Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1885-08-14
Subjects for Thought.

tyu1ISNtS AOt uVuAuls
The following extracts from Il
speech lately made by Congressman
Reed, of Maine, contain much sub
stantial food for thought:
"It is not the leaders and fore.
most men who make nation; it is
the nation which makes the leaders.
1t is not in great things alone
that the hold of the past on us is
shown. The trifles show it. The
two buttons which adorn the back of
our coats have no earthly use now,
but three hundred years ago they
were put on to keep the sword belt
up. Sword and belt have both dis
appeared, Tor both were in the way
after men left off fighting, at a word.
but the buttons stay.
"There has never been moment
since time began in which every hu-
man being did not count for what he
was worth in all that was achieved
by his nature and his race.
elf Congress and the village con-
stable do not closely resemble Plato
aud Aristotle, they come quite as
rear as their constituents will per-
init. The people of q country al
ways get as coed government as
they really desire.
When mems passions are reused,
especially in the fiercer epochs, they
say and believe what they wish to
say and believe. not wha. they ought.
What men will believe at any time
depends not half SO much on the fact
as on their state OF mind.
"Men are so made that there is
not now on the earth one man so
rich, so successful, so fortunate, that
he would not need all the aids of
culture and religion to keep him
from suicide, if he were sure there
were no further or other successes.
This keeps US all in the harness.
You cannot keep the people out
of Government and progress. If
their intelligence does not rule, their
ignorance will.
"Tbe pathway of time is strewn
with the failures of leaders.
If human progress had been moro
a matter of leadership, we should be
in Utopia to-day. Our great nation
would not be convulsed over the
mighty question of the appointment
of Government clerks, nor would all
Europe have been been watching
only month ago the Ameer of At
ghanistan and spelling out the un-
pronounceable names of that un-
known land. War would have
ceased long ago, and perhaps gov.
ernment by the people would have
become autocratic in all its branches.
"The reason why the race of man
moves slowly is because it must
move altogether. The poor, the is-
norant, the downtrodden are always
saying to the rich and educated, in.
articulately too often, but with a
voice which brooks no denying. IF
you advance, you must take US with
you 1t is not the knowledge of
the great men, the skill OF the great
orators, the philosophy of great
sases, that makes civilization. There
are no orators to-day as persuasive
as Cicero, no philosophers or wise
men greater than Aristotle or Plato.
Yet civilization was not of their day,
but of ours. The sunlight of knowl.
edge for us has got beyond the hill
tops. The valleys of to-day are not
as beautiful az were the hills of yore,
but they TEEN with life and health
and verdure.
Electric motors are sure to come.
By and by VIC shall harness the tidal
waves and make merchandise of the
power of Niagara.
"We do not appreciate this tre-
mendous searching omnipotent and
omnipreseDt control of popular opin-
ion because most of our lives are
passed in easy submission to it. But
it behooves man to take heed be.
fore be begins to run counter to it,
whether he longs to proclaim a great
principle which will free race or
merely wants to wear his hair long
down his back. In most cases he
will simply be suppressed.
The devil is as sedulous in this
world as water under o ship. If
there is any chance of leak the wa
ter is right there ready to take ad.
vantage of it.
" Whenever the control of public
sentiment is lifted for q moment you
see the need of it. What terrible
things mobs do!
"Ths location Of . great many