The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-06-14


a living. When men grew tired of stay
ing in their own country they left their
homes to fight the men of another coun-
try. That was why the Mortimer. firing
of their northern home, sailed to the
coasts of England and Ireland, fought
the Saxons and the Celts and despoiled
the mOnasteries and the castled they
found in their path. That was their way
of making a living, but that has passed
also. We don't fight men any more. We
pay lots of money to see men fight, but
we do little fighting among ourselves.
The herOism we need today is the
strength and the courage and the love to
confront the economic problems of the
time, and the strength and courage and
to love to bear to lose money. That is the
heroism we need now. The men and the
women who can do this are the heroes of
our present hour.
I once read a pretty romantic story of
a young man who went from the west to
the east to 'wrest something from the
strong fists of the world to make a home
for his mother and to give to his church.
To wrest something from the strong fists
of the world Who is this world from
whose strong fists he was to wrest some>
thing? Why Mr.. Brown and Mr. Jones
and Mr.. Smith, and all the men you do
business with. You don't wrest anything
from the world. You don't make money,
but you get money. You hear people talk
about making money, but only the gov
eminent does that. If you made money
the government would send you to the
penitentiary for counterfeiting.
''And you hear people use the express
sion going out into the world It's just
as foolish to hear people use this express
sion a it is to hear them talk about
making money Where We're you before
you went out into the world? You hear
of the cares of a mother because her
children have to go out into the world
and it's just as silly as to hear of
mother fish lamenting because her little
fish have to go out into the water. The
world is the place in which you live and
it's a very good place, too, only it would
be better if we fixed it up a little.
What we fear at the present day
worse than poison is the loss of money.
We are held more in abject terror of los
ing money than the men of old were in
terror of losing life. The heroism of to-
day is the heroism of being poor, the
heroism to overcome the economic prob-
lens which confront US. We go along
each day complaining and worrying over
the condition of affairs, just as though we
couldn't do anything to remedy them, and
just as though God intended that they
should be so.
You hear of men complaining of capt.
tai grinding them down. Nine-tenths of
the men in the world stand off in cor
ner and whine about the one-tenth doing
something to them capitalization is our
own fault. 1t is a. perfectly normal So
ciaI result. When the men of America
know what they want, they will get
what they want.
The work which confronts US is to
make ourselves into a new people 1t will
take courage and heroism to do it, but
it must be done. 1t is of small conse-
quence how this individual or that indi~
vidual lives or dies, but it is of vast con-
sequence how We all live and die. We
are coming under new economic condi-
tions. and it takes heroism to face them