gave them a
greater fighting strength. Nations
Joined into empires because this-a add
ed to their already great fighting
strength.
In the older countries of the world
this fighting strength is still relied
upon to a greater extent than IN this
country for protection. It remained
for the United States to find and to
demonstrate a new kind 70 Protec-
ton. an economic Protection that
would be more effective than any
other form ever used.
Whether or not this new from of
Protection has proved real success
can best be judged by comparing the
United States has fought with those
number and the cost of wars that the
that other nations have fought dur
ing the past two hundred years. 1t
can be judged by comparing the
homes of the middle class people of
this country with those of the middle
class people of any other country IN
the world.
The prime object of any govern
ment is to protect the family. If It
does not do this, at least to con-
siderable degree, that government IS
doomed to collapse. The degree in
which it does do it determines how
good the government really is.
Nothing more is needed than a
study of our immigration figures to
prove that the families of this coun-
try are ON the whole better protected
than are the families of any other
nj -. 49, 6.++a,. 49,