The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-06-27

we spend upon strange despotic ide-
ologies from war-torn, hate-enveI-
oped Europe, we would have no time
to look across the water to what
goes on over there.
For that matter if THEY had
saved their powder and their guns
for few hundred years, and taken a
good look at the Sermon on the
Mount, which they all profess to
believe, we never would have heard
the names of Stain or Hitler. II
the cars and the military and the
Greek priesthood of Russia had not
been sunk in luxury and oppression
and taxation the bitter scenes Of
1917 in that country never could have
taken place.
A Practical, Sane Solution.
Today, if we in America stopped
wringing our hands over the strange
tendencies of our children to adopt
drastic means of settling the ques-
tons that disturb the national peace
OF mind, and set ourselves seriously
to supply these rising young Ameri-
cans with sane and practicable
means to accomplish the ends they
desire, we would find ourselves still
safe under the Constitution, and in
much improved world.
How often, when they are spouting
their young complaints and criti-
cisms at the dinner table, do we an
swer them with a simple What do
you want changed? Just what are
you working toward?"
Well, they want equality, they
want security, they want work for
everyone and fair living for every
one who works. They aren't salts
fed to read that the coming-out par
ty Of one young girl costs $50, 900,
and that another young girl, tired
and hungry and coughing her life
out after too many hot hours In the
cotton mills, slips into the cool river
to end it all in despair.
And I say more credit to our chill
dren for caring, for not taking their
own privileges and advantages for
granted, as the more fortunate folk
have done for so many generations,
but determining to do something to
make right the age-old wrongsl
There is no reason why general
indeed, universal peace and pros
perity and opportunity should not
flourish here, without disturbing one
word of the Constitution. There is
no country in the world that will Of
fer them better opportunity for
utopian experiment. Nor need our
basic laws be upset. Those of us
who will may still worship in our
churches; those of us who love SIM
pie home life and privacy may still
preserve these privileges.
And those who hate work, who
refuse to assume family responsible
tiles who won't go to church and
will 60 to roadhouses, will be per-
mitted to pursue their own lives
peaceably, as they do today. In
other words, the freedom of the in
dividual, that precious heritage that
was given us by the founders Of our
country, will still be respected by
all who chance to come into con-
tact with it.
Cure Lies in Cooperation.
Far better than the fear or scorn
with which we treat our young reds
today, would be an analysis of their
motives and desires. What got them
into this way of thinking, anyway?
Why, just what we all felt at Is and
20 and %. A passionate resentment
of the injustices of life; passionate
desire to cure them. Find out what
they want, and then see If it isn't
something easily achievable and
practicable. Help them to get inter-
ested in the native problems of adj
justing wage scales, clearing out
Sums, increasing employment by in
creasing trade, opening up new
tracts for new cities and farms, and
they will discover that instead of the
leprosy and typhus that the coun-
tries of the old world have had to
handle, Americas troubles are only
heat rash and chickenpox.
Room for Reform.
Believe me, it is that hunger and
thirst after justice for which so rich
a blessing is promised, that is STIR
ring IN our children today. And back
of every great reform that the world
has ever known, behind every step
toward a better and saner world, is
this same yeast of young intoler-
ance, this same desperate desire to
establish a more just rule of living.
Why not encourage it, under the
generous laws of their own land,
which leaves them all the room they
want for reform and change?