| Show Jefferson and andT T Times Time's b bThomas G Change Thomas Jefferson was distinguished among his contemporarIes for an uncanny uncanny uncanny un un- un- un canny capacity to plumb the fut future re Times without number the foresight of Jefferson enabled him to predict the course of history And yet et it is doubtful doubtful doubtful doubt doubt- ful if It c even en his prophetic vision could have enabled him to Imagine the pres pres- day out offspring of the national government government gov gov- government In the creation of which he pla played ed so large a part A T sturdy individualism indi was the ideal oi of J H and ana those or oc his party were the doctrines of agriculturists agriculturists agriculturists agri agri- culturists and devoted to their own localities their own states and their Individual rights and liberties The power of the state In any form was a thing tiling of evil and to be resisted That country is governed best which Is governed least aptly summarIzed ed their code Out of such sentiments there emerged the foundations foundations foundations of the national character Men felt that the law swept around each citizen a wide circle of ot individual rights Into which no government state or federal could Intrude except at Its peril perlI Feared Centralization Such was the political faith of ot a I country rural In Its habits and thought Jefferson mistrusted large centers of population and esteemed a n society composed of planters farmers and small traders as the bulwark of ot republican government Jefferson may have foreseen that the Colonies could not forever forc remain essentially agricultural In Industry or society But nut it Is doubtful if he lie or orthe orthe orthe the others who labored with him imagined imagined imagined im im- that industry would ever er so largely predominate the interests of the United States To cope with this condition the functions functions functions of the state have been multiplied and rights and liberties of the individual individual indi indi- vidual victual citizen have been successively narrowed to conform to a new condition condition condition condi condi- tion of society These changes chances the In In- of which has been confined largely to the years after the Civil Oi war have so altered American government government govern govern- ment as to make It hardly recognizable recognizable able as us the same fabric that was once so frequently and plainly marked by Jeffersonian Individualism and opposItion opposition opposition tion to centralized authority The difficulties of unemployment an and depression multiplied In our large centers centers centers cen cen- of population and peculiar to an nn Industrialized community confirm Jeffersons Jefferson's Jefferson's Jeffersons Jef Jef- Jeffersons Jefferson's ferson's apprehensions as to the evils of urban society But however the transformation from a rural to an In Industrial industrial industrial in- in state may be deplored Its problems are not to be solved by regretting regretting regretting re re- re- re gretting their existence The change has been inevitable and the colonies of the Atlantic coast with their thirteen million people could not have been expanded ex ex- e expanded Into a nation stretching across the continent and populated by one onehundred onehundred onehundred hundred and twenty millions without abandoning the social structure of ot an agricultural community I Philosophy Justified And tremendous as the revolution has hns been it by no means menns has outlawed the political philosophy of or the Sage of Monticello There Is need today as there was In 1776 1770 for men who esteem the sovereignty of th the people freedom of thought and speech local self rule role and economy In government And If time has altered the tile social structure he ed believed In In it has confirmed his passion for human liberty his faith In principles his program of ot expansion and has hns proved him not Bot only one of the worlds world's greatest I political philosophers but one of AmerIcas AmerIca's Amer Amer- ica's leas most practical and successful statesmen It Is seldom in the history of menor men menor menor or nations that the same lofty IdealIsm Idealism idealism Ideal- Ideal Ism Is combined with the sound realIsm realIsm realism real- real Ism he brought to bear in the consideration consideration consideration consid consid- of government affairs When modern statesmanship focuses upon economic problems the Intellect and Ideals that Jefferson directed to the solution of ot political difficulties the rights of ot men will acquire a new meaning an and Industrial society achieve a form more hospitable to human happiness happiness happiness hap hap- and progress than It has in the St. past past St St. Paul Pioneer Press |
