THE CONCLUSION. 259 



childish and undignified in the extreme to be guided in 

 their policies in these matters by false systems of foreign 

 countries. 



It was for no small purpose that our Saviour, when on 

 earth, taught men : " Whatsoever ye would that men 

 should do unto you, do ye even unto them." 



We are no pessimists, no fatalists. We believe that 

 man is a being of high measures of perfectibility, not 

 only individually, but that he is one day to see his fellows 

 harmoniously and unitedly working out the great prob- 

 lems of social and industrial life with their brothers. 

 That principles shall grow and finally prevail in grand 

 triumph, we have implicit faith. Strip us of this pro- 

 spective faith, and life would be a delusion. 



But while we feel all this, we are not blind to the fact 

 that many years may pass before we have reached that 

 happy state ; many years of hard, unflinching labor for 

 reform on the part of those who represent the true moral 

 forces of our country. After years of strife between 

 nations, engendered and quickened by their irrational, 

 irritating fiscal policies ; after the communistic elements 

 of society, which our state socialisms have fostered into 

 active being, have joined the forces of ''the Universal 

 Revolution " ; after myriads of our small land-holdings 

 have ceased to be, as such ; when the typical American 

 farmer will be known only in history ; and, after years, 

 perhaps ages, of efforts to adjust all the abnormal con- 

 ditions which our unwise laws have occasioned, the truth 

 may finally prevail. 



Can we permit this delay ? Shall we not strike for 

 reforms now, and by so doing save years of suffering, 

 sorrow, and desolation in our land ? Shall not the moral 

 forces be concentrated for a mighty effort to purge our 



