Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1890-05-24
PUBLIC wRoNe.poINe.
A Spirit of Indifference That Ia Deserv-
ing of Censure.

A Spirit of Indifference That Ia Deserr-
ing of Censure.
The pessimist who looks longingly
backward, hopelessly forward, and
critically upon the present finds in the
calm unconcern of the public in the
presence of acknowledged evils that
exist an argument in favor of his dark
estimate of public virtue. That there
is spirit of Indifference in regard to
public wrong-doing that is deserving Of
censure is well attested by the fact that
disclosures of many forms of dishonesty
and vice in community are received
seemingly without surprise or evidence
of serious displeasure. There are rea-
sons for this, however, which, while
they can not wholly excuse such mani
fest indifference, at least show why it
exists, and prove that its existence is
not to be accepted as evidence of a
soiled public conscience. With some
there is doubtless enough conscious
partnership in the wrong to silence open
condemnation of it, but that this is not
usually the case is witnessed in the we'll
known disposition of sinners to cry out
against wrong-doers of their special
type whenever public occasion is pre-
scented to do so. That the large class
in every community who abhor vice
and loathe social impurity, suffer it to
exist without public rebuke, is partly
due to disinclina ton to give offenSe,
partly from Wholesome dread of get
ting into trouble by intermeddling with
disagreeable matters, and partly from
uncertainty as to methods that
would produce opposite results Any
single one of these reasons is plausible,
while the combination-and it often ex-
ists-of all of them is sufficient to
cause the prudent man to pass wrong
doing of the more subtle, but not the
less vicious, kind with his finger upon
his lips, seeing, yet not seeing it. The
sensational newspaper of a city
furnishes with every issue numerous
illustrations of how much rough, I'M
kind criticism there is which hurts the
feelings and damages the reputation of
the innocent without doing any good;
how many wholesale denunciations are
hurled, without pausing to seek cause or
explanation Of the alleged action; how
many cruel exaggerations are made in
recounting the shortcomings of those
who are, it may be, striving
against circumstances to hold up their
heads in the world. In view Of all this
it is not strange that humane and sym
pathetic people avoid altogether the
discussions that open wide the door of
uncharitable criticism and unkind re-
mark. On the other hand, however,
there is duty which each individual
owes to society in the matter of exert
ing an influence against evil-doing; and
this he can not ignore with impunity.
Every one, consciously or unconscious
ly, is, in greater or less degree, led or
restrained by public opinion. AS an
aggregate Of individual opinion this
force is constantly at work molding the
conduct of the community. All law, to
be effective, must follow this force, since
without its sanction no law is fully exc
cuted. Besides, there IS much in the
way of vice that no law can touch, but
there is little that would hold up its
head under the ban of public opinion
honestly and frankly expressed. This
is not the field of the reformer,
with his aggressive ideas and dis
tasteful ofticiousness; it is rather
that of the quiet, self-respecting
citizen who IS possessed of the
moral courage Necessary to mako him
refuse 70 smile upen the social monster
whom his conscience condemns; to refuse
to grasp in friendship the hand of one
from whose practices of life all his best
instincts recoil; to welcome to his home
one in whose integrity he has no conf
dence. The sentiment so fatal to good
government and social welfare, which
seeks to avert the just penalty Of crime
regardless of the danger to which sucl
action exposes the community, is only
an extension of Indifference to wrong
which is menacing power everywhere.
In this connection it is not too much to
say that if evil-doing were the matter OF
intelligent concern that it ought to be.
no mere pity for pain, or compassion for
a criminal, would induce an interior
ence in the just measures taken to sup
press crime by visiting just penalty
upon wrong-doers under sentence for
violation of law.-Portiand Oregonian.