While I do not close my eyes to the facts that nations are human and liable to err, I hail this as a great forward step, and was filled with rejoicing when the United States Government refused to accept any indemnity from China for its share of the expense of putting down the last great Boxer Rebellion.
In our National and State governments there is a growing spirit of righteous intervention. In his last presidential message, President Taft voiced this spirit in his recommendation of an enlarged measure of protection for railroad employees, and states and cities are moving more rapidly than ever before in the enactment of laws and ordinances for the protection of those least able to protect themselves.
Reforms in law procedure are progressing. In his 1910 message, President Taft thus spoke:
One great crying need in the United States is cheapening the cost of litigation by simplifying judicial procedure and expediting final judgment. Under present conditions the poor man is at a woeful disadvantage in a legal contest with a corporation or a rich opponent. The necessity for this reform exists both in United States courts and in all state courts. In order to bring it about, however, it naturally falls to the general government by its example to furnish a model to all States.
This is a great step in the right direction. The honest and manly recognition of a crying evil is often the beginning of its removal, and I sincerely hope to live to see the day when our laws, and legislative procedure, will truthfully be equally for the poor and the rich.
The activity of the Federal Government in pursuing the nefarious malefactors who are conducting the "white slave traffic," is also a sign of marked improvement in affording protection to those who are helpless and often unable and incompetent to know what to do for their own welfare.
And how I hail with joy the movement so energetically furthered by Mr. Bok, of the _Ladies' Home Journal_, the Bishop of London, the _Physical Culture_ magazine, _Collier's_, and others, for the education of the young of both sexes as to the sacred relations of sex and all they imply. The W. C. T. U. has done a little, the magazines and physical culture movement more, and now the better schools--such as the Polytechnic High School of Los Angeles, and the High School in Pasadena, California--are giving definite and specific instruction upon these matters to boys and girls whose parents have been remiss in neglecting this all-important part of their _home_ education and training.