Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 217, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1916 — Swing of the Pendulum. [ARTICLE]

Swing of the Pendulum.

Great reforms are only brought about in the United States, as in most other countries, through violent agitation; and, as is invariably the case, the agitation leads to measures unnecessarily stringent. The pendulum overswings its balance and reaction follows. It has been true in the past also that the period of reaction has been so viojent as to nullify much of the good accomplished, lead to renewed public indifference and give opportunity for abuse of privilege to again entrench itself. So long as people govern themselves and a majority of the voters remain human, this will continue, but with this gain, that the pendulum on its return never reaches the pbint from which It started to swing back. That constitutes the measures of beneficial accomplishment.