The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1892-01-22
ARE THE EQUAL OF THE PAST.

In lecture at Duluth few even
ings ago, President Northrup, of the
State University, referring to the
statement that is often made of the
decadence of our public men, said:
"We have statesmen to-day as pure
and able as those whom we regard so
reverently. We let prejudice usurp
our reason in the Judgment of men,"
President Northrup stated the exact
truth in the matter. AS time recedes
we are apt to look upon departed pub
lie men, and even men in all the walks
of life as somewhat greater than those
with whom we come in contact in ev-
cry day life. All public men have
been severely criticised during their
lifetime, and while they were looked
upon as great men, the prejudices of
the people would not allow them
to look upon those men as the equals
of those men as the equals of those
who had preceded them.
Webster, while looked upon as a
great leader, and unequaled as an eX-
FOUNDER of the constitution, was not
regarded by the entire people as the
great statesman he is looked upon to-
day. And so with many of his asso-
ciates in public life. They were judg-
ed through partisan eyes, and preju-
dice would not let their opponents
| In ~, fpI, nj, ota
The same is true of authors, jurists,
and others. The generation in which
they live do not look upon them in
the same light that they do upon
those of generations which have pass
ed away.
Perhaps public men are not regard
ed as the great beings past genera
tions have considered them, for the
reason that the gulf between them and
the masses is not as wide to-day as
century and more ago. The common
people to-day are better educated, and
many of them are as well informed
upon public questions and events as
those in charge of the nation affairs.
The press has been a great educator.
and has done, and still is doing, much
to lessen the distance Of intelligence
: between them This is not an age of
hero worship. Public men, in com
, mon with all others, are taken for
, just what they are, and 5hey stand
and fall by their own actions. There
is no reason to believe that the pub
} lie questions of to-day are handled
/ with less ability than in the early
/ days of the republic. Certain it is
that modern life has brought about as
2 intricate questions, not only in do
Q nestle affairs, but in international
4 matters as well, which demand as
great mind to guide them to sue
cessful solution, as was the case be-
r fore the age of steam and electricity.
i And we think no one will question
: but that they are as successfully set.
: tied, and the interests of the masses
d equally as well looked after pow as
: then
s Inc cry that pubic life IS given up
e entirely to corrupt men is not more
: true than the assertion that they are
Z. not as able as formerly. That there
d are corrupt men in public life to-day
e no one will deny. So there have been
+ in all ages, and history will show even
s more corruption in the centuries gone
IS by, than exists to-day, and no doubt
! one great reason for this was the fact
n that past centuries did not have the
S power of the press to turn upon ras-
II cality and bring it to light.
1t is human nature, however, to
: look back upon the past and sigh for
t the good old days, but few there are
e who do, that would change their lot
i for the one they would occupy if the
d ''good old days. should return.