The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-04-27

nation the great body of fits citizens
have since come to assume that no
more need be done. They apparently
conceive Of the governmental machine
as running itself-as working automat-
ically--leavirg them to be wholly en-
crossed by the pursuit of wealth, OF
culture, of pleasure, or of whatever
other private ends they may affect.
A more fatal mistake It would not be
easy to make Eterna! vigilance is the
price of good government, as well as Of
liberty And, If it sometimes seems as
If government under the national con-
stitution were becoming a melancholy
failure; as IL the most elementary
maAims of politice! economy and Of
honest dealing had come to be steadily
ignored as If extravagdnt and waste
full expenditure were to know no limit
and no end: as if the taxing power
were being systematically perverted TO
raise revenue not to meet public nee
essitics, but to fill private purses; as
If the stultifyng policy Of the country
were to be a combination of unroadi-
ness for war with unwilingness TO
accept proffered guarantees of peace;
as il the mission of the Anglo-SaXon
race as the advance guard of Chris
tian civilization, were to be discredit-
ed by our refusal to join our liinsmen
over the seas in being the first to do
away with brutal and barbalous meth
DDS of settling International lifferen-
ces; If it sometimes seems as if all
! these things were so, the fault cannot
| be imputed to the superb scheme Of
! government which the fathers devised
| and handed down for our use.
"It is in ourselves, in the lethargy
| and indifference which only too often
! permit the highest offices of state to be
! filled by incumbents without either
patriotism or principle, and wholly
wanting in the most rudimentary quail
| ifcations for the high functions de-
volved upon them. In vicious or ig-
nOrant hands, how can the most per-
feet political mechanism produce any
| but disastrous results? The one con-
ISOLATION, the one hope of the future, is
so is the remedy, and that it is con-
ccivable that the people of this country
should not some time awake to the fact
that the one chance for good govern
ment of the nation lies in radically
changing, purifying and elevating the
official personnel in every department"
This thought is selected for quota
ton not because Of originality but be-
cause it supplies an insight into Mr.,
Olney's character heretofore not gener-
ally available. We can see by means
of it a character not only firm but hon
est; q personality valiant for that
which it. believes righ- and so firm
in its own convictions that possibly
fair allowance is not given by it fol
the fact that difference in opinions
need not involve difference in probity
We are glad to feel warranted in mark.
ing up our prior estimate Of the gentle.
man who as secretary of state fought
Venezuelan affair and then permitted
a soft-solder Spanish minister to take
him into camp at will At the sam,
time, we cannot feel that the defeat o
Mr.. Olney's draft of a general treaty
of arbitration will involve the humil
iating consequences he predicts, bu
on the contrary have been converted
to the belief that had the treaty gon,
through as Mr.. Olrey desired, it would
have involved a substantial surrende,
to England Of advantages that olde,
diplomatists would have guarded a.
jewels without price.