CHAPTER II 



WHAT THE GOVERNMENT OWES ITS PEOPLE 



The future works out great men's purposes; 

 The present is enough for common souls, 

 Who, never looking forward, are indeed 

 Mere clay, wherein the footprints of their age 

 Are petrified forever . . . 



James Russell Lowell. 



IT used to be said that Uncle Sam was rich enough 

 to give us all a farm. That was true while the 

 fertile lands of the Mississippi Valley were still 

 a part of the public domain, and while the settler had 

 simply to turn the prairie sod and proceed with the 

 planting of his crop. Those days are long past. Uncle 

 Sam is not now rich enough to give us all a farm. And 

 it would not be a good thing for most of us if he were. 

 The things we work and pay for are always more valu- 

 able to us than the things we get for nothing. But 

 Uncle Sam does owe something to his people in the 

 matter of homes — both garden and farm homes. It is 

 something the people do not possess ; something they 

 can not buy with money. 



This something is enlightened, disinterested leader- 

 ship. 



With a quality of leadership in which they shall 

 have perfect confidence, the people can do everything 

 for themselves that needs to be done. No private 



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