Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1880-12-23
Is Honesty really the Best Policy3

they know all their friends and neigh
bors consider holy. Mr.. Richard Grant
Whites emphaticallY one of these. In an
article in a recent North American he tries bis
hand at what he terms 1.-THE Public School
Failure" In this article he attempts to prove
that all which lie so deliberately. taught in our
public scfoois ID either not learnt 81 not
worth knowing. Not contented with showing
how fearfully New England is retrograding in
the matter of schools-from their very perfec-
tion-he further tries to prove that knowledge
il in most cases rather an undesirable acqui
sition. He lays down this proposition:
Ignorance is the mother of superstition but
| has no relation to vice."
In proof OF his proposition Mr.. White ad
duces what he calls the evidence of the supe-
rior morality of the South as compared with
| that of the North, and attributes this assumed
difference to- the prevalence of the public
school system in the latter section. Then fol-
lows his own theory of The origin of vice,
which he attributes 10 poverty, and the only
cure he can offer is-wealth Make a man
rich and you have made him virtuo,ls, cries
this curious reforiner:
Want. If not the parent of vice, is at least
its faithful foster mother. One among the
proverbs that really embody the truth of the
worlds experience is that which tells us, ut
| is hard for an empty bag to stand upright"
Becky Sharp said that she could have been a
good woman if she had had five thousand
pounds year. The goodness of the Becky
Sharps of this world under any circumstances,
is but skin-deep. like their beauty; but beauty
is none the less sought for and longed for
and 80 decorous behavior and decent life are
| all that society can demand, no matter what
their motive. Thackeray, 10 this speech of
his greatest creation, lays bare the nature of
| all vice. Vice is the satisfaction of personal
wants without regard to right. Now, as the
obstacle to the satisfaction of wants is almost
alw avs the lack of means, that is of money or
| its equivalent, the result is that most vice is
directly connected with the need of money.
Here is cure so far out of reach of most
that few of us can ever hope to profit by it
even if it should really prove sovereign
remedy. Mr.. Whites other fallacy-if not
| quite so novel-is within everybodys reach,
and deserves more careful consideration,
especially as it is a great favorite with certain
religious journals.
For our own part. it has always seemed
probable that if honesty is the best policy"
an intelligent man would be more likely to be
honest than an Ignorant man. simply because
| he would the better understand and practice
that policy. The only question that is really
| open to discussion, therefore, is whether hon.
esty is really the best policy. Although the
saw" is very old one, and in everybody's
mouth, it is not always believed Many af-
feet TO believe it IS they affect to believe GER
tain theological dogmas, simply because they
wish others to believe them. There is another
not altogether despcable class who actually
believe that, while honesty is really the best
policy, because it leads to heaven while dis.
honesty leads to the opposite conclusion yet,
80 far as this world is concerned, honesty is
not the best policy. These men naturally
link religion with honesty, holding that the
religious are honest--with view to their in
terest in the next world; the irreligious, dis
honest-with view to their interest in this
world ,..
Now this is one of the falIacies that irtelll-
gence soon repudates. 1t speedily dscerns
that honesty is the best-indeed the only safe
policy--fo for this or any other world Take
the question of property, for instance. The
old method of teaching tried to scare the
catechumen out Of thieying with threats of
hell fire. A better method conylnces the pu-
pill that thieving is q return to barbarisn-a
process that by practically destroying property
destroys the social comfort of every commu-
nifty which practices it. Such an axiom has
this become that few men of intelligence are
foolish enough to steal. Lying is vice that
intelligence still practices tot certain limited
extent; yet the higher the grade of intelli-
| gence. the higher. ordinarily is the character
for truthfulness; for truthfuness is of the
very essence of all genuine education. At
every good school the pupil learns to distin-
guish truth from error, to detect shams, to ex.
pose uurealities, and to despise lies. Un-
| doubtedly learning and lies may occasion
| ally be found in the same man but, this is the
exception not the rule. When that is the
case, it is generally the result of some under
| lying vice or vices, that have sapped all the
substance of virtue and left only its shadow.
| While, however, in every we'll organized
society, honesty will surely prove the best
policy, and intelligence may be trusted to find
it out, we sometimes fall in with social organ.
izations where honesty no longer prospers.
These are dead or decayng civilizations, and
if among them intelligence is found to turn
to rcguery, the fault lies with the society;
and it must be destroyed and rebuilt on better
foundations. for no society can prosper, or in.
deed long exist, in which honesty is not the
best policy n r. .F .At -
Gen. Wilson, Vice President of the N. Y.
q N. X. Railroad Co, rs out in a letter to the
! Springfield Republican denying the charges
OF acknowledgement popularity made against his
road. The statistics ,he produces indicate that
his road is after ALL on the average, quite as
free from accidents as other eastern roads. or
at least. kills and Injuries no more persons in
the course of year. There is no doubt that
Hartford opinion and the Hartford press set
strongly against the new management. The
oiQ Hatttfu providence ana ElSuklil road
was run in the interest of Hartford The new
infringement is l3osioniau, aud the road is now
conducted with view to through travel, and
to making it;eara money 90 whole. The re-
cent inquiry in Hartford seems TO show that
! the late accidents on that road were the mis-
fortune rather than the fault of the present
management When the line if open to FISH
kill il will be in condition to demonstrate it's
capacity for playing the part Of trunk
| line, ..t. a.1,...a .s. i 5...,.
A peraonal issue has arisen upon speech
said to have been made by Senator Bayard in
the recentcampaign, charging that the quarter
of ahiilion sqieezed out of Phelps. Dodge, s.
Co, in revenue case. was divided between
i 49,