Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 224, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1910 — PEOPLE AROUSED TO THEIR NEEDS [ARTICLE]

PEOPLE AROUSED TO THEIR NEEDS

Browing Demand (or Competent Moo In Office. OURS IS UNO OF FREEMEN People Have Power to Regulate Own Affairs—Do Not Dodge Responsibility—Problems to Be Solved by Best Intelligence of All People—Men in Office to Be Scrutinized With Better Care. An article in the North American Review on “A Plea for Conservation of Common Sense,’* written by Editor George Harvey, is attracting a great deal of attention because of its optism In respect to the country at large, and its expressed confidence in the certainty that the people will apply correctives wherever they are needed. Probably the most striking discussion in the article .relates to the questions of oppression of the poor by the rich, to the tariff and the trusts. On these Mr. Harvey says in part: “There is qo direct oppression of the poor by the rich. For the first time in the progress of civilization this can bo said with truth. History from the beginning of governments to the beginning of the republic is a seamy record of tyranny of the strong, the rich, the powerful. To this day, in nearly all lands except our own, real dominance is exercised openly by a class. “Here the individual is still his own master at the, polls and in his home. Personal service is not synonymous with political servitude. Ours Is still the land of the free; and whatever differences exist respecting the powers of governance relate chiefly, on the one hand, to restriction of suffrage and on the other, to the elimination of sex qualification. Neither project involves revolution. “Qould the Fathers have been assured of so happy a condition among ninety millions of people, can we doubt that they would have felt far more confident than they did feel that the foundations they were laying,.with such care and foresight as were within their power to exercise would prove indeed everlasting? “But we are told that a privileged class has grown up under the rose, that mere wealth wields undue influence in legislation, that the few fatten upon the many, that monopoly safeguarded by law. holds individualism in check, that excessive tariffs no longer tend to develop industries, hut are become no more or less than evasive taxes, that. obnoxious and detrimental trusts thrive upon advantages thereby obtained.

“Undoubtedly, to a great extent, these assertions are true. But, in the light of history, was It not Inevitable that a period of amazing development should be dappled by such accompaniments? All great forward movements have been attended by corresponding Ills. But because a child has the measles the parent does not kill the child. He seeks to eradicate the disease by the use of remedies suggested by others more experienced than himself, in whose fidelity and judgment he reposes faith. But in hits, the parent 7 lies the authority and responsibility of discriminating between the physician and the quack. “So it is with the American people today. As we have seen, they still have the power. Theirs also is the responsibility. Are signs visible that they are evading It? Rather the reverse. “That great problems cannot be resolved in a day, a month or a year, is a patent truth that demands recognition. But vastly more important is the certainty that, in this country, they cannot be resolved at all except through the application of the best intelligence of all the people. “Hence the hopefulness in the obvi-' ous awakening of minds throughout the land. Already we perceive a growing demand for more competent representation in congress, for higher standards of fitness in all public officers ter closer attention to public duties, for greater efficiency in every direction. This can only mean that acts of those in temporary authority will be more sharply scrutinized and that the people themselves, in order to pass discerning criticism, will attain better understanding.”