The present strong movement to prevent the
political control of public men, law-courts, and legislatures by great
commercial enterprises will either flash in the pan or it will succeed;
it will leave either the man or the dollar in control. The decision will
be made by the young men, and it is not far ahead.
The question of efficiency in public office has been brought to the
front as never before in the history of the Nation. As a whole, our
public service is honest, but we should be able to take honesty for
granted. What we lack is the tradition of high efficiency that makes
great enterprises succeed. The national house-keeping, the Government's
vast machinery, should he the cleanest, the most effective, and the best
in methods and in men, for its touch upon the life of the Nation at
every point is constant and vital.
There is no hunger like land hunger, and no object for which men are
more ready to use unfair and desperate means than the acquisition of
land. Under the influence of this compelling desire, assisted by
obsolete land laws warped from their original purpose, we are facing in
the public-land States west of the Mississippi the great question
whether the Western people are to be predominately a people of tenants
under the degrading tyranny of pecuniary and political vassalage, or
free-holders and free men; and there is no exaggerating the importance
of the decision.
Pages:
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77