The Wichita daily eagle., 1896-12-01
THE DUTY OF sTATEsMANsH1P.

There is disposition among public
men, outside the Populist party to pirate
little calamity. Times are out of joint
with great many people. 1t is FASH
ionable to find fault with conditions
This fault finding is lot new, it has had
its periods throughout our history. But
its phases differ with conditions, or with
the peculiar pessimism that is in fashion
There is an eternal harping about cor
porate greed. the robbery Of trusts, the
rule OF the money power, the harvest Of
usu1y and the seryility and venality OF
public men This may be excused in
Populists, whose stock In political trade
is calamity. 1t may even serve a small
partisan newspaper or small-bore
stump speaker who has an ak to grind.
But when it comes to men prominent in
this wall becomes a little tiresome in
the absence of some practical remedy.
Why all this TRADE against trusts unless
some remedy be proposed? The men
who have been selected to legislate for
us, who are paid to reform the wrongs
In orr body pilitic, go on bawling like
hungry calves or whining like cowardly
puppies. about the rule by wealth, with
out offering any solution for the evils
that beSet us.
IL man shah set about to find fault
his discoveries viii not be few. II
the object Of his particular hatred be
monarchy or privileged nobility, he
win find that where his favorite repub-
lie displaces rule by the divine right of
birth, that in reality the change so far as
the populace is concerned, is more a
matter OF form than of substance The
same laws, the same Offices. the same
ownership Of property (save crown
property the executive and other Offices
filed by popular election instead of by
heredity. So the horizon is filed with
murmurings of discomfort and public
men often find it the easiest way TO ride
into power by descanting upon popular
notions of public wrongs than by taking
pains 10 allay imaginary evils or by con-
STRUNG some practical and effective
plan TO remedy them
Complaint is easy. Newspapers do
this for lack OF better entertainment
The wind and the weather. Our appe-
tites crave what our stomachs vii not
digest. Our bones ache; our head has
dumb. unwelcome feeling; our defeated
ambitions crush us while our successes
were disappointing. We pay taxes that
go to support a horde of Offices, multi
tude of which seem as useless to Us as
a furnace 10 warm the statue Of Liber-
iy II is not complaint that Is wanted
but relief: it is not 10 be told OF imper-
fection, OF evils. but Of a way 10 escape
them The wall that goes up is one of
despair rather than of hope. 1t pictures
evil and not public good Ii is an un-
healthy prophecy of national death and
not OF sturdy national life. Ii is, as il
were, an ante-mortem statement.
The nation viii outiive these predic-
tions of its decrepitude. This expert
ment at self government Is not fail
ure. But We do need healthier and
more hopeful and confident tone of crit
icism from our public men than now
obtains. We do need men who will
talk in comprehensive and statesman
like way. and not the cheap language
of lamentation. We do need strong.
h'gh-minded. patriotic men who shall
guide US past this qua.mire OF COM
plaint and fix cur attention upon our ma
tional virtues instead OF proving