San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-01-10

no enterprise, asst at no jollificatiOn.
He is useless and he is no ornament.
Even his best girl could not utilize
him. He is of no earthly use and all
that he can do unassisted is to collapse
That is his normal condition, collapse.
He can only collapse. Even a leper
might pity him and man with the
deformity of the verriest gnome
would be a thing of beauty and a
| joy forever compared to him. He
would be blot on every fair land
scape, a ghost at every banquet, a fly
in every pot of ointment, discord in
every harmony.
! Such would be he who has no mate
rial back bone. Infinitely worse than
! he is the man who is without mental,
or moral, or social, or political, or bus
mess backbone. Picture to yourself
a man without any backbone asum-
| ing to sustainb urdens. carry weights,
move and direct great engineering OPP
erations, or do anything else in which
| strength. celebrity of moion. supple
ness is required. You would say that
man does not know where he is at.
But that man is in place and nObly fill
| ling his niche i'm the world. compared
to the man in places of responsibility,
| office, trust, who has no moral back
| bone. Who cannot stand alone: or
sit erect unless he is propped up. Who
must be held up on both sides before
he can move along in any direction.
! The straits into which the friends and
| apologists of such man are driven to
| cover his lack of a spinal column
IYscN n
| stones shed tears.
The man without moral back bone
| is also without mental stamina as
general thing. He is as weak as wa
ter in his moral vertebra and as limp
as n dish rag in his mental veretebra
and in both is utterly useless as a
something to be depended upon. How
it is that so many back homeless men
are born into the world is the marvel
of observation. How it is that so
many of this homeless breed are found
in every avOcatiOn of responsible life,
filling so many important Offices.pa
sing for heads of government and So
ciety and business, and doing it year
in and year out, this is one of the puz-
ZieS that discounts a Dundreary con-
nundrum. Yet there is not a place
among all those, show to the filed on
earth that cannot. show to the detri-
ment of Il good public and private
service the trail of these homeless men
along its way.
Nearly every other requirement is
spoken of for the public service be-
fore this. Their politics, their bust
ness, their family Connections, their
social standing, their mOnied power.
their brainyness all these are looked
into, but not the quality of their spin
al column. Back bone is the fOunda-
ton and corner and top stone of all
public success. individuality, that
thing so much diScOursed of, so, little
understood, is mostly thing of back
bone. 1t degenerates into stubborn
ness at times, it takes on the bull dog
type on occasions, and then the joints
become OSsified and there is no supple
ness to its joints, but even under these
deformed conditions it is infinitely to
he preferred to the invertebrate.
AutOcrats. political bosses, master
full men, men of the Bismarck type,
like Cromwell. such men have let
their spinal columns become Osisfied
more or less: some altogether like our
own president. but they never do half
the mischief that man without any
back bone can accomplish. There
should be committee of experts ap-
pointed to sit upon the inner anatomy
of every candidate for office, and pass
upon the quality of his backbone.
There should be law upon the stat
ute books of every state disqualifying
from Office every man who could not
pass the back bone ordeal. There
should be an asylum opened for those
who have an itch for office and are de-
ficient in spinal column. The millen-
ium will only come when all men who
have deficient back bones are debarr-
ed from Office to the third and fourth
generation.
San Antonio is soon going to hold a
city election. The very first inquiry
made as to the fitness of any candi-
| date for office should be this. Not is
he honest, is he capable. is he acquain-
ted with the work required? But,has
he back bone? This should be the
| sine qua non. If he is not honest. his
bOndsmen can make good his shortage
| If he is not capable, clerk with the
requisite brains may supply his want
If he is not acquainted with the bust
ness of his Office he can learn. If he
has no back bone he cannot be either
| honest. or capable He cann"t be be-
canes he is not capable of directing his
own motions. deciding his own course.
| accomplishing his desired ends. He
is the sport of every one who has more
back bone than he has. and can only
go in the same direction as those trav-
| el upon whom he leans. Another
nraver shOrld he added to the .litany.
From officials who have no back bone.
| Good Lord deliver u.s.